Tag: HS Basketball

by Mike Pavlichko

Rutgers Prep boys fall short of TOC bid in historic season

Rutgers Prep boys’ basketball coach Matt Bloom wants his team to remember that they made history in 2021-22, something no one can ever erase: they won a sectional championship that had eluded them in the prior nine seasons as a member of the NJSIAA.

But they will not make the Tournament of Champions in the final year of the event, as the South champion Argonauts fell to North winner Bergen Catholic in the Non-Public Group A Championship game at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, 66-54, as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

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Rutgers Prep had brief leads of 2-0 and 4-2, but never lead again, as the Crusaders slowly built out to a double digit lead, which went back-and-forth to single digits on a number of occasions throughout the night. But most of the second half was spend with a double-digit deficit, though the Argonauts only trailed by seven at the break, 32-25.

Part of the problem was Prep wasn’t hitting its good looks, which it normally does. Junior Jadin Collins – who had back-to-back career highs in the sectional semis (30 against St. Thomas Aquinas) and finals (33 versus Red Bank Catholic) – came back to Earth with a 21-point night, to lead all scorers in the game.

Prep was active on defense. Senior Ryan Pettit had a handful of quick baskets off inbound turnovers by Bergen Catholic, all forced by the Argos being active on the trigger.

But Rutgers Prep only connected on one three-point bucket all night, a triple by Collins in the fourth quarter for his last three points of the game.

Prep – which ends its season at 26-4 – will graduate two key parts of its starting five, in 6-7 forward Ryan Zan, as well as Pettit. Senior swing Donovan Long, who didn’t get in Saturday’s final, also will graduate. Late in the game, Bloom got two other seniors some time on the Rutgers floor – Ryan Kokoszka and Kridshna Lekhi.

Looking like a college kid plucked from the stands with a chance to win a free tuition, Lekhi chucked a three from just inside half court with the game out of reach and 15-seconds left. There was no hurry, he just wanted to take the shot. He banked it off the glass, but it narrowly missed, bringing a chuckle and some smiles from the bench and Prep fans in attendance.

Click here for postgame reacton as Mike Pavblichko talks to Rutgers Prep head coach Matt Bloom:

by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY: Girls’ Non-Public Group B Final: Rutgers Prep 62, Saddle River Day 51

The Rutgers Prep girls basketball team won its third group title in program history, beating Saddle River Day 62-51 to earn a trip to the NJSIAA’s final Tournament of Champions. Sophomore Mikayla Bakes led all scorers with 27 – including 15 in a monster first quarter, while Katie Ledden had 16, and senior Leyla Castro’s seven fourth quarter points – including a trey – were key.

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Click below to listen to the game in its entirety from RWJBarnabas Health Arena at Toms River North High School, with Mike Pavlichko calling all the action:

by Mike Pavlichko

CHAMPS!! Rutgers Prep girls survive Saddle River Day, win third Group B title, earn berth in NJ’s last TOC

Rutgers Prep head coach Mary Klinger knew her team would face adversity, somehow, at some point, against Saddle River Day in the Non-Public Group B title game. It was just a matter of what form it would take.

In the end, the Lady Argonauts were winners, 62-51, down at the RWJBarnabas Health Arena at Toms river North High School, clinching their third berth in the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions, which is in its last season.

But it was not easy, not by a long shot.

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To the fans in the stands, it looked like it might be over early. Prep sophomore Mikayla Blakes scored 17 points in a monster first quarter – going 8-of-8 from the foul line – to get her team out to a 31-21 lead. But Saddle River Day got back in the game with a slow and steady 15-2 run to close the half.

And yet, Rutgers Prep still led at halftime by seven, at 33-26. The momentum continued for the Rebels in the second half. UNC-bound Paulina Paris – who had 12 first-half points, and was the only one scoring for a while, along with Blakes for Prep – had an eight point third quarter, and her team took the lead by three late in the period. Rutgers Prep got it back quickly, and ended the third with a 41-40 advantage.

In the final eight minutes, when Klinger reminded her team that she told them they would face adversity in this morning’s game, they overcame that adversity.

And it was another sophomore who had a huge contribution. Chloe Escanillas had seven fourth quarter points, including a trey, to help build a double digit lead, and give Prep an 11-point win in the end.

The only question remaining for Rutgers Prep (27-2) this weekend is whether the Argonauts will get a first-round bye in the Tournament of Champions, which begins back down in Toms River on Wednesday. St. John Vianney – playing in the second game against Immaculate Heart Academy at RWJ, should they advance, will get the top seed. It’s up for debate whether Rutgers prep or Manasquan – should ‘Squan move on Sunday in Toms River in the public finals – would get the second seed and the other bye.

If Rutgers Prep gets it, they would open Friday in the TOC semis. Otherwise they open Wednesday.

And next, the Rutgers Prep boys will try and win the Non-Public A title this afternoon at Jersey Mike’s Arena at Rutgers University. If they take the title, Rutgers Prep will be the first school in Middlesex or Somerset County to have both its boys’ and girls’ teams make the Tournament of Champions in the same year.

Click below for postgame reaction from Rutgers Prep’s win in the girls’ Non-Public B Championship Game:

Sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes (game-high 27 points, 1 trey, 14/16 from the foul line)
Rutgers Prep’s Mikayla Blakes
Junior guard/forward Katie Ledden (16 points, 12 in the first half)
Rutgers Prep’s Katie Ledden
Head coach Mary Klinger
by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAYS: Listen back to Rutgers Prep boys’ Non-Public South A and semifinal and championship game wins

For the first in its ten-year history of NJSIAA play, the Rutgers Prep boys’ basketball team is a sectional champion. Matt Bloom’s squad won the title down at Lenape High School Monday night, beating Red Bank Catholic 63-60.

Now, listen back to Central Jersey Sports Radio’s play-by-play of both the Non-Public South A semifinals and title game, as the Argonauts get set to face North A champion Bergen Catholic for the Group A title, and a berth in the last-ever NJSIAA Tournament of Champions.

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Central Jersey Sports Radio will broadcast Saturday’s game, set for 4 pm from Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, on the campus of Rutgers University. Click here to listen to Mike Pavlichko call all the action.

Click below to listen On Demand to Rutgers Prep in the Non-Public A semifinals and finals:

Non-Public South A Semifinals: (3) Rutgers Prep at (2) St. Thomas Aquinas (March 7, 2020)
Non-Public South A Finals: (3) Rutgers Prep vs. (1) Red Bank Catholic at Lenape H.S. (March 9, 2020)
by Mike Pavlichko

Argonauts peaking at the right time, ahead of rematch with Bergen Catholic for trip to boys’ TOC

It’s the Non-Public Group A final. That’s what the game is called.

But it’s really about a trip to the last-ever Tournament of Champions, an event that began in 1989, but will be played for the last time this year, scrapped by the NJSIAA to add extra weeks onto the season for the vast majority of teams, not just the last six to stay alive.

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The Rutgers Prep boys’ basketball team is in uncharted territory. Since the tiny school on Easton Avenue in Somerset joined the NJSIAA for the 2012-13 school years, the Argonauts had never won a sectional final.

Until this year.

And they’ve done it in large part to Jadin Collins. He was already the team’s leading scorer, averaging about 17 points a game heading into the Non-Public South A semifinals against St. Thomas Aquinas. There, in North Edison, he scored a career high 30 points – and actually finished with a double-double – knocking off the second-seed in their own gymnasium.

What to do for an encore? How about 33 points – a new career high – and solid defense such that he took a key charge late in a comeback that Matt Bloom still hasn’t figured out how it happened.

That’s ok. It happened, and Bloom and Company are moving forward Saturday afternoon as South A champion Rutgers Prep (26-3) takes on North A Champion Bergen Catholic (21-8), which is certainly better than its record would indicate – and it’s not a bad one, at that.

The Crusaders have a tough national schedule, and have lot to the likes of Roselle Catholic, Cardinal Hayes (NY) and Kevin Boyle’s Montverde (FL). They also lost twice to Don Bosco Prep in the regular year, then beat them in the Bergen County Jamboree – their county tournament – and in the North A final.

The Crusaders are led by Fordham-bound Will Richardson and Wagner-bound Julian Brown, as well as a talented surrounding cast.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with both head coaches to preview the Non-Public Group A championship game:

Rutgers Prep head coach Matt Bloom
Bergen Catholic head coach Billy Armstrong
by Mike Pavlichko

Rutgers Prep girls a win away from trip to the last Tournament of Champions

The Hoffman girls’ basketball teammade the very first Tournament of Champions in 1989, and won it all. St. Peter’s-New Brunswick won it two years later. In 2017, half the six teams in the TOC were from Somerset County, with Franklin, Bound Brook and Rutgers Prep in the mix. Franklin has won it twice, in 2017 and 2019.

This year, it’s the final Tournament of Champions – as the NJSIAA has decided to do away with it to lengthen the season for the other hundreds of teams that don’t make it every year – and Rutgers Prep is seeking its third overall trip in 12 years of NJSIAA postseason play, the only representative from Somerset County this year.

Click the ad above for more on Kean University’s next open house.

The Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball team just needs to win one more game to get there – the Non-Public Group B finals. They Argonauts (26-2) face North B champion Saddle River Day (25-1) down at the RWJBarnabas Arena at Toms River North High School at 10 am Saturday.

You can hear the game on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with pregame set for approximately 9:40 am, as Mike Pavlichko calls all the action. Click here to listen.

The two games being played at Toms River North on Saturday originally were scheduled for 2 and 4 pm. With the Rutgers’ Prep boys also in the group finals – and set to play at one of those times up at Rutgers University’s Jersey Mike’s Arena, the NJSIAA this week decided to move up the girls’ games to allow prep fans to travel back and forth and make both games. That put Prep-Saddle River Day at noon.

Around 1:00 Friday afternoon, the NJSIAA moved the two girls’ games two more hours earlier, to 10 am and noon, with the Argonauts playing first, due to high winds and snow/flash-freezing rain exected to make things messy and dangerous Saturday afternoon.

All that settled, Mary Klinger’s squad will face its toughest challenge in Saddle River Day since getting “embarrassed” – as Klinger put it – by the state’s No. 1 team, St. John Vianney – up at Kean University on Super Bowl Sunday.

Klinger also has called it a wake-up call, and her team has responded sever since. In seven postseason games – Somerset County Tournament and the NJSIAAs – they are winning by an average 38 points a game.

Saddle River Day is a little similar to the Argonauts; the defense fuels the offense. (They were also both the top seeds in their respective playoff sections.) The Rebels have been without two key players all year, Penn-bound senior Saniah Caldwell, and junior Mia Walsh, both of whom suffered ACL injuries, but Paulina Paris has more than made up for it; the senior guard is headed to North Carolina next year.

Click below to hear from both head coaches, previewing tomorrow’s girls’ basketball Non-Public Group B title game:

Rutgers Prep head coach Mary Klinger
Saddle River Day head coach Danny Brown

by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY-Group 3 Boys’ Semifinals: Ramapo 49, Colonia 39

In a fast-moving, low scoring Group 3 semifinal game, North 2 Group 3 Champion Colonia was ousted by North 1 champion Ramapo, 49-39. It was the second group 3 semifinal for Colonia in the last three postseasons, and both times the Patriots were eliminated by the Raiders.

Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko call all the action from Phillipsburg High School:

by Mike Pavlichko

Colonia falls short in Group 3 semifinals, 49-39 to Ramapo

Turns out, there was no lucky seven for the Colonia Ptriots.

Six times before, they had won a sectional title, and all six times they had been eliminated in the next game, in the Group Semifinals.

They could not change their luck in 2022.

A young Ramapo team – the North 1 champion – with only one senior and a slew of sophomores came out and attacked Colonia early, going right to the basket and getting shots to go down.

Colonia, on the other hand, couldn’t find the bottom of the net from in close, wasn’t drawing fouls, and didn’t get good looks on the perimeter for Saivon Pressley, who finished with 19, including a trey.

In the end, though, Colonia had a great season, adding to the trophy case with the North 2, Group 3 title, the seventh in program history.

Click below for postgame reaction with Colonia head coach Jose Rodriguez:

by Mike Pavlichko

Colonia is much more than Pressley, as it seeks first-ever trip to a group final tonight against Ramapo

Colonia has won seven state championships, but never gotten to a group final.

The 2021-22 version wants to change that.

And it’s very well within their reach, as the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 champion Patriots (25-4) play North 1 champion Ramapo (22-6) tonight in the Group 3 semifinals at Phillipsburg High School.

Central Jersey Sports Radio will broadcast all the action, with Mike Pavlichko on the air at 6:40 for the pregamw show. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 pm. Click here to listen to all the live play-by-play, for free, with no paywall.

The winner goes on to face either Manasquan (the Central 3 champ) or Woodrow Wilson (the South 3 champ) in the Group 3 finals. All the public finals are held at Jersey Mike’s Arena (formerly “The RAC”) at Rutgers University this Sunday. Game times are noon, 2, 4, and 6 pm, but times won’t be announced until all the matchups are done being determined tonight.

Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko talk about the Patriots’ season and preview the Ramapo matchup with Colonia head coach Jose Rodriguez:

by Mike Pavlichko

And then there were three: what happened, what’s ahead, and a breakdown on the CJSR-area teams still alive in the state tournament

Well, we’re down to just three: one public, two non-publics.

That’s who’s left in the NJSIAA state tournament from the Central Jersey Sports Radio coverage area.

Both the Rutgers Prep girls and boys won sectional titles just a couple of hours apart Wednesday night, about 24 hours after Colonia won its second in three playoff seasons.

But they’re not done yet. Here’s a look at each team, where they stand, and what’s next.

North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 Boys’ Champion Colonia:

The Patriots (25-4) may not be division or GMC Tournament champions, but they’re a state champion, and that’s saying something. It’s another banner to hang from the rafters, and this team deserves it. Saivon Pressley gets all the ink (and airtime) and right fully so, but none of it happens without Billy Anderson, Noah Taylor, Jaeden Jones, and others.

They’re up against a tough, but young, Ramapo team tonight in the Group 3 semifinals, and Colonia’s experience in playoff games will help. Of course, the Raiders (22-6) didn’t get here on a fluke, but the Patriots have a legitimate shot to get to their first-ever group title game with a win out in Phillipsburg Thursday night, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio, starting with the pregame at 6:45.

Click here to listen live, for free, with no paywall.

The North 2, Group 3 title is Colonia’s seventh sectional championship overall. Jose Rodriguez’ Patriots have never missed a sectional final, beating West Morris for the crown in 2019, falling to Irvington in 2020, and beating South Plainfield in double-OT back on Tuesday night.

READ MORE: Colonia needs double-OT to stave off South Plainfield as Pats take North 2, Group 3 title

The Patriots also beat Chatham for the title in 2015, and Union Hill (now merged with Emerson into Union City) in 2007, in a game that went to double overtime. Each year, Colonia was eliminated in the group semifinals.

They also won Central Jersey Group 3 titles in 1994 and 1985, and a CJ4 championship in 1972, but again, all three times were eliminated before getting to the Group Final.

So, Thursday night is a chance for Colonia to do something it’s never done before. This crew is as capable as any.

Waiting on the other side are Central Jersey Group 3 champion Manasquan (25-5) and South Jersey Group 3 champion Woodrow Wilson (20-6). They play at 7 pm tonight in the other Group 3 semifinal at Brick Memorial.

Non-Public South B Girls’ Champion Rutgers Prep:

We keep harping on it, but that’s because it bears repeating.

Rutgers Prep has been playing at another level since their eye-opening loss to St. John Vianney, the No. 1 team in the state. There’s still some basketball left to play for them to prove it, in the last-ever Tournament of Champions, and the Argonauts could very well get another crack at them if this keeps up.

What’s “this,” you ask?

Since the Super Bowl Sunday defeat to the Lady Lancers up at Kean, they have won every game by at least 24 points. In the Somerset County Tournament, that includes wins of 60, 30 and 31 points for an average margin of victory of 40.3.

That’s really all you need to know about a team that’s still pretty young – the biggest senior contributor is Rutgers-bound Antonia Bates – but has been immensely balanced all year and upped its game.

They will play at noon Saturday in the Group B title game at RWJ Barnabas Arena at Toms River North, with a trip to the Tournament of Champions on the line. You can hear the contest on Central Jersey Sports Radio beginning with pregame at 11:45 am. Click here to listen.

Prep has been to the TOC twice before, in 2016 and 2017, and both times they lost in the semifinals to the eventual champion: Manasquan in 2016 and Franklin the year after.

Here’s a look at Rutgers Prep’s title history in the tournament, since it began NJSIAA play in the 2013 postseason. All are in Non-Public South B:

  • 2020: lost in the sectional final to Trenton Catholic, 53-48
  • 2019: lost in the sectional semifinals to Gloucester Catholic, 54-47
  • 2018: Non-Public South B champions, beat Trenton Catholic, 58-54; lost in Non-Public B final to Saddle River Day, 73-49
  • 2017: Non-Public South B champions, beat Patrick School, 79-60; Non-Public B champions, beat Queen of Peace, 58-46; lost in Tournament of Champions semifinals to Franklin, 66-57
  • 2016: Non-Public South B champions, bear St. Rose, 65-47; Non-Public B champions, beat Saddle River Day, 69-40; lost in Tournament of Champions semifinals to Manasquan, 59-50
  • 2015: lost in the sectional semifinals to St. Rose, 67-59
  • 2014: lost in the sectional quarterfinals to Roselle Catholic, 50-34
  • 2013: lost in the sectional first round to St. Rose, 63-42

Non-Public South A Boys’ Champion Rutgers Prep:

What a finish Wednesday night down at Lenape for the Rutgers Prep boys’ team, in winning their first-ever sectional title with a 63-60 victory over top-seed Red Bank Catholic.

Matt Bloom, head coach of the third-seeded Argonauts, stresses team defense was how they succeeded in limiting Adam Silas in a thriller of a sectional semifinal game against St. Thomas Aquinas. Sounds like coach-speak, but he’s not wrong. Not by a longshot.

Team defense was the name of the game on Wednesday night, as well, going on a 4-0 run in the final minute to erase a 60-59 deficit and win 63-60, to clinch the title.

Next up is North A champion Bergen Catholic, as the top-seeded Crusaders beat Don Bosco Prep 69-57 Wednesday night. That Group A title game is set for 4 pm Saturday at Jersey Mike’s Arena at Rutgers University.