Tag: girls' basketball

by Mike Pavlichko

Monroe and Middlesex make rare foes in GMC Tournament semifinals Tuesday night

One team has been to three GMC Tournament finals. Not a lot, but more than many.

The other has never been to one.

And the two rarely meet.

But they will Tuesday night, when second-seed Monroe will play on its own floor against third-seed Middlesex for a trip to the GMC Tournament finals this Friday.

You can hear it as part of a semifinal doubleheader on Central Jersey Sports Radio – presented by the George Street Playhouse in downtown New Brunswick – with pregame at 4:40 pm, and tip-off at 5:00, followed by the second game at 7 with top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas and 13-seed North Plainfield. Click here to listen.

Monroe (16-7 overall, 9-5 in the GMC Red, 2nd place) is 0-3 in county finals all time, with appearances in 2015, 2016, and 2020. In 2021, however, they won the Somogy Family Pod at the end of the abbreviated COVID season. It was the de facto GMC title, and they beat St. Thomas Aquinas, but it wasn’t the full tournament.

Middlesex (19-6 overall, GMC White Champions at 12-2) has never been to the title game, but they might have just as good a shot at getting there as Monroe.

That’s because the Falcons – while they may be deeper and/or more balanced – don’t have Jess Devine. She’s the all-time leading scorer at the school – girls or boys – and seemingly on the scoring end of every steal or errant pass that ends up generating transition basketball, which happens for Middlesex… let’s say “a lot.”

The Blue Jays have over 270 steals this season as a team, more than eleven per game.

Monroe’s top scorer is actually averaging more points per game at the moment – Evangelina Francisco, at 22 per contest – than Devine, who’s scoring at a 19 point per game clip. But it’s how Devine scores that deflates the opposition. And those points come in bunches.

Francisco has more threes on the season, with 52, as well, and the rest of the cast balances out nicely. Sophomore Kiera Longo is second on the team at 10 points per game, with Zoe Wilcher and Sofia Rivas both around six.

Both teams can get up and down the floor, though, and this should be a good matchup of the second-place team in the Red and the White Division champs.

Click below to hear preview interviews with both head coaches:

Monroe head coach Brian Hinz
Middlesex head coach Stew Lester
by Mike Pavlichko

It’s raining threes! No. 7 Spotswood hits a dozen times from the arc to down Woodbridge, 72-38

Petula Clark sang about it. George Costanza was confused about it.

But Lizzie Calandruccio and Gabrielle Hill knew what to do with it.

Seventh-ranked Spotswood hit 12 times from “downtown” – a season high and the most in a single game for the Chargers since they hit eleven in a 2022 win over Sayreville – en route to a 72-38 Greater Middlesex Conference White Division win Tuesday night at the Spotwood Athletic Center, in a game heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Calandruccio, a senior, led the way with 19 points and four first-half treys, while the sophomore sensation Hill scored 17 and netted three triples. Lily Kroun, Cat Caro and Violet Tharney each hit from beyond the arc, and sophomore Emily Devlin hit a pair of treys when she came in with the game in hand in the final five minutes.

Spotswood jumped on the Barrons early and never looked back. Tharney’s three opened the scoring, and Bobbi Jo Timinski tied it with her own. But the Lady Chargers went on a 17-0 run from that point on, led 22-7 after one quarter, and had as big as a 40-point lead in the third quarter before head coach Vinny Vizzi emptied the bench.

Up to the White Division this year from the Blue – where they won the last two division titles – Spotswood (8-2) sits in first place, and has won 20 straight divisional games going back to a late-season loss in 2023 to Highland Park.

It was the Chargers’ fourth straight win, and also their highest scoring output of the season.

Woodbridge dropped to 1-7, 1-4 in the White with the loss.

Click below for postgame reaction from Spotswood’s Lizzie Calandruccio, Gabrielle Hill, and head coach Vinny Vizzi:

by Mike Pavlichko

Same ol’, same ol’ for new-look Rutgers Prep: No. 1 Argonauts take down No. 3 Gill St. Bernards… again

In six prior games against Rutgers Prep, Gandy Malou-Mamel – the UConn-bound Gill St. Bernard’s senior – never scored in double figures. In fact, she scored ten or more in all but three games last season, and those three came against the Argonauts.

So, when after one quarter, Malou-Mamel had nine and Gill was down by just three, at 17-14, you’d figure this would be a close one down to the wire.

It wasn’t.

The problem was, the supporting cast couldn’t do much else – the rest of the starting five combined for just 11 points – and top-ranked Rutgers Prep came away with a 61-38 win over third-ranked Gill St. Bernard’s, the Argos’ 24th straight in the series.

