Tag: Lizzie Calandruccio

by Mike Pavlichko

Central Jersey Sports Radio GMC Girls’ Player of the Year: Leah Crosby of St. Thomas Aquinas helped lead Trojans to sixth straight title

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!

by Mike Pavlichko

Three CJSR-area basketball standouts nominated to 2025 McDonald’s All-American game; we talk with Rutgers Prep’s Myles Parker, Gill’s Gandy Malou-Mamel, and Spotswood’s Lizzie Calandruccio

Two girls’ basketball players and one on the boys’ side from the Central Jersey Sports Radio coverage area have been nominated to play in the McDonald’s All-American Games on April 1, 2025 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The East and West nominees for each gender total 100, and will eventually be pared down to 24 each, with a dozen playing for the East and a dozen playing for the West.

On the girls’ side, UConn commit Gandy Malou-Mamel of Gill St. Bernard’s and Lizzie Calandruccio of Spotswood were nominated, while Myles Parker of Rutgers Prep was nominated on the boys’ side.

We caught up with all three to talk about their selections and their seasons so far. Listen below, and scroll further down for the full list of New Jersey players nominated.

Gandy Malou-Mamel, Gill St. Bernard’s
Lizzie Calandruccio, Spotswood
Myles Parker, Rutgers Prep

2025 McDonald’s All American Boys Nominees from New Jersey

  • Carey Maxey, College Achieve Asbury Park
  • Daniel Marecllinus, College Achieve Asbury Park
  • Naas Hart, College Achieve Asbury Park
  • Peter Mauro, College Achieve Asbury Park
  • Brandon Lee, Newark East Side
  • Kuai Deng, Patrick School
  • Destine Evans, Pennington
  • Kae Kilic, Pennington
  • Jordan Owusu, Pennington
  • Dwayne Snead, Pennington
  • Myles Parker, Rutgers Prep

2025 McDonald’s All American Girls Nominees from New Jersey

  • Ella Kreuzer, Chatham
  • Mia Semioli, Chatham
  • Gandy Malou-Mamel, Gill St. Bernard’s
  • Daniella Matus, Morris Catholic
  • Mia Pauldo, Morris Catholic
  • Mya Pauldo, Morris Catholic
  • Haley Poser, Ranney
  • Cassidy Kruesi, St. Rose
  • Lizzie Calandruccio, Spotswood
  • Paradise Fisher, University (Newark)
  • Jamaya Smith, Weequahic
  • Sienna Clark, Weequahic
  • Anaya Karriem, West Orange
by Mike Pavlichko

It’s raining threes! No. 7 Spotswood hits a dozen times from the arc to down Woodbridge, 72-38

Petula Clark sang about it. George Costanza was confused about it.

But Lizzie Calandruccio and Gabrielle Hill knew what to do with it.

Seventh-ranked Spotswood hit 12 times from “downtown” – a season high and the most in a single game for the Chargers since they hit eleven in a 2022 win over Sayreville – en route to a 72-38 Greater Middlesex Conference White Division win Tuesday night at the Spotwood Athletic Center, in a game heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Calandruccio, a senior, led the way with 19 points and four first-half treys, while the sophomore sensation Hill scored 17 and netted three triples. Lily Kroun, Cat Caro and Violet Tharney each hit from beyond the arc, and sophomore Emily Devlin hit a pair of treys when she came in with the game in hand in the final five minutes.

Spotswood jumped on the Barrons early and never looked back. Tharney’s three opened the scoring, and Bobbi Jo Timinski tied it with her own. But the Lady Chargers went on a 17-0 run from that point on, led 22-7 after one quarter, and had as big as a 40-point lead in the third quarter before head coach Vinny Vizzi emptied the bench.

Up to the White Division this year from the Blue – where they won the last two division titles – Spotswood (8-2) sits in first place, and has won 20 straight divisional games going back to a late-season loss in 2023 to Highland Park.

It was the Chargers’ fourth straight win, and also their highest scoring output of the season.

Woodbridge dropped to 1-7, 1-4 in the White with the loss.

Click below for postgame reaction from Spotswood’s Lizzie Calandruccio, Gabrielle Hill, and head coach Vinny Vizzi: