Senior Sophia Georgiades joined the 1,000-point club with 24 points as No.1 Rutgers Prep overcame an early deficit and beat No. 7 Franklin, 82-62, to improve to 2-0 on the season.
Click below to listen to Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Rutgers Preparatory School in Somerset, NJ, on December 15, 2025.
It’s been so long since someone else won the GMC Girls’ Basketball Tournament, that the team that has won the last six straight went by a completely different name when that streak began.
Not counting the four-team (actually three, due to illness) mini pod in the COVID-shortened 2021 season (Monroe won it), St. Thomas Aquinas has won every year going back to 2019, when it was still called Bishop Ahr. The wildest part is that was two coaches ago: Brittney Griffin won two in 2019 and 2020, then Joe Whalen won a pair in 2022 and 2023, and current head coach Tim Corrigan – who was on Whalen’s staff – has won the last two.
Little is expected to be different this year: the Trojans will be the heavy favorite to win the league again, with a slew of talent coming back.
Gone are Gianna Chuffo, Leah Crosby, Adrianna Summersett and Morgan Kotka to graduation but there are plenty more household names returning.
Trista Whitney – who led the team in scoring last season at 12.9 ppg, dishing out four assists per game, and hit 33 treys – is back for her senior season, and Lauren Downing (9 ppg, 5 apg) is back as a junior. Then, there’s also Kayla Navarro and Leah Kearney, as well as Jordan Barnes, who was second on the team in scoring last season at 10.w points per game, adding 35 triples.
Then, there are newcomers: 5-9 junior Sydney Joseph (16.5 ppg, 32 treys) transfers in from North Brunswick for more scoring power. Liana Lopena (10 ppg, 39 treys) comes in from Brick Memorial of the Shore Conference.
Click below to hear St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball coach Tim Corrigan preview the 2025-26 season with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:
St. Thomas Aquinas will be heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio on Monday, January 19, when they entertain Saddle River Day at 5 pm.
On the one hand, this is new, or at least different for Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball coach Mary Klinger. The Lady Argonauts are coming off a season in which they did not play in the Somerset County Tournament final, their first miss since 2014.
On the other hand, everyone who played a significant contributing role in 2024-25 – a season in which Klinger didn’t have a single senior to rely on – is back for this season. That’s also a rarity in this day and age of transfers and player movement.
In fact, she has a few newcomers from the nationally top-ranked Argonauts’ girls’ soccer program joining the team now.
Senior Ava LaMonica is the most experienced player back. She’s started since she was a freshman, and while she’s not the biggest scorer, she did average 13.4 points per game last season, but also gets to the line a lot as she hustles and boxes out for every rebound and loose ball. She also led the team with 81 assists and 65 steals a year ago.
Sophia Georgiadis was the second leading scorer a year ago as a junior, at 11.6 points per game, while adding 37 treys, one fewer than classmate Natalia Valdez, who had 38 and scored at an 8.3 point per game clip.
Sophomore Hailey Benbow and junior Hannah Fraser will be key contributors as well.
For this year’s club, the past is the past and it’s time to write a new chapter. And Klinger will have her team ready using the regular season as their pre-season, to gear up for another SCT run, and some more NJSIAA hardware as well.
Click below to hear Rutgers Prep girls’; basketball coach Mary Klinger preview the upcoming season with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:
Rutgers Prep will make its season debut on Central Jersey Sports Radio on Monday, December 15m when the Lady Argonauts welcome in Franklin for a 5:30 tip off. Alec Crouthamel will have the call. Bookmark this link to listen live on the day of the game.
For the first time since Central Jersey Sports Radio’s initial season of high school basketball coverage in the COVID-shortened 2021 campaign, there’s someone else besides Rutgers Prep beginning the year at No. 1: Gill St. Bernard’s.
The Knights won the Somerset County Tournament in 2025, their first county title since 2014, which also was the last time Rutgers Prep missed the county final before last season, when they were knocked out in the semifinals by Hillsborough.
All that considered, Gill St. Bernard’s earned the No. 1 spot in the 2025-26 preseason Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten. Gill finsihed 23-5 last year, sharing the Skyland Conference Delaware Division with Rutgers Prep, having split their two games. The Knights also reached the Non-Public North B Finals.
However, they’ll look to reload as they graduated several key players, including leading scorer and rebounder Gandy Malou-Mamel, who’s now playing at UConn. Fellow seniors Tessa Lozner, Maya Abramson, Sidney Quinn and Cassidy Moore all graduate, while the top returning scorer is senior Addy Platt, who contributed 10.1 points per game last year, and led the team with 61 steals.
