Leah Crosby – Central Jersey Sports Radio

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball program has won six straight GMC Tournament titles, a county record, going back to 2019 when the school was still called Bishop Ahr. Three different coaches led them through those titles: Brittney Griffin in 2019 and 2020, Joe Whalen in 2022 and 2023, and Tim Corrigan the last two seasons.

Leah Crosby has been around for three of those, having spent her freshman and sophomore seasons at Aquinas before spending a year at Rutgers Prep. But she came back to the Trojans for her senior year, and – of course – won another championship.

On a team with a host of talent, it’s tough to pick any one player, even among the seniors. But Crosby has been the most prolific – and also steadiest scorer – of the bunch over her four years of scholastic basketball. She scored 900 points even at Aquinas alone, giving her 1,157 for her career counting the 257 points she scored last year with the Argonauts.

And while this is the Central Jersey Sports Radio GMC Girls’ Player of the Year award, we couldn’t think of anyone more deserving when also factoring in consistent play, year after year.

Crosby scored 329 points this year, but in just 21 games, as she had to sit out some due to her second transfer. But she averaged 15.7 points a game this year and is also an excellent free throw shooter, hitting at an over 80-percent clip.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s GMC Girls’ Player of the Year Leah Crosby of St. Thomas Aquinas:

Here are our Honorable Mentions for GMC Girls’ Player of the Year:

Evangelina Francisco, Monroe: First-year head coach Brian Hinz says his Coach of the Year award is really a team award, and we agree. To that end, no one was more valuable for the Falcons this season in going 20-10 and reaching both the GMC Tournament finals and the Central JErsey Group 4 title game than Francisco. She joined the 1,000-point club this year, breaking the mark mid-season, and ending her career with 1,335 points. This season, she averaged 20.7 points per game, while also dishing out 126 assists and hitting 66 times from beyond the arc. More than the numbers, she was the heart and soul of the Falcons.
Jess Devine, Middlesex: Unassuming, small in physical stature, she was nothing else than huge on the floor for the Blue Jays her entire career, and another incredibly consistent performer. While her numbers were “down” a little this year as other options to take the weight off her emerged – like junior Mallory Gianchiglia and freshman Avery Iskra – she still averaged an eye-popping 18.6 points per game on a team that went 21-9. The Blue Jays reached the GMC Tournament and Central Jersey Group 1 semifinals in the final year of Devine’s stellar career.
Trista Whitney, St. Thomas Aquinas: We could have filled much of this space with great players from Aquinas, but here’s another one. Whitney scored the most points on the team this year with 386, averaging 12.9 per game, second to Crosby in that regard, but she also was second on the team in rebounds and an unselfish guard, dishing out 121 assists on the season. Not too shabby at all.
Lizzie Calandruccio, Spotswood: In an 18-8 season, Calandruccio scored double figures in 20 of 26 games this season, averaging 14.5 points per game and hitting 59 times from beyond the arc, a career best. She also was a McDonald’s All-American Game nominee along with just one other from the CJSR coverage area, Gandy Malou-Mamel of Gill St. Bernard’s. Excellent company to keep!

A ten point lead at the end of three quarters had ballooned to 22 early in the fourth quarter, and things were looking fairly bleak for Cinderella South Brunswick.

But the 7th-seeded Vikings were not done.

They stormed back on top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas to cut the deficit to six with under a minute left as diminutive 5′ 3″ sophomore Meher Vig hit a three, went 5 of 7 from the foul line, and hit four straight buckets on drives to the hoop for a 16-point fourth quarter that nearly gave her time the most unbelievable of wins.

Nearly.

Aquinas hung on to win, but it took all they had, including key free throws down the stretch by junior Jessica Cooper and freshman Leah Crosby, who would later be named the Tournament MVP.

Final score: St. Thomas Aquinas 64, South Brunswick 58, in a game that was closer than it looked, but shouldn’t have gotten that close either.

Aquinas got sloppy with the ball up by 20-plus points, and could have eaten the clock before South Brunswick made its unbelievable run. The Vikings – mainly Vig, but also freshman Alexis Lease-Springer, who had 17 points including a trey as part of her nine-point fourth quarter – made the Trojans pay, taking advantage of nearly every turnover and every possession.

Vig finished with 18 for South Brunswick, and Crosby finished a game- and career-high 23, including 4 of 7 at the charity stripe.

Aquinas (21-3) won its sixth county championship, fifth in the GMC era, and its third straight title, going back to 2019 when it was known as Bishop Ahr. (The full tournament was not played last year due to COVID-19.) It also won titles in 2001, 1994, and 1984 as Bishop Ahr.

South Brunswick dropped to 18-7 with the loss, but has a bright future as they will bring back several key players, including Vig and Lease-Springer.