Tag: Gill St. Bernard’s

by Mike Pavlichko

Pingry is lone winner among three CJSR-area non-publics to open playoffs Tuesday; St. Joseph-Metuchen and Gill St. Bernard’s are eliminated

Of the three non-public schools from the Central Jersey Sports Radio coverage area to begin play in the NJSIAA state tournament Tuesday afternoon, only Pinrgy came out a winner.

The Big Blue advanced in Non-Public South A first round action, while St. Joseph-Metuchen lost in the same section, and Gill St. Bernard’s was ousted in Non-Public North B.

Read through for a rundown of Tuesday’s light action – with many non-public teams getting first round byes – along with all scores, and look ahead for the upcoming schedule in the non-public brackets.

NON-PUBLIC SOUTH A

(10) Pingry 5, (7) Notre Dame 2: On paper, this looked like a winnable game for Pingry – we essentially said so in our preview Sunday – and the Big Blue certainly delivered. Tied at 1-1 after three innings, Pingry scored four times in the final three frames, and survived a threat in the bottom of the seventh.

In the top of the first, a one-out ground out by Aaron Wu scored Riley Wong, who’d led off the game by reaching on an error. But The Irish got it back in the bottom of the third when Tommy Swietek grounded into a fielder’s choice to plate a run and tie the game at one.

Pingry took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth on a sac fly by Shane Varenckas, scoring Zach Zaslow. Then, they went ahead 3-1 in the sixth on a Langston McDonald double to centerfield, bringing home Wu from first.

Then, they got some insurance in the top of the seventh, when three straight batters reached via error. Varneckas hit a ground ball to first that got booted. Pinch hitter Vivaan Gandhi reached on an error by the shortstop, and Wong reached on an error by the third baseman. After Andrew Crowley struck out, Wu hit a ground ball to shortstop that resulted in another error and brought in Wong and Ghandi to make it 5-1.

Notre Dame would threaten in the home half, getting a single, ground out and single before Swietek drove in another run with a single, but reliever Michael Cardona got a fly out and pop out for the final two outs of the game to seal the deal.

Starter Zach Zaslow got the win, scattering eight hits over five innings, striking out three and walking just one.

Next up, the Big Blue visit second-seed St. Augustine (19-7) at 4 pm Thursday in the sectional quarterfinals.

Click below to hear Pingry head coach Anthony Feltre talk about the win with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

(6) St. John Vianney 10, (11) St. Joseph-Metuchen 7: The Lancers built up a 4-0 lead over the first three innings before the Falcons got two in the top of the fourth on an RBI single by Walter Christian and a passed ball that allowed John Boyke to score. But St. John Vianney got five back in the bottom of the inning to take a 9-2 lead.

St. Joe’s would chip away, though. They got one in the fifth on a sac fly by Luke Baranauskas, but give it right back in the bottom on a home run and trailed 10-3 heading into the sixth. Nick Yacykewych then hit a two-out, two-run homer in the top of the sixth to get it back to 10-5, then scored two more to cut it to 10-7 in the seventh, on a Boyke two-RBI double. But that was as close as they get.

St. Joseph finishes its season at 6-17.

Other results…

  • (8) Paul 6 4, (9) Donovan Catholic 1
  • (5) Christian Brothers 8, (12) Camden Catholic 1

NON-PUBLIC NORTH B

(10) Pope John 4, (7) Gill St. Bernard’s 1: The Lions scored twice in the top of the seventh inning to keep the Knights at bay in pulling off the upset. Pope John got a run in the first and another in the fourth to take a 2-0 lead before Gill scored in the bottom of the inning on a Niko West leadoff home run to left. But that was all they would get, as Pope John’s Patrick Black went 6 2/3, allowing just five hits, striking out eleven. And they added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh on a single and a sac fly.

Joey Fava started for Gill St. Bernard’s and allowed just three hits and two unearned runs through five innings of work, striking out six. West pitched the final two innings, allowing one unearned run on three hits, as the Knights’ season ends at 9-12.

