Tag: Hailey Benbow

by Alec Crouthamel

Addy Platt earns CJSR Somerset County Girls’ Player of the Year honors, while her Gill St. Bernard Knights are Team of the Year after sectional title win

Outside of Gladstone, New Jersey, it looked like the Gill St. Bernard’s girls basketball team may have been headed for a retooling year.

Five seniors graduated, and all played college basketball this season as freshmen at the next level. With a solid stable of underclassmen returning, there was a relative unknown with the Knights.

On campus, though, the belief never wavered, even dating back to the summer.

Gill St. Bernard’s proceeded to go 22-6 and win its first sectional title since 2012, making it all the way to Rutgers in the Non-Public B Final.

All that has earned the Knights Central Jersey Sports Radio Somerset County Team of the Year honors, with senior leader Addy Platt named Girls’ Player of the Year in Somerset.

After playing a smaller role in her junior year, Platt burst onto the scene as a senior. She stuffed the stat sheet, averaging 19.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 4.1 steals, and 2.3 blocks per game. The future Saint Joseph’s Hawk also consistently picked up the opposing team’s top option, while drawing the same assignment on the opposite side.

But championship teams aren’t made by just one player, even a star of Platt’s caliber.

A returning junior class that developed into a dangerous supporting cast propelled Gill into the Team of the Year conversation. Platt’s sister Katie, point guard Melina Miller, and wing Sadie Finn all took advantage of the opportunities in front of them, and altogether, the Knights took another leap forward into the state’s cream of the crop.

Add in an exciting stable of younger talent, and Gill St. Bernard’s won’t be going anywhere.

But for the 2025-26 iteration of the Knights, Platt’s do-it-all leadership and ability to take over games earned her the distinction as the top Player of the Year, and the collective earned Team of the Year.

Click below to hear Knights head coach Mark Gnapp and Platt talk about the 2025-26 season, and what the future holds for both Platt and Gill St. Bernard’s with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel:

Honorable Mentions:

  • Hailey Benbow, Rutgers Prep: There was no sophomore slump for Hailey Benbow, who averaged 13.1 points and 6.6 rebounds for the Argonauts, leading the team in both categories in her second season as a starter. She also sunk 25 triples on the year, and led a defensive-oriented squad with 60 steals.
  • Aleah Sunkins, Franklin: It may take five to play basketball, but the Warriors don’t get where they got this year – to the Somerset County Tournament final, and winning Central Jersey Group 4 – without Sunkins, a junior who averaged more than twice the next leading scorer, at 17.9 points per game. In fact, she averaged a double-double with 10.9 boards per contest, while also hitting 36 threes and tying for team-high honors in steals with Alissa Myers, at 62. A seniors, Myers will be gone next year, but Sunkins will remain the focal point next season.
  • Aletha Reynolds, Bernards: A double-double machine, with 16 during the season, Reynolds averaged 14.8 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. She helped the Mountaineers to a 10-0 start, and a trip to the North 2, Group 2 semis, where they lost to defending and eventual champion Madison. The senior will attend Catholic University in Washington, D.C. next fall.
  • Peytan Pugh, Bound Brook: Just a freshman, Peytan and Company nearly knocked off Rutgers Prep in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals, and reached the Central Jersey Group 1 title game. Why? Because she registered 254 steals, tops in New Jersey, nearly nine per game! A great focal point to build around for the Crusaders over the next three years!
  • Sadie Fleming, Manville: With 13 double-doubles this season, Sadie had another fantastic year to cap off a four-year varsity journey. She averaged 13.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game – helping Manville to a school record 17 wins – finishing the her time with the Mustangs as rare member of the “Double 1K Club” – with 1,238 career points and 1,217 rebounds. Sadie is just the second girls’ player at Manville to crack a thousand, but holds the record for most rebounds in a career – by far! Fleming will attend Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania next year.
by Mike Pavlichko

Bound Brook, Pugh nearly “steal” one from Rutgers Prep late, but Argonaut girls hang on, advance to 15th SCT title tilt

Sometimes when two top teams get together – and these two both were 20-game winners coming into Saturday’s Somerset County Tournament semifinal at Franklin High School – there’s a feeling out period. See what the other team gives you, then figure out what you can take.

There was none of that, however, for top-seed Rutgers Prep when the Argonauts took on fifth-seed Bound Brook. From the opening tip, they passed crisply, scored with ease, and swooped in for offensive rebounds – barely every giving the Crusaders anything beyond one-and-done possessions.

And yet, despite being down 18 at one point in the first half, and as many as 15 in the third quarter, the Crusaders were still in this one right down to the wire.

They had the deficit down to four at 48-44 with 1:52 left, but just couldn’t get any closer.

In the end, Rutgers Prep (21-7) was able to survive and advance, 53-49, as heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio. They’ll play the winner of Saturday’s 2 pm semifinal between second-seed Gill St. Bernard’s and third-seed Franklin in the championship game, next Saturday at 1 pm at Montgomery High School.

Freshman sensation Peytan Pugh was the main reason The Brook (21-2) was able to get back into the game, and stay in it, down the stretch. She had multiple steals, and rather than grabbing the ball, would tip the ball away, chase it down, and score without even the threat of being fouled. She finished with a game-high 23 points.

Bound Brook’s undoing in the first half was Rutgers Prep’s offensive rebounding, forcing the Crusaders into several one-and-dones. The Argonauts also used their length on the offensive side, often getting three or four chances on a number of possessions.

Hailey Benbow – who fouled out with 43 seconds remaining – was the high-scorer for the Argonauts, finishing with 11, while Sophia Georgiades added 10, including a pair of treys.

Meanwhile, senior Ava LaMonica – a four-year starter – who unofficially finished with four rebounds, joined the 1,000-point, 500-rebound club with her effort on the glass.

It’ll be Rutgers Prep’s 15th trip to a county final, all since 2004. They are 10-4 in the title game, but missed last year, snapping a string of nine straight trips, knocked off in the semifinals here at Franklin by Hillsborough, which lost to Gill in the title game, but went on to win the state Group 4 championship.

Prep had won four straight titles before last season, in 2020, and 2022 to 2024. (There was no SCT in 2021 due to the COVID-shortened season.)

Click below for postgame reaction with Rutgers Prep sophomore Hailey Benbow and head coach Mary Klinger , presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Alec Crouthamel

Georgiades’ milestone night helps lead No. 1 Rutgers Prep past No. 7 Franklin after slow start

For the second time in two games (and two days), No. 1 Rutgers Prep girls basketball fell behind early against a fast-paced opponent.

And for the second time, the Argonauts (2-0) rebounded almost immmediately and took control.

Rutgers Prep took control at the end of the first quarter and never looked back, defeating No. 7 Franklin 82-62 in the Warriors’ (0-1) season opener, and first game under new head coach Jimmy Kreie.

It wasn’t all easy, though.

Franklin stormed ahead to an 8-0 lead in the early minutes, helped by multiple Argonauts turnovers, and looked to be firing on all cylinders in the early goings.

That’s when senior guard Sophia Georgiades got going.

Coming into the night with 994 career points and a 3-for-12 shooting night against Morris Catholic on Sunday, Georgiades was itching to get going 24 hours later. She did, and then some. She scored 12 points in the opening quarter — including a pull-up three-pointer to give her 1,001 for her career, leading to a timeout and recognition from her teammates and crowd — and helped keep Rutgers Prep afloat, finishing the frame with a 28-23 lead. The Boston University signee finished with a game-high 24 points on the night.

The Argonauts’ vaunted 1-3-1 zone helped contain Franklin’s offense, though the Warriors were still able to get going and finished the first half with 37 points. Junior Aleah Sunkins led the team with 22 points, while sophomore Nola Bright scored 12. Kreie’s team came out firing, and appear to have a style and system in place, as well as standout veterans to keep the team going.

And then, after halftime, some of Rutgers Prep’s other top pieces got going.

Sophomore wing Hailey Benbow dealt with foul trouble in a frustrating first half for her, but caught fire in the third quarter. She scored 12 points of her own in the frame, and finished a point shy of Georgiades with 23 on the night, getting countless transition opportunities in a much-improved defensive effort in the second half.

Each time Franklin would cut into the lead — including instances in the third and fourth quarters where it got within 12 — the Argonauts would force a turnover or hit a three-pointer to keep the lead at a comfortable level for the rest of the game. Junior Natalia Valdez also finished with 10 points to aid the scoring, and sophomore Bri Duque set a career-high for the second straight game with eight points.

Through two games, Rutgers Prep has defeated two quality opponents, with the team’s chemistry and continuity playing a big-time role in both, as the Argonauts did not lose a player to graduation or transferring at all.

As the team gets fully healthy — seniors Ava Frith and Ava LaMonica are both playing through injuries — Rutgers Prep appears primed to contend for a Somerset County title once again, after missing out on the championship game for the first time since 2014 last year. The track record speaks for itself.

Click below for postgame reaction with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

Rutgers Prep guards Hailey Benbow and Sophia Georgiades, and head coach Mary Klinger