Tag: Mark Taylor

by Mike Pavlichko

It’s official: St. Joseph-Metuchen names Tim Corrigan new boys’ basketball coach in wake of Mark Taylor’s resignation

In 1993, St. Joseph-Metuchen won its first Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament boys’ basketball title, with a young man named Tim Corrigan on the squad.

Now, 33 years later, he is the program’s new head coach, it was announced Wednesday afternoon by the school in a press release. He replaces fellow alum Mark Taylor, who resigned last Friday.

Corrigan signed a contract with St. Joe’s Wednesday morning, and is working on assembling a coaching staff for the upcoming season, which gets underway with practices in less than two months – on November 30th – while the season can officially start as early as December 7th.

“Tim Corrigan is a developer of players and a developer of men,” new Athletic Director Carl Porambo said in the release. “He dominated the Greater Middlesex Conference since 2022, winning four championships for the girls’ team at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Edison and we fully expect him to bring that same success and passion to the boys’ team here.”

The first of those four titles came as an assistant under Joe Whalen, who stepped down as he battled with MS at the end of that championship run. Corrigan had been the head coach the last three years, never losing a single GMC game out of 68 league games played in that span.

But back on September 25th, Corrigan stepped