Other scores…

  • (8) Montclair-Kimberley 5, (9) Hawthorne Christian/Eastern Christian Co-Op 1

UPCOMING NON-PUBLIC SCHEDULE:

Thursday, May 27

Non-Public South A:
(8) Montclair-Kimberley at (1) St. Mary-Rutherford
(5) Morristown-Beard at (4) Newark Academy
(6) Morris Catholic at (3) St. Thomas Aquinas
(10) Pope John at (2) Rutgers Prep, 4 pm

Non-Public North B:
(8) Paul VI at (1) Immaculata (at Diamond Nation, Flemington)
(5) Christian Brothers at (4) Union Catholic
(6) St. John Vianney at (3) Red Bank Catholic
(10) Pingry at (2) St. Augustine, 4 pm

by Mike Pavlichko

State Playoff Preview: St. Joseph-Metuchen, Pingry, Gill to open NJSIAA play Tuesday

Hard to believe, but it’s already state tournament time in high school baseball.

The county tournaments are (mostly) done – with the GMC still to be decided this coming Saturday after rain throughout Memorial Day weekend – and everyone is set to begin sectional play in the NJSIAA tournament.

Over the next three days, we’ll take a look at each and every matchup involving Central Jersey Sports Radio teams, starting with the non-public schools, which open play on Tuesday, save for those that have first round byes and are awaiting their first opponent, including Immaculata and Rutgers Prep. St. Thomas Aquinas has a bye, bit already has their opponent determined.

We’ll have a look at Central Jersey Groups 1, 2 and 4 on Monday, and North Jersey, Section 2, Groups 2, 3 and 4 on Tuesday.

NON-PUBLIC NORTH B:

(10) Pope John (4-18) at (7) Gill St. Bernard’s (9-11), 4 pm Tuesday: Though Pope John has taken the last three meetings – with wins in 2019, 2021, and 2024 – that most recent win over Gill is far enough back not to matter. The Lions play a very difficult schedule, including four losses to the two teams that squared off in the Morris County Tournament final, with Mount Olive (now No. 13 in the state) knocking off the statewide No. 1 – and they still are – Delbarton. Both teams are hitting about the same, hovering around the .270 mark, but Pope John has given up more runs, with a team ERA of 7.35, while the Knights are under five. Junior Gavin Bucceri leads the team in hitting, at .379, while senior Jack Markovich is hitting .297 with three home runs. The teams have one common opponent in Pingry; Gill swept them in mid-April, getting a 13-2 and a12-8 win, while Pope John beat the Big Blue a month later, 11-7. The winner will head to Somerset to take on second-seed Rutgers Prep (16-6) in the sectional quarterfinals.

Quarterfinals: (6) Morris Catholic (13-10) at (3) St. Thomas Aquinas (12-14), Thursday (TBA): Just about any team that comes out of the GMC Red Division is probably stronger than their record would indicate. After all, look who’s in the GMC Tournament final: the second and fifth-place teams. And both Old Bridge and Monroe are quite deserving. In fact, their strength of schedule almost certainly was a factor in how high the Trojans were seeded. This will be the first meeting between the teams going back at least to 2008, the last year for which records are publicly available online. They do, however, have one common opponent. St. Thomas lost at home to Montville last Saturday, 12-4, while Morris Catholic beat them two weeks earlier, 8-6. But the Crusaders also lost a preliminary round Morris County Tournament game to a near-.500 Morris Hills team, 9-1, while Aquinas made it to the GMC Quarterfinals, beating South Brunswick 3-2 to get there, then falling to second-seed Middlesex, 3-0. With an up-and-down lineup led by Louis Rizzolo, hitting .373 and a couple others over .300, the Trojans likely look to Rizzolo on the mound in the opener: he’s 6-0 with a 0.98 ERA. A first round bye here means a lot, with Rizzolo starting a quarterfinal game, that would also line him up for a potential title game start.

(2) Rutgers Prep (16-6): The Argonauts have a first-round bye, and will open play Thursday against either seven-seed Gill St. Bernard’s or 10-seed Pope John.