Malou-Mamel – who sat the bench for a bit in the second quarter with two fouls – finished with a game-high 21 for Gill (1-1).

The contest saw five lead changes and two ties, but all those came in the first quarter. The Argonauts never trailed after taking the lead for the third time in the first eight minutes.

Prep (2-0) eventually built up to as big as a 17-point lead in the third before winning by 23, as they started hitting from beyond the arc. Junior Natalia Valdez – little used last year – broke out with a 13-point night, including three treys, all in the second half.

Freshman Hailey Benbow finished with 11, including a triple, and junior transfer Sophia Georgiades (from Ridge) also had 22, including three treys.

Click below for postgame reaction from head coach Mary Klinger, and juniors Ava LaMonica and Natallia Valdez, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

No changes in Boys’ or Girls’ Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten with limited, soft opening week

With few teams taking advantage of the NJSIAA’s early start schedule, there was no movement in this week’s Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten, either on the girls’ or boys’ side.

Only three ranked boys teams were in action this weekend, all at the Tip-Off Showcase at Montgomery High School Saturday afternoon and evening.

Top-ranked Colonia won its opener, dropping St. Peter’s Prep out of Jersey City, 46-40, despite falling behind early, while No. 3 Montgomery lost in the event’s nightcap, falling to Hudson Catholic, 48-44.

Earlier in the day, No. 2 Rutgers Prep lost a heartbreaker to Manasquan on a buzzer-beater, 64-61, on a half-court trey by Matteo Chiarella. That’s the same Manasquan team that looked to have beaten Camden last year in the state Group 2 semifinals before the officials got together and waved the basket off, saying the shot came after the buzzer. It sparked a huge controversy as replays from multiple media outlets and fans showed the shot clearly beat the buzzer; however, the NJSIAA does not use replay in games.

Below is the full Week 1 Bellamy & Son Paving Boys’ Basketball Top Ten:

Meanwhile, on the girls’ side, the top four all won their openers. No. 1 Rutgers Prep cruised past Ewing, 66-29, also at the Tip-Off Showcase at Montgomery. Earlier in the week, No. 2 St. Thomas Aquinas beat St. Joseph Hill (NY) back on Tuesday, but lost Saturday to Monsignor McClancy (NY), 71-62.

Third-ranked Gill St. Bernard’s and No. 4 Hillsborough also won their openers. The Knights topped Albertus Magnus (NY) on the road, 58-31, while the defending North 2, Group 4 champion Lady Raiders powered past Linden at home, 69-23.

Spotswood – No. 10 in the preseason rankings – lost down in Virginia to Spotswood. Yes, you heard that right, the Chargers played their namesake in Virginia at the She Got Game Classic, but lost 59-35.

Below is the full Week 1 Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball Top Ten:

by Mike Pavlichko

It’s musical chairs in GMC basketball, as teams move to new divisions on boys’ and girls’ sides

After a two-year scheduling cycle with large divisions – some as big as nine teams – the Greater Middlesex Conference has its new alignments for the next two years in girls’ and boys’ basketball, with the biggest changes on the boys’ side.

Now with 33 teams playing boys’ basketball in the GMC, the league added a Silver Division at the bottom – as it’s done in other sports, including baseball – to lessen the extremes from the top to the bottom in each division. Overall, 17 boys’ teams moved around, while ten of the 34 girls’ schools got shuffled.

Blue and Gold see most movement in boys’ hoops…

More than two thirds of the Red Division stayed in tact, with Colonia, Monroe, Old Bridge, Piscataway, South Brunswick and St. Thomas Aquinas remaining. East Brunswick (14-14) moved down one to the White along with South Brunswick (6-18), while JP Stevens (8-14) moved down two notches to the Blue.

In the White Division, North Brunswick, Perth Amboy, Sayreville, South Plainfield and Woodbridge stayed put. Edison (7-17), New Brunswick (6-17) and North Plainfield (8-17) moved down to the Blue.

Five of the nine teams in the GMC Blue moved down. While most from the Red and White that moved down were in the bottom third of the division, a mix of Blue teams got shuffled. Defending champion Spotswood (20-7) goes down to the Gold, along with third-place Middlesex (13-14), South River (13-14) and Metuchen (12-14), while Wardlaw-Hartridge (3-22) goes down two divisions to the Silver.

GMC Gold Champion Calvary Christian (19-7) is the only Gold Division team to remain, joined by the five from the Blue that moved down. Everyone else moves to the new Silver, along with Wardlaw-Hartridge coming down from the Blue.