Rutgers Prep is second in the rankings, after finishing last season 20-7. The Argonauts reached the Non-Public South B final, but unlike Gill, return all five starters. Among them is senior and 2024-25 leading scorer Ava LaMonica, with 13.4 points per game, and a team-best 65 steals and 81 assists. Ava Frith (9.1 ppg) and Sophia Georgiades (11.6 ppg, 60 steals) also return for their senior seasons.
In third is St. Thomas Aquinas, which finished 23-7 last year, steamrolling its way through the GMC Red Division by more than 40 points per game. They Trojans won the GMC Tournament again – their sixth straight title going back to 2019 – and will graduate some key seniors like Gianna Chuffo (9.8 ppg), Leah Crosby (15.7 ppg), and Adrianna Summersett (6.1 ppg), but also bring back a good deal of talent. Trista Whitney (12.9 ppg, 6 rpg, 121 assists) is back for her senior year, as is post Jordan Barnes (10.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg), as well as juniors Lauryn Downing and Leah Kearney, all of whom played significant minutes last season.
Hillsborough makes won its first-ever sectional championship, then went all the way and won the state Group 4 championship at Rutgers, finishing 26-6 on the season. They also knocked off Rutgers Prep in the SCT semifinals and reached the county title game for the first time since 2006. The Lady Raiders lose a ton, however, including all-time leading scorer – girls’ or boys’ – Francesca Schiro (21.1 ppg), who’s now at Siena and leading the team in scoring as a rookie. Mya Loniewski (11.6 ppg) and Reghan Bice (5.6 ppg, 4.4 rpg) also graduated, with sophomore center Isabella Ruh the most significant returnee, having scored 9.8 points per game last season, and grabbing 6.1 rebounds per contest.
Checking in at No. 5 is Bernards, which won the Skyland Conference Mountain Division, followed by Somerville at No. 6, which won the Skyland Valley Division. Both finished 23-6 and went to sectional semifinals, the Mountaineers in North 2, Group 2, the Pioneers in North 2, Group 3. Bernards returns top scorer and rebounder Aletha Reynolds (16.1 ppg, 5.9 rpg) for her senior year, along with second-leading scorer Jasmine Kelleher (82. ppg) for her junior season. Somerville returns senior Kaylee Lauber, who led the team with 16.4 points per game, but No. 2 Charlotte Taylor (11.5 ppg, team-best 5 apg) is gone to graduation.
In seventh is Franklin, which has been previously unranked before making it into the final rankings last season at 11-16, a tough out which plays in the tough Skyland Delaware with Rutgers Prep, Gill St. Bernard’s and Hillsborough. A young Aleah Sunkins scored 16 points per game and grabbed 9.3 boards per contest in her sophomore year, and with more experience, the Warriors could make moves. Their lone senior to graduate was Precious Wheeler (6 ppg, 5.9 rpg).
2025 GMC Tournament runner-up Monroe checks in at eight. The Falcons finished 20-10 last season and not only reached the GMC title game, but also the Central Jersey Group 4 final, where they ran into juggernaut Hillsborough. They lose one of the program’s greats in Evangelina Francisco (20.7 ppg) to graduation. The GMC is Aquinas and everyone else, but the Falcons should be high among the “everyone else” category.
Making its debut in the rankings at No. 9 is East Brunswick, which was 13-14 last season. But they were young and are expected to be one of the better GMC teams in the higher divisions this season, having talked to a few coaches around the league. Ava Catanho (17.3 ppg) led the Lady Bears in scoring last year as a freshman, and other key contributors also return.
And Spotswood rounds out the group in tenth. The Chargers finished second in the GMC White last season at 18-8, but champion Middlesex lost its two best players to graduation, including all-time leading scorer Jess Devine and Mallory Gianchilia, so the Blue Jays fall out of the final rankings from last season. As for Spotswood, they return Gabrielle Hill, a junior who was a starter a year ago, and led the team with 15.4 points per game. The downside is they also lose senior Lizzie Calandruccio (14.6 ppg) to graduation.
Here’s the complete preseason Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball Top Ten:
Union County has been doing it, the Skyland Conference began using it this year, and the Greater Middlesex Conference has adopted it for 2025-26.
The GMC’s Athletic Directors Thursday night voted to institute a running clock rule that the NFHS has allowed as an option since the 2022-23 season. It will begin next year in the GMC for both girls’ and boys’ basketball.
Similar to what many know from football for several years now, the running clock would take effect when a team goes up by 30 points at any point in the second half. It could conceivably start right at the beginning of the second half if the halftime lead is 30 or more points.
The clock would go back to normal operation if the margin got back to ten points or less. (There’s no return to a normal clock in football.)
The idea is to speed up games that are blowouts so they don’t become even bigger blowouts.
“The reason I like the rule,” says GMC President Mike Pede, “is because if you’re up by 30 and you put other kids in the game to get a chance to play, you’re telling them ‘You can’t score, you can’t run our offense,’ and that’s not really fair to the kids who come to practice every day.”
“It’s going to be a 40 or 45 point game, which is better than 70,” Pede added.
The clock would only stop for injuries, time outs, or other official stoppages. It would not stop for out-of-bounds plays, jump balls, foul shots, and the like.
Overall, reaction in leagues that have used it – like the Skyland Conference – have generally been positive; it’s seen as at least somewhat of a remedy for competitive imbalances that can’t always be accounted for on a year-to-year basis.
Having won its first-ever state championship – and the first by any public school in the nearly five-year history of Central Jersey Sports Radio – the Hillsborough Raiders are the No. 1 team in the final Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball Top Ten.
‘Boro finished 26-6, and won the Central Jersey Group 4 title over Monroe – which landed at No. 5 – their second straight sectional title. They won their first last season, beating Elizabeth for the North 2, Group 4 championship.
And while they finished fourth in one of the toughest divisions in the state – five of their six losses came in the division – they also featured senior Cesci Schiro, who finished her stellar career with 2,106 points, the leading scorer in school history among girls or boys. For perspective, the entire team scored 2,066 points this season.
Hillsborough also picked up its most signature win in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals, beating Rutgers Prep for the first time since 2006, before falling to Gill in the title game.
Check back this afternoon to hear our interview with CJSR’s 2025 Girls’ Basketball Team of the Year, the Hillsborough Raiders, including seniors Cesci Schiro, Mya Loniewski and Reghan Bice, as well as coach Courtney Tierney.
Coming in second was Gill St. Bernard’s. The Knights (23-5) were co-champs in the Skyland Delaware Division with Rutgers Prep – as they split their two regular season meetings – and won the Somerset County Tournament. They lost in the Non-Public North B finals to Montclair-Immaculate, in the school’s final season before it closes this summer, it was recently announced.
Rutgers Prep came in third at 20-7, also reaching a sectional final, bowing out to Gloucester Catholic in the Non-Public South B Final. They shared the Delaware Division title with Gill St. Bernard’s.
GMC Tournament champion St. Thomas Aquinas (23-7) finished fourth, also winning the Red Division in the Greater Middlesex Conference, with Monroe right behind them. The Falcons (20-10) finished second in the division to the Trojans and lost to them in the GMC Tourney final. They also reached the Central Jersey Group 4 championship game, falling there to Hillsborough.
Bernards (23-6) checks in at No. 6, the Skyland Conference Mountain Division champions, while Valley Division winner Somerville (23-6) finished seventh.
In eighth is GMC White Division champion Middlesex (21-9), with Spotswood (18-10) at No. 9.
Franklin – despite an 11-16 record, but having two losses each to Rutgers Prep and Hillsborough and three to Gill St. Bernard’s – finishes in tenth. They reached the Central Jersey Group 4 semifinals, where they lost to the Raiders.
Below is the complete Final 2024-25 Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball Top Ten:
Cesci Schiro led Central Group 4 champion Hillsborough with 24 points as the Raiders’ finished with a strong fourth-quarter to beat South 4 winner Cherokee, 49-34, in the Group 4 semifinals. The win puts Hillsborough in the state Group 4 title game for the first time ever, where they’ll take on West Orange.
Click below to listen to all the action as called by Alec Crouthamel live on Central Jersey Sports Radio from Central Regional High School in Bayville on March 12, 2025.
Jackson Liberty High School was good to Rutgers Prep last year.
So was Seneca the year before that, and Long Branch back in 2022.
The Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball team hasn’t lost a sectional final since COVID at any of those three venues, and Mary Klinger’s 2024-25 team doesn’t plan to start now.
Monday evening, they’ll play in their fifth straight Non-Public South B title game – the first in that stretch was in 2020, when they fell to Trenton Catholic – as the second-seeded Argonauts take on top-seed Gloucester Catholic at 5 pm, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Mike Pavlichko has the call, followed by the Prep boys at 7 pm against St. Rose in their final, with pregame for Game One starting at 4:45. Click here to listen.
Rutgers Prep is 20-6 on the season, still a solid year despite graduating three starters, and losing a fourth plus two others to transfer.
That left Ava LaMonica as the lone starter back, but with transfers like Ava Frith and Sophia Georgiades, freshman Hailey Benbow, and others, the Argonauts maybe haven’t picked up where they left off, but are right back where they belong: playing for hardware in March.
LaMonica is the leading scorer this season at 13.7 points per game, but Georgiades and Benbow have been stellar in two state tournament games so far, averaging 20.5 and 15 points per game, respectively. And Georgiades has hit ten threes in two games – five each against Holy Cross Prep in the quarterfinals and Wildwood Catholic in the semis.
For the Argonauts, the issue has been consistency. But head coach Mary Klinger scheduled their last game before the states against Morris Catholic, the team that beat them in the last two Non-Public Group B state finals.
They lost that one 90-52, but it gave her program one more look at how they stacked up against they best – at 25-0, they’re the top team in the state – but they won’t get to play them this year. The Crusaders moved up to Group A this season.
Gloucester Catholic (24-5) is also having a very good season, and since a loss in the South Jersey Invitational Basketball Tournament to Paul VI on February 9th, they’ve won eight straight, including taking the Tri-County Tournament Flight A title over Washington Township, 72-29.
The Rams are paced by Jahzara Green, who’s averaging over 18 points per game this season, and 17 in two state tournament games against Koinonia and Ranney. Amanda Eggers is averaging 12 a game, and also leads the team in three-point shooting with 63 triples on the season.
Click below to hear Rutgers Prep coach Mary Klinger talk about the Argonauts and the Non-Public South B final against Gloucester Catholic:
With a 19-point effort from senior Evangelina Francisco, and a double-double of 16 points and ten rebounds from Kiera Longo, second-seed Monroe punched its second ticket in three years to the Central Jersey Group 4 title game Wednesday night, beating third-seed Hightstown at home, 53-30.
The Falcons will play at top-seed Hillsborough at 1:30 pm Saturday afternoon, a matchup of two 20-plus win teams that were finalists in their respective county tournaments this year.
Monroe came out of the gate hot, leading 17-3 after one quarter, though Hightstown cut into the deficit before halftime, trailing by just eight. But the second half belonged to the Falcons, who won their 20th game of the season.
They last reached the finals in 2023, falling 53-45 to Jackson Memorial. But the core of this year’s team – including Francisco, Longo and Sophia Rivas – all played in that game. Francisco had 12 points in that loss.
Click below to hear Monroe head coach Brian Hinz talk about Wednesday night’s win over Hightstown, and Saturday’s title game against Hillsborough:
It wasn’t just the only game in town, as they say, it was the only game in the entire state Sunday afternoon in the NJSIAA high school basketball playoffs.
Second-seed Rutgers Prep won its state tournament opener, rolling past 7-seed Holy Cross Prep out of Delran Saturday afternoon in Somerset, 89-31, in Non-Public South B quarterfinal action.
The Lady Argonauts put the pedal to the metal from the jump, starting the game on a 12-0 run before the Lancers got on the board with a Mae Foley field goal almost four minutes into the game. Prep led 19-6 after one – with Foley having all six points – and 46-12 at the half.
Rutgers Prep (18-6) played stellar defense, cutting off passes, forcing turnovers and blocking shots. They ran their press efficiently as they made shots, including seven first-half treys, five of which came from Sophia Georgiadis, that alone matching a career high for her in a single game, set in December of last season in a loss at Morris Knolls, when she played for Ridge.
And it was much of the same in the second half, as Prep got a couple more threes each from Ava Frith and Natalia Valdez, plus a second from Hailey Benbow, to finish with 13 made shots from downtown.
Georgiades led Rutgers Prep with 19 points, while Benbow added 18 and Valdez chipped in ten.
Holy Cross fell to 15-13 with the loss, ending their season.
Rutgers Prep moves on to the Non-Public South B semifinals Thursday at home, at a time to be determined, against either third-seed Wildwood Catholic (22-5) or 11-seed Stuart Day (6-14). That game will be played at 6 pm Monday at Wildwood Catholic.
Here’s the quarterfinal schedule for the rest of the section:
Non-Public South B Quarterfinals
(9) Koinonia at (1) Gloucester Catholic, Monday
(5) Holy Spirit at (4) Ranney, 4 pm Monday
(11) Stuart Day at (3) Wildwood Catholic, 6 pm Monday
(2) Rutgers Prep def. (7) Holy Cross, 89-31