NON-PUBLIC SOUTH A:

(11) St. Joseph-Metuchen (6-16) at (6) St. John Vianney (15-9), 3:45 pm Tuesday: It’s been a challenging season for the defending GMC Tournament Champion Falcons, to say the least. While they graduated a bunch, there’s still talent – and many league coaches will attest to this – but there’s also inexperience. Of their five wins, two came in a back-to-back sweep of East Brunswick in early April, then later in the month they put together a three-game win streak, with victories over Toms River East in the Autism Awareness Challenge, Woodbridge and St. Thomas Aquinas. The followed that up with an eight-game skid – though five of those games were decided by either one or two runs – before beating Freehold Boro, 11-1, to come into the state tournament on a positive note. Also on the plus side, Luke Baranauskas has been back in the lineup for a few games now, after missing the bulk of April; he’s the team’s top regular, hitting .409, while Logan Ring is hitting .352 with 17 RBIs, and Luke Palermo is right behind him with 16 – and it’s no surprise those are key returnees from last season, though they’re still only juniors. Regardless, beating Vianney will be a tough task, especially on the road, with a pitching staff allowing over five earned runs a game. This will be their first meeting since at least 2008. The winner got to third-seed Red Bank Catholic (17-7) Thursday in the quarterfinals; the Caseys have a first-round bye.

(10) Pingry (10-4) at (7) Notre Dame (13-10), 4 pm Tuesday: This will be the first meeting between the teams since 2016, so there’s no recent history here, either. Common opponent advantage goes to the Irish, who beat Gill St. Bernard’s 6-1 in the Autism Awareness Challenge, while the Big Blue were swept by Gill, 13-2 and 12-8, the week prior. Pingry has lost four of five coming in, with defeats at the hands of Pope John, Franklin, Hillsborough and Rutgers Prep, but they are coming in off a 6-4 victory over Oratory Prep, which is 10-4 just like Pingry. The Big Blue is hitting close to .300 (.299), with junior Langston McDonald (.380, 12 RBI) leading the way, while sophomore Andrew Crowley has a team-high 18 runs batted in, while hitting .338 on the year. Nearly every Pingry team has a tendency to be pesky and give opponents fits, and expect little different here in what could be a toss-up. The winner will take a long drive on Thursday to play in the quarterfinals at second-seed St. Augustine (19-6, #12 in NJ), which has a first-round bye.

(1) Immaculata (20-5): The Spartans – coming off a 1-0 loss in eight innings to Watchung Hills in the Somerset County Tournament final Friday afternoon – have a first-round bye and will open play Thursday at Diamond Nation in Flemington against either eight-seed Donovan Catholic (6-15) or nine-seed Paul VI (9-13).

by Mike Pavlichko

Four titles earns Gill St. Bernard’s No. 1 ranking in final Bellamy & Son Paving Boys’ Basketball Top Ten

When high school basketball teams open their preseason, hitting the gym in earnest for the first time, they can set all kinds of different goals. For most with high-end aspirations, there are four main ones: win the division, win the county, win a sectional, win a state championship.

In 2025-26, it was check, check, check, and check one more time for Gill St. Bernard’s. And that’s why they finish as the No. 1 team in the final Bellamy & Son Paving Boys’ Basketball rankings of the year.

With a mark of 28-2, the Knights won the Skyland Conference Delaware Division, and while they played though the division only once due to the new alignment, they decided to play Rutgers Prep twice anyway, the last meeting coming after the SCT seeding meeting, and took both matchups. They then beat the Argonauts in the Somerset County Tournament final, went on to avenge a defeat at the hands of Roselle Catholic in the Non-Public Group B title game, then put on a defensive masterclass in the Non-Public B state final at Rutgers, beating Holy Cross Prep of Delran to win the program’s first state title in school history

The Knights are followed by a very close second in St. Joseph-Metuchen. In their first season under alum Mark Taylor – in his second go-round coaching the Falcons – they went 29-2, their lone loss coming to South Plainfield by one on the road before falling in the Non-Public South A final to St. Peter’s Prep – which, by the way, beat every Central Jersey Sports Radio-area team it played this year: Colonia, Gill St. Bernard’s, Rutgers Prep, St. Thomas Aquinas (twice) and St. Joe’s.

Montgomery finishes in third. At 26-5, the two-time defending champion Cougars won a third straight Central Jersey Group 4 title, but this time had to go on the road to do it after being the top seed each of the last two seasons. Not only did they win at top-seed Hillsborough in the final, but the Cougars dominated Cherry Hill East in the Group 4 semifinals, and made it all the way to Rutgers for the state Group 4 final, where they lost back on Saturday to Plainfield for a second straight season, in a tight game most of the way.