Here are the 2024-25 Divisional Alignments for GMC Boys’ Basketball:

  • Red Division (6): Colonia, Monroe, Old Bridge, Piscataway, St. Joseph-Metuchen, St. Thomas Aquinas
  • White Division (7): East Brunswick, North Brunswick, Perth Amboy, Sayreville, South Brunswick, South Plainfield, Woodbridge
  • Blue Division (6): Carteret, Edison, JP Stevens, New Brunswick, North Plainfield, Timothy Christian
  • Gold Division (6): Calvary Christian, JFK, Metuchen, Middlesex, South River, Spotswood
  • Silver Division (8): Dunellen, East Brunswick Magnet, Highland Park, Perth Amboy Magnet, Piscataway Magnet, Somerset Tech, South Amboy, Wardlaw-Hartridge

Fewer changes on the girls’ side…

Virtually the entire Red Division stayed in tact, with only last-place North Brunswick (5-21) moving down to the White. North Plainfield (18-7) takes the Raiders’ place in the Red, even though they were the second-place team, keeping first-place JP Stevens (20-6) in the same division with Edison. The two bottom teams in the division – JFK (4-18) and Sayreville (1-24) move down to the Blue.

GMC Blue champion Spotswood (21-6) moved up to the White as well, leaving Carteret, Highland Park, Metuchen and South River behind along with JFK and Sayreville coming down from the White. The bottom three teams – Calvary Christian (6-11), New Brunswick (4-16) and Somerset Tech (1-17) move down to the Gold.

And most of the Gold stays the way it is, plus the three new additions, while second-place Dunellen (18-9) and third-place Timothy Christian (15-9) move on up to the Gold. Division winner Wardlaw-Hartridge (15-4) stays behind with Mother Seton, South Amboy and the Middlesex County Magnet schools (East Brunswick, Perth Amboy, Piscataway and Woodbridge).

Here are the 2024-2025 Divisional Alignments for GMC Girls’ Basketball:

  • Red Division (8): Colonia, East Brunswick, Monroe, North Plainfield, Old Bridge, Piscataway, South Brunswick, St. Thomas Aquinas
  • White Division (8): Edison, JP Stevens, Middlesex, North Brunswick, Perth Amboy, South Plainfield, Spotswood, Woodbridge
  • Blue Division (8): Carteret, Dunellen, Highland Park, JFK, Metuchen, Sayreville, South River, Timothy Christian
  • Gold Division (10): Calvary Christian, East Brunswick Magnet, Mother Seton, New Brunswick, Perth Amboy Magnet, Piscataway Magnet, Somerset Tech, South Amboy, Wardlaw-Hartridge, Woodbridge Magnet

by Mike Pavlichko

Seven of top eight seeds, plus Middlesex, advance to GMC Tournament girls’ quarterfinals

It almost – almost – went according to chalk in the Greater Middlesex Conference girls’ basketball tournament Thursday night.

Seven of the top eight seeds advanced, while 14th-seed Middlesex pulled off a huge upset, knocking off third-seed JP Stevens on the road, avenging two regular season losses to the Hawks this year.

How big an upset was it? It was the first loss by a top-four seed in the the girls’ GMCT since 2013, when fourth-seed St. Thomas Aquinas lost in the opening round to 13-seed Edison. No top four seed has lost in the round of 16 since. Incidentally, Edison lost as the second-seed in 2011 to 15th-seed East Brunswick.

It all sets up four quarterfinal round games to be played at Spotswood High School this weekend, with game times yet to be determined. The league will figure it out after all of Thursday’s games, to avoid a conflict on Saturday with any schools that may have both boys’ and girls’ teams playing.

The boys’ quarters are also being played Saturday – at Piscataway High School – to avoid conflicting with Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Here are Thursday’s first round results:

  • (1) St. Thomas Aquinas def. (16) Edison, 85-53
  • (8) Spotswood def. (9) Piscataway, 57-50
  • (5) Monroe def. (12) Metuchen, 77-41
  • (4) North Plainfield def. (20) North Brunswick, 73-21
  • (14) Middlesex def. (3) JP Stevens, 48-39
  • (6) South Brunswick def. (11) Woodbridge, 51-42
  • (7) East Brunswick def. (10) Old Bridge, 57-41
  • (2) Colonia def. (18) Carteret, 52-36

Saturday’s Girls’ GMCT Quarterfinal Matchups (times TBA):

  • (1) St. Thomas Aquinas vs. (8) Spotswood
  • (4) North Plainfield vs. (5) Monroe
  • (6) South Brunswick vs. (14) Middlesex
  • (2) Colonia vs. (7) East Brunswick

by Mike Pavlichko

It’s off to Vanderbilt for Rutgers Prep five-star Mikayla Blakes, and it’s not all about basketball

Yes, Mikayla Blakes can do amazing things with the basketball.

But, one day, she may be doing amazing things in the medical profession.

