Tag: Jen Derevjanik

The final scoreboard between Bound Brook (62) and Roselle Park (41).
by Alec Crouthamel

Bound Brook shakes off rough first quarter, topples Roselle Park for first sectional title appearance since 2020

Just by looking at the final score, it looked like second-seeded Bound Brook girls basketball worked a ho-hum, big-time victory in the Central Jersey Group 1 semifinals against sixth-seeded Roselle Park.

But for those watching — and listening on Central Jersey Sports Radio — it was anything but.

The Crusaders (25-3) trailed 17-2 in the first quarter, but rallied back to take a double-digit halftime lead, and continued to build in the second half for a 62-41 victory over the upset-minded Panthers (18-8).

Bound Brook clinched a win, and its first appearance in the sectional title since 2020, when it won the Central Jersey Group 1 title and was won the Group 1 semifinal to end the COVID-19-shortened season.

Freshman guard Peytan Pugh paced the Crusaders with 17 points, while continuing her work as the state’s steals leader with countless swipes at the ball, turning into extra possessions on the offensive end. Bound Brook had three other scorers in double figures, as senior wing Ty Ferguson added 14 — all in the second and fourth quarters — while Lauren Polakiewicz made a trio of three-pointers for 12 points, and Jayden Campbell scored ten.

Roselle Park star guard Sidney Smith — the leading scorer in the state — finished with a game-high 26 points and was the only Panther in double figures. She finished five points shy of her season average, as the Crusaders threw multiple different looks and defenders at her to try to contain her premiere shotmaking.

Roselle Park took all of the momentum to start, playing uptempo on both ends of the floor as Smith scored eight points in the opening quarter and the Panthers’ supporting cast helped lead the way, as Hannah Djokic knocked down two three-pointers and Otilla Dobre added another.

After a 17-2 start, Bound Brook stabilized things a bit with two straight baskets to end the frame down by 11.

Then once the second quarter tipped off, the Crusaders were off to the races.

They outscored Roselle Park 28-7 in the quarter, as their own uptempo style got going, led by multiple steals from Pugh to set up transition opportunities. Bound Brook opened the quarter on a 16-0 run to take the lead back, and eventually went into the locker room with a double-digit lead, at 34-24. The trio of Pugh, Polakiewicz, and Ferguson combined for 24 of the 28 second-quarter points, as the Crusaders snatched all of the momentum back and kept it the rest of the way.

The Panthers wouldn’t go down without a fight, though. Early in the third quarter, Smith put on a heroic scoring run to get Roselle Park back within four, knocking down fallaway jumper after fallaway jumper. But Pugh knocked down a three in the final minute of the quarter and gave Bound Brook some breathing room with a seven-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Roselle Park gave the Crusaders an inch, and they took it a mile to open the fourth quarter. They outscored the Panthers 18-6 and put the game away with an increased focus on attacking the basket and continuing to double-team — and sometimes even triple-team — Smith, daring the superstar scorer to give the ball up and force someone else to beat them.

In the sectional semifinals, Bound Brook shook off a rough start and battled to dominate the final 24 minutes of the game to snap a six-year sectional title appearance drought. The Crusaders will move on to face New Providence in the Central Jersey Group 1 championship game, set for Saturday between the section’s top two seeds.

Click here to listen to postgame comments from Bound Brook head coach Jen Derevjanik and freshman guard Peytan Pugh, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel, presented by the Sportsplex at Metuchen:


by Alec Crouthamel

Bound Brook heads into Central Jersey Group 1 semifinal, with a tall task at hand against Roselle Park

Some of the more eye-popping individual stat-holders in the state of New Jersey will all face off in Bound Brook on Wednesday.

The second-seeded Crusaders (24-3) head into a battle of star guards, taking on upset-minded Roselle Park, the sixth seed, in the Central Jersey Group 1 semifinals. Bound Brook can secure a spot in the sectional final for the first time since 2020, while the Panthers’ (18-7) third-year head coach, Staci Hartzler, has led the program to new heights recently, in the sectional semifinal for the first time in at least 20 years — as far back as this writer could find the records.

This upcoming matchup features the state’s top scorer and three-point shooter (Roselle Park’s Sidney Smith), second-leading rebounder (Panthers’ sophomore Emma Gregoire), and top steals leader (Crusaders’ freshman guard Peytan Pugh). They’ll all take the court in Bound Brook on Wednesday evening for a 5:30 tipoff. You can hear that game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Alec Crouthamel, with pregame starting around 5:15. Click here to listen.

The Crusaders come into the matchup with a gaudy win-loss record and a nail-biting 66-61 win in the quarterfinals over seventh-seeded Thrive Charter in the quarterfinals, avenging a loss in that same matchup last season in the sectional semifinals.

Two of their three losses came in the same week against local powers, falling to Rutgers Prep in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals before losing to Gill St. Bernard’s seven days later. But Bound Brook has nearly run the table against the entire rest of its schedule.

Pugh has burst onto the scene as a freshman, leading the team in points, rebounds, assists, and, of course, steals. She’s also finding her stride at the right time, fresh off her second triple-double of the season with 26 points, ten rebounds, and 13 steals to tie her season-high, even dishing out five assists, as well.

Surrounding Pugh are two other productive guards, with Ti’asjah Ferguson serving as the top slasher on the team and Lauren Polakiewicz leading the way from the perimeter. Both scored in double-figures in the quarterfinals and will certainly be relied on to come up with big-time buckets if another close game goes down.

But Roselle Park will have revenge on its mind, just as the Crusaders did against Thrive.

The Panthers lost in this very matchup in the sectional quarterfinals last year, their first appearance in the round since 2009, as part of the first winning season for Roselle Park since that same year.

Smith, signed to play Division I basketball at Elon next year, gets plenty of attention for her scoring, especially after her fifth 40-point performance of the season in an upset win over Keansburg in the quarterfinals. But the Panthers feature some dangerous size and rebounding as well.

Both Gregoire and senior Madison Wilkes average double-digits on the boards per game, and they’ve put up video game numbers of their own, including six games with 20 or more boards this year for Gregoire.

A handful of the Garden State’s top individual performers will do battle in Bound Brook, as each team looks to snap multi-year sectional title droughts led by their respective star guards.

Click below to hear a preview interview with Bound Brook head coach Jen Derevjanik, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel:

by Mike Pavlichko

Somerset County’s two 20-win teams to square off in Saturday’s SCT semifinals, as resurgent Bound Brook girls face powerhouse Rutgers Prep

By no stretch of the imagination did the Rutgers Prep and Bound Brook girls’ basketball teams have “bad” years, or even so-so seasons, at least not by most people’s standards.

The Argonauts finished 20-7, while the Crusaders went 19-7.

But Rutgers Prep didn’t make the county finals for the first time in ten seasons, and they got beat by Gloucester Catholic in the Non-Public South B Final. And The Brook won five titles in a row from 2016-2020.

This season, they are the only two 20-win teams in the Skyland Conference (so far), their county, and Saturday at noon they’ll face off at Franklin High School in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals, in a game you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas will call all the action, with pregame set for 11:45 am. Click here to listen.

Rutgers Prep (20-2, 5-0 Skyland Delaware Division Champs) is the well-deserved No. 1 seed, their only two losses have come to Red Bank Catholic and Cardinal O’Hara (PA) in showcase games. Bound Brook (21-1, 8-0 Skyland Mountain Division Champs) took its only loss at the hands of Union Catholic, in their own Crusader Classic over the holidays. And yet, Bound Brook, the five-seed is a decided underdog.

Not that that’s ever stopped the Crusaders before. And it helps that hey have a freshman sensation in Peytan Pugh. Averaging 18.1 points per game, 7.7 rebounds, she’s also the team leader in assists (149, 6.8 per game) and steals (191, 8.7 per game), along with a team-best 20 blocks.

But she’s not the only one who can score. Senior Ti’asjah Ferguson is averaging 12.6 per game, and has 75 steals on the year for a defense that has logged more than Rutgers Prep, by a wide margin: 372-217.

That’s the kind of defense Bound Brook will need.

But while they have played a challenging schedule when they can, Rutgers Prep is another story. While Bound Brook coach Jen Derevjanik has been through the wars (go back to those five straight sectional titles) and has WNBA playing experience, her players have not – at least not yet – and with the Argonauts, they will see a veteran group.

Prep was fully expecting a bounce-back year coming into 2025-26, bringing back every starter and every single key bench player as well. Sophomore Hailey Benbow is the team’s top scorer (13.5 per game) and rebounder (7 per game), while also logging a team-best 52 steals, but the senior leader is Ava LaMonica.

Talk about someone who’s been through the wars, the four-year starter is averaging 12.7 points per game. Fellow senior Sophia Georgiades – in her second year at Prep after a transfer in from Ridge last season – is the team’s top three-point shooter, with 23 on the year.

Click below for preview interviews with both head coaches:

Rutgers Prep head coach Mary Klinger
Bound Brook head coach Jen Derevjanik
by Mike Pavlichko

It’s a bounce-back season for Bound Brook

The 2022-23 season was a statistical anomaly for the Bound Brook girls’ basketball team.

At 11-14, it was the Lady Crusaders’ first sub-.500 season since head coach Jen Derevjanik’s first in The Brook.

More accurately, it was only the second in nine seasons. Translation? There was a lot of winning in between.

Now, in 2023-24, Bound Brook is back to its winning ways. The team is 6-1, ranked tenth in the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten for the second week in a row. After a road game Thursday night at Belvidere, they’ll host No. 9 Somerville, which is just one paltry game better, at 7-1, in a reschedule of a big Skyland Conference Mountain Division clash that was originally set for Tuesday night, but got postponed due to inclement weather.

That game is now scheduled for 11 am Saturday, and you can hear it on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Mike Pavlichko calling all the action. Click here to listen.

Gone is star point guard Casey Miller, whom Derevjanik has said was the “heart and soul” of the team the last few years, but the Lady Crusaders are doing just fine at the moment. Senior Jamaiya McLeod leads the team at 11.3 points per game, and fellow senior Sara Theissen is averaging nearly a double-double, at 9 points and 11 boards a game through the first seven.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Bound Brook head coach Jen Derevjanik:

by Mike Pavlichko

No. 6 Bound Brook to square off with No. 8 Mt. St. Mary in battle between Somerset County’s best small schools

The game is a challenge every year, even if long winning streaks have been the norm over the last decade or so.

When Bound Brook was down on the early 2010s – as in 0-23 down in 2013, the Crusaders were getting walloped by scores like 53-18.

Enter coach Jen Derevjanik, a stellar player on Staten Island in high school who later won a WNBA ring, and the tide turned, with Brook winning 8 straight from 2016 until Mount turned the tables last season with a 47-38 victory.

That should make tonight fun in Bound Brook, where the Crusaders and Lions will do battle.

Brook (15-5) – the Mountain Division champion six years running now – is led by a pair of experienced players who aren’t seniors, though one will be out tonight.

Junior Casey Miller leads the team with 13.4 points per game, a whopping 116 assists and 86 steals. But sophomore Brenae Jones, averaging a double-double of 10.7 points per game and a team-leading 11.4 board, won’t be available.

Derevjanik says she’s not injured, and should be back for the county tournament, in which Bound Brook picked up a 5th-seed last night and will open at home Saturday against either 13-seed Bridgewater-Raritan or 12-seed Somerville.

On the other side is a young Mount St. Mary team (12-7) which is in first-place in the Valley Division of the Skyland Conference by a half-game over Voorhees (a win over the Vikings on Feb. 24 would give them the title outright, lest they share it). Rachel Castela – whom Derevjanik coached in 7th-grade AAU ball – can hit the three, 50 of them to be exact, and leads the team with 13.6 points a game. She’s just a sophomore, and freshman Mia Gestosani is next up at 11.1 points a game.

Click below to hear from both coaches as they preview tonight’s game with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

Bound Brook head coach Jen Derevjanik
Mount St. Mary head coach Ryan Shellhammer
by Mike Pavlichko

Trio of Bound Brook standouts talk No. 6 Crusaders’ big season-opening win over Manville

It was all smiles in Bound Brook Thursday night, as the 6th-ranked Crusaders used a 26-0 first-half run to pull ahead early and beat Manville for the 16th straight time.

Senior Arianna McCleod led all scorers with 21 points in a 70-36 victory heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio, powered by Bellamy & Son Paving.

Sophomore point guard Casey Miller added 20 for Bound Brook, with three treys.

But it was the defense that fueled Bound Brook, and they got a good effort there in the paint from one of the newest Crusaders: 5-11 freshman Brenae Jones.

Click below to hear postgame reaction from the Crusaders, and head coach Jen Derevjanik.

Senior Guard Arianna McCleod
Sophomore Point Guard Casey Miller
Freshman Forward Bernae Jones
Bound Brook Head Coach Jen Dervejanik
by Mike Pavlichko

Bound Brook’s Derevjanik named NFHS girls basketball Coach of the Year in NJ

by Mike Pavlichko

Five sectional titles in a row has to amount for something.

And this week, the recognition came for Bound Brook girls basketball coach Jen Derevjanik: she was named Girls Basketball Coach of the Year in New Jersey by NFHS, the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Derevjanik is about to begin her seventh season as head coach of the Crusaders, who have won the last five Central Jersey Group One championships in a row. They are 136-39 under her tenure.

Not bad for a program that hadn’t had a winning season in more than a decade. That 11-15 record in her first season? Just a stepping stone en route to becoming one of Somerset County’s elite programs.

The Bound Brook girls’ basketball team celebrates its 2020 Central Jersey Group 1 title. The Lady Crusaders took the crown with a 56-41 road win against neighboring Middlesex, on March 10, 2020. (Source: Twitter)

Last year, just a win away from a Group 1 title, Bound Brook’s quest was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, which ended the state tournament just after their 48-32 Group 1 semifinal win over Woodbury. The Lady Crusaders would have faced North 1 champ Cresskill in the semifinals.

The recognition by the NFHS also means recognition by the NJSIAA, which submits nominees to NFHS, according to Bound Brook Athletic Director Jeffrey Steele. He said he was notified of the honor this week, and quickly arranged for the team to help her celebrate.

Bound Brook will be one of the first two girls basketball teams in the area to be broadcast on Central Jersey Sports Radio this coming week, when the Lady Crusaders entertain Manville at 5:30 pm. Click here to listen live.

Derevjanik – who played collegiately at George Mason, and after the playing days was an assistant at Wagner College – has a pro pedigree. She played professionally in Europe for seven seasons, and spent five years in the WNBA: two of them with the Connecticut Sun alongside Olympian Lindsay Whelan, followed by three years in Phoenix, where she won a WNBA Championship as a teammate of Diana Taurasi.