Close behind in fourth is Colonia, which finished 21-11 after a 2-6 start, and having lost several key starters, including Aiden Derkack (transfer to Spire Academy in Ohio) and R.J. Wortman (early football enrolee at Rutgers) among others. The Patriots bowed out to Piscataway in a tight GMC Tournament semifinal game, but wound up getting the top-seed in North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3, and won the sectional title for a fifth straight year, and sixth time in the last seven playoff seasons, all under head coach Jose Rodriguez. They made their first state final ever, too, but fell to Ocean City Sunday in the Group 3 finals at Rutgers, giving the Red Raiders their first state title in over 60 years.

Checking in at five is Piscataway (23-8). The Chiefs – despite a lack of height – were tough again in the GMC Red American Division this year, and took St. Joe’s to overtime in early January. They made it all the way to the county final, where they fell to the Falcons in the title game, and bowed out of a brutal North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 playoff section in the semifinals to eventual state Group 4 champion Plainfield.

At six, it’s Rutgers Prep (18-10). The Argonauts still had Will Brunson, but had to deal with the loss of Andrew Kretkowski, who transferred to St. Joseph-Metuchen. But they still showed out this season, reaching the Somerset County Tournament final, where it was another battle with Gill St. Bernard’s, who won the championship.

Hillsborough (22-8) checks in at No. 7, after putting together their first 20-win season under head coach Tim Palek, who just wrapped up his fifth season on the bench. The Raiders had fans enthralled through their playoff run, with an exciting win over Jackson Twp. in the Central Jersey Group 4 semifinals, and they took Montgomery to overtime in the championship before taking the loss.

At No. 8, it’s Immaculata (21-7), the Skyland Conference Raritan Division champs. Season highlights included a home win over in-town rival Somerville, and handing Bridgewater-Raritan its first loss on the road after an 8-0 start by the Panthers.

The last three teams were unranked in the final poll before the postseason.

East Brunswick comes in at nine – going 21-7 this season, and winning the GMC Red National Division with an 8-0 mark – while two others share the tenth and final spot.

We put Perth Amboy (22-6) in at the ten spot along with Manville (19-9), honoring two teams for their full body of work, teams that might not otherwise get recognized in a crowded field of 48 teams between Middlesex and Somerset Counties. The Panthers won their first division title since 1993, claiming the GMC’s White American with an unblemished 12-0 record. The Mustangs, meanwhile, were Skyland Conference Mountain Division champions at 8-0, and beat rival Bound Brook twice this season, with the first of their two victories being their first against the Crusaders in 20 years.

Dropping out were Pingry (13-10) and South Plainfield (18-11).

Below is the complete final Bellamy & Son Paving Boys’ Basketball Top Ten for 2025-26:

by Mike Pavlichko

Rutgers Prep girls, back on top in Somerset County, are No. 1 team in Final Bellamy & Son Paving rankings

Sure, the Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball team won 20 games last year, but it still wasn’t up to Mary Klinger’s standards. The coach calls the regular season the “preseason.” A division title is nice, but the county and state tournaments are the goals. Win those, and it’s a good year for the Argonauts. In 2025, they won neither.

But this year, with much of the same crew back, the Argonauts returned to their familiar spot as Somerset County Tournament champions, and finish the year No. 1 in the Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball Top Ten.

Led by four-year varsity standout Ava LaMonica – the team’s top scorer, who will be playing collegiately next year at Buffalo – as well as fellow seniors Ava Frith and Sophia Georgiades, as well as super sophomore Hailey Benbow – the Argos’ second-best scorer and top rebounder – Rutgers Prep (25-4) didn’t lose a single conference game this season, its three regular season losses coming to Red Bank Catholic, Cardinal O’Hara (PA), and Blair right before the state tournament. Their fourth came to Gloucester Catholic in the Non-Public South B Final.

Prep beat Franklin – the eventual Central Jersey Group 4 champ – in the Somerset County Final, and won the Skyland Division title with a 6-0 record.