She’d like to be a doctor, her coach Mary Klinger, told us earlier this season. And that was a big reason why, when Blakes announced her college commitment Monday in Rutgers Prep’s gym, surrounded by family, teammates and her coaches, she chose Vanderbilt University.

Blakes is the first five-star girls’ basketball recruit to come out of Somerset County since Diamond Miller of Franklin, who was on the 34-0 team in 2019 that won the Tournament of Champions. Ironically, Blakes’ current team – Rutgers Prep – hasn’t lost to a Skyland Conference opponent since falling to Franklin in the 2019 Somerset County Tournament final.

Blakes – the two-time defending Central Jersey Sports Radio Player of the Year – recently narrowed her options down to seven schools, with the other options being Rutgers, Indiana, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Stanford, and UCLA.

This season, she was named one of three McDonald’s All-American nominees from her team, along with Zahra Alexander and Chloe Escanillas, and is on the midseason watch list for the Naismith Player of the Year Award. 

Blakes is ESPNW’s tenth-ranked player in the Class of 2024.

by Mike Pavlichko

Rutgers Prep five-star Mikayla Blakes to announce college decision Monday

Five-star recruit Mikayla Blakes of Rutgers Prep will make her long-awaited college decision announcement this Monday afternoon.

Blakes – the two-time defending Central Jersey Sports Radio Player of the Year – recently narrowed her options down to seven schools, including – in no particular order – Rutgers, Indiana, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Stanford, and UCLA.

Her accolades are many, this season alone being named one of three McDonald’s All-American nominees from her team, along with Zahra Alexander and Chloe Escanillas.

Blakes also was named to the midseason watch list for the Naismith Player of the Year Award, and is ESPNW’s tenth-ranked player in the Class of 2024.

Should Rutgers be her next stop, she would join another five-star, the highest-ranked player yet landed by Course Washington, Kiyomi McMiller, out of Life Center Academy in Burlington County. She’s ranked No. 22 in the ’24 Class by ESPNW.

Her head coach, Mary Klinger – who just earned her 700th career coaching win Thursday night with a victory over Ridge – has said that basketball won’t be the only factor going into Blakes’ decision; she wants to be a doctor.

Blakes will make her announcement from Rutgers Prep’s gym at 12:15 Monday afternoon on ESPN’s SportsCenter Next, which can be viewed on their YouTube channel by clicking here.

by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY: No. 9 Somerville 36, No. 10 Bound Brook 28 (Girls)

Kaylee Lauber scored 19 points while Charlotte Taylor added 11, and Somerville beat Bound Brook on the road Saturday, 36-28, in a battle of the top two teams in the Skyland Conference Mountain Division on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko call all the play-by-play on January 13, 2024.

by Mike Pavlichko

With another two titles, Mary Klinger named CJSR Girls’ Basketball Coach of the Year

One might say it’s easy to win when you have the talent Mary Klinger has at Rutgers Prep. Mikayla Blakes, Katie Ledden, Gigi Battle, and on and on.

But harnessing that talent, getting more and more out of it every day, is the task she really has, and once again, in 2022-23, Klinger was a success.

This is a coach who considers the regular season the preseason, the warm-up, the long stretch to constantly improve. She can be heard bemoaning a defensive effort in a game where her team might win by 30.

That comes from growing up in hardscrabble Philly, along with her twin sister Patty, where during their run to the 1982 AIAW Championship with the Rutgers Lady Knights’ the Coyle twins could be found playing pick-up ball on the city’s courts the night before the title game at the Palestra against vaunted and heavily-favored Texas – who, of course, they wound up beating – just to let off some nervous steam.

That spirit and quest for excellence fuels her to push her team to its limits, and maybe even a little more.

It’s why her Lady Argonauts have won two straight sectional titles, three straight Somerset County Tournament titles, and five of the last seven SCTs.

It’s why Central Jersey Sports Radio once again has named Mary Klinger Coach of the Year, her second such honor from CJSR. She also was so honored in 2021, when her team went undefeated, 13-0, in the COVID-shortened season, our debut year.

Rutgers Prep’s Mary Klinger runs practice on the even of New Jersey’s final Tournament of Champions on March 15, 2022. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Dom Savino talk with Rutgers Prep head coach Mary Klinger, our 2022-23 Girls’ Basketball Coach of the Year:

One more thing: this won’t be the biggest award the Rutgers Prep coach picks up this month.

Klinger, who earlier this season was named by NFHS as New Jersey Girls’ Basketball Coach of the Year for 2021-22, will pick up another coaching honor this weekend when the New Jersey Basketball Coaches’ Association All-State Game is played at Rutgers Prep. This Sunday, she’ll be recognized as a John Wooden Legacy Award Winner by the National High School Basketball Coaches’ Association.