Gill St. Bernard’s checks in at No. 2. With a 22-6 mark, the Knights won the Non-Public North B title with a victory over Saddle River Day, then lout to Gloucester Catholic in the state Non-Public Group B final at Rutgers, the same Rams’ team that beat Rutgers Prep in the semifinals. Gill lost its only meeting with Rutgers Prep this season, 51-44 in late January, in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Finishing third is St. Thomas Aquinas (24-7). The Trojans – with the senior trio of Jordan Barnes, Trista Whitney and Kayla Navarro – blew through the GMC this season, going 11-0 to win the Red American Division, and stormed to their seventh straight GMC Tournament championship, beating resurgent East Brunswick in the final. They would bow out to eventual state champion Red Bank Catholic in the Non-Public South A semifinals.

Checking in at four is Franklin (22-9). A Somerset County Tournament finalist under first-year head coach Jimmy Kreie, the Warriors returned to their former – and fairly recent – glory with a win in the Central Jersey Group 4 title game over neighboring Hillsborough. They were knocked out of the state tournament by Lenape in the state Group 4 finals.

Fifth is Hillsborough (21-7). The Raiders had won two sectional titles in a row – in North 2, Group 4 in 2024 and Central 4 last season – but fell at Franklin in the Central Jersey Group 4 title game.

East Brunswick checks in at No. 6 with a 23-6 record. Ava Catanho and Julianna DelosSantos-Branson led the Bears back to prominence this season, as they got to the GMC Tournament title game, where they lost to now seven-time reigning GMCT champion St. Thomas Aquinas.

Bound Brook (25-4) – re-ignited by freshman sensation Peytan Pugh – finishes at No. 7, thanks to a Mountain Division championship, going 8-0 in divisional play. They nearly knocked off Rutgers Prep in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals, and reached the Central Jersey Group 1 title game, falling on the road to top-seed New Providence.

Finishing eighth is Bernards (24-5), which started the year 10-0, and was the Skyland Conference Valley Division champion at 11-1. They lost to defending champion Madison in the North 2, Group 2 semifinals.

At No. 9, it’s Colonia. After a down season, head coach Jill Bachonski has the Patriots looking solid, finishing 20-4, and going 8-0 to win the GMC Red National Division. They reached the GMC Tournament semifinals, falling to eventual champion St. Thomas Aquinas.

And No. 10 is Piscataway, making its season debut in the final rankings of the year. The Lady Chiefs finished 17-9, and went 6-0 to win the White American Division title, reaching the GMC Tournament semifinals, where they lost to East Brunswick.

Below are the complete final Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball Top Ten rankings for 2025-26:

by Mike Pavlichko

Gill’s defensive effort in Non-Public B Final win over Holy Cross was best in nearly three decades, matches program best win streak

If you ever want this reporter to go down a rabbit hole, ask him a question he doesn’t know the answer to.

Then again, sometimes you don’t even have to ask.

The Gill St. Bernard’s boys’ basketball team won its first-ever state title Thursday night when the Knights beat Holy Cross Prep of Delran 39-28 at Jersey Mike’s Arena at Rutgers University, and may have made a little history in the process besides picking up that first state championship trophy.

We looked back through the record books, and the 28 points allowed was the lowest scored in a state non-public final since at least 2011, when South B champion Cardinal McCarrick of South Amboy (now closed) lost to powerhouse and North B champ St. Anthony of Jersey City, 75-28 in the Non-Public B Final. No one else has allowed fewer points dating back to the 2000 championships.

That Friar squad finished that season 33-0, with a 61-49 win over Plainfield in the now-defunct Tournament of Champions final.

St. Anthony would go on to play its final season six years later, as the school closed in the summer of 2017 with a record 13 TOC wins. Plainfield, which also lost to the Friars in a rematch in 2012, will face Montgomery Saturday afternoon in the Group 4 finals, a rematch of a game they won 65-48. You can hear that game live at 2 pm, with pregame at 1:40 with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel; click here to listen.

The game also was the lowest combined score of any non-public/parochial final in the last 25 seasons in which group finals were held. The emerging COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 ended up truncating the NJSIAA state tournament before the non-public finals could be held, and there were no state playoffs at all the following season, in 2021.)

Gill St. Bernard’s led Holy Cross 20-2 at the half, though the Lancers rallied to cut it to six points and a two-possession game, at one point in the fourth quarter, with the Knights pulling away at the end.

The combined 67 points beat out the second-lowest scoring game since 2020, a 38-35 win for Union Catholic over St. Peter’s Prep in the Non-Public A final in 2023, with a combined 73 points scored between the teams.

Scores that low are rare in games where a lot of offensive firepower tends to rule the day. In that time span, only seven of 50 non-public finals saw combined scores under 100, with three of them coming since COVID. In 2024’s Non-Public A final, Don Bosco Prep beat Paul VI 56-29, a combined score of 85, and the second fewest points allowed in a final since 2000.

For the “record”…

With the win, Gill St. Bernard’s finished the 2025-26 season on a 24-game win streak, tying what is believed to have been the longest win streak in school history, or at least its longest since becoming a member of the NJSIAA in 2004-05. The 2010-11 team finished 26-3, and won its last 24 games after a 2-2 start that includes losses to St. Anthony and St. Benedict’s.

While those Knights won the Somerset County Tournament championship – their first of ten, now tied for that mark with Bridgewater-Raritan after this season’s win – they bowed out in the sectional semifinals of the state tournament to St. Patrick of Elizabeth, 69-41.

by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY – Non-Public B Final (Boys): Gill St. Bernard’s 39, Holy Cross Prep 28

In the lowest scoring game in a non-public state final in at least 27 years, North B champion Gill St. Bernard’s topped South B champ Holy Cross Prep 39-38 to win its first-ever state title. Sophomore Connor Junker finished with 14 points in the win, while senior Dorsett Mulcahy added 13, and Prosper Sonkua had four blocks.

Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Jersey Mike’s Arena at Rutgers University in Piscataway on March 12, 2026.

by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY – Non-Public B Final (Girls): Gloucester Catholic 62, Gill St. Bernard’s 39

North champion The Gill St. Bernard’s girls’ basketball team got a combined 28 points from the Platt sisters – 15 from senior Addy, and 13 from junior Kaity – in a 62-39 loss to South champ Gloucester Catholic in the Non-Public Group B state final. It was the second straight and second overall title for the Rams.

Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Jersey Mike’s Arena at Rutgers University in Piscataway on March 12, 2026.

by Mike Pavlichko

Historic Knight! Dominant defense by Dixon and Co. lead Gill St. Bernard’s boys to first-ever state title, 39-28 win over Holy Cross

A low-scoring game, with both teams feeling each other out, turned into a defensive clinic at Rutgers’ Jersey Mike’s Arena Thursday night.

No, it wasn’t a Steve Pikiell summer camp. It was the Non-Public Group B state title game.

And it was Gill St. Bernard’s – after leading just 6-2 after one quarter – ahead 20-2 at halftime.

While one might think it was over at that point in the Non-Public Group B final, the mantra for Holy Cross this post seaosn has been “We’re there, why not us?”

And with that, they got back into the game.

Tristan Ganges – who had the only points of the first half for the Lancers, quickly got the first six of the second half to cut into the lead. Holy Cross kept it around ten most of the second half, even getting it down to six in the fourth quarter.

But in the end, the Gill defense was just too strong, led primarily by Jahmal Dixon, always assigned the opposition’s best player. But Prosper Sonkoua also had a number of blocks – as he does – and even Connor Junker was cleaning up with loose floor rebounds. The Knights forced 16 turnovers, while only committing nine, and they outrebounded the Lancers 34 to 17.

In the end, Gill held on for a 39-28 win, earning the Knights’ (27-2) their first ever state championship.

Their season also ends with a 24-game win streak, matching a school record set in the 2010-11 season, head coach Mergin Sina’s first year leading the program after coaching the Gill girls for six years.

Junker, the sophomore who hit some big threes to lead Gill to the 2025 Somerset County Tournament title – a feat they reprised this year – finished with a game-high 13 points, while senior Dorsett Mulcahy had a dozen. Each also had a triple, while Dixon had one, too, and finished with seven.

Holy Cross finished its season at 27-4.

Click below for postgame reaction from Alec Crouthamel with Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mergin Sina, as well as guards Connor Junker, Jahmal Dixon and Dorsett Mulcahy, as well as forward Prosper Sonkoua, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Gloucester Catholic’s aggressive D too much for Gill St. Bernard’s, dashes Knights’ hopes in Non-Public B final, 62-39

Lisa Gedaka, the head coach in her 37th year at Gloucester Catholic, had 760 wins coming into Thursday’s Non-Public Group B girls’ title game.

But coming into last year, the Rams had never won a sectional title.

Well, now they have two, and two state titles as well, as they beat Gill St. Bernard’s 62-39 Tuesday night in the state finals at Rutgers’ Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway – in a game heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio – led by 22 points from senior Jahzara Green, and 13 from junior Amanda Eggers, who also had four treys.

Gill had a tough time getting shots to go down early, and had a tough time finding open looks, even as they would double- and triple-team senior Addy Platt, who finished with 15 points in her final game before heading off to St. Joseph in Philadelphia.

The Knights (22-6) made a bit of a run early in the second half. The difference is they hit their first couple of shots, and were able to set up their pressure and defense. But the run was short-lived, even though they trimmed what was a ten-point halftime deficit to seven midway through the third.

Junior Kaity Platt, Addy’s younger sister, had some key threes in the third as the Knights tried to come back. She finished with 13 and three treys.

The Rams finish their season at 25-4.

Click below for postgame reaction from Gloucester Catholic head coach Lisa Gedaka, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen.

by Mike Pavlichko

Sectional trophy in hand, Gill St. Bernard’s boys seek first-ever state title when Knights head down to Rutgers to take on Holy Cross Prep

With all the success Mergin Sina has had leading the boys’ basketball program at Gill St. Bernard’s – including too many Division 1 prospects to count and ten Somerset County titles – it had been a while since they won a sectional championship.

So close last season, and with a wacky finish that cost Sina the first two games of this season for arguing a controversial late game call – something he’ll willingly bring up on his own, by the way – the Knights avenged their defeat at the hands of perennial state power Roselle Catholic with a 58-47 win Monday in the Non-Public North B title game.

Now, there’s just one more game left, as Gill seeks its first ever state title when it takes on Holy Cross Prep out of Delran in the Non-Public Group B final at Rutgers. Tip-off time from Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway is at 7 pm, and we’ve got live coverage on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel calling all the action. Pregame starts at 6:45; click here to listen.

That game will follow the Gill girls taking on Gloucester Catholic for the girls title at 5 pm, which also can be heard on CJSR.

Gill St. Bernard’s was the top-seed in North B, and comes in with a 27-2 mark, on a 23-game win streak. That’s one win away from what’s likely a school record of 24, which they set in 2011, albeit in a season where they won the Somerset County Tournament, but fell to St. Patrick’s of Elizabeth in the sectional semis.

Nearly all season long, Gill has just been consistently good. They always play “big boy” basketball, but this squad – while they’re also having fun – has been all business on the court. They get up and down in transition, Dorsett Mulcahy leads the offense, Prosper Sonkua cleans up on the glass and blocks shots like it’s going out of style, Jahmal Dixon plays lock-down defense, and Connor Junker hits threes.

Gill has hit a whopping 251 threes on the year. That’s not No. 1 in the state – Rutgers Prep is, with 282 – but it’s pretty darn close. And they’re easily the top perimeter-shooting team left in the state tournament.

Meanwhile, Holy Cross Prep – the second-seed in Non-Public South B out of Delran in Burlington County, just south of Trenton – comes in at 27-4, winners of 11 straight. They beat Westhampton Tech, the eventual Central Jersey Group 3 champion, to win the Burlington County Tournament a few weeks ago, and fifth-seed Bishop Eustace, 55-42, back on Monday to win the South B sectional title.

They’re led by senior Josh Swain, averaging 18.2 points per game, while fellow senior Jordan Owens is averaging 17.5 per contest. They’ve also hit a lot of threes – 205 on the year – but are a lower scoring team than Gill, averaging 60 points per game, compared the the Knights at 71.1. And Gill has a rebounding edge, too on the season, averaging just under 34, while the Lancers are at 25.8 per game.

Gill is coming off its second sectional title in school history, with Holy Cross picking up its first, so both teams are looking for their first-ever state title.

Click below to hear Gill St. Bernard’s coach Mergin Sina talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko about the Non-Public B title game against Holy Cross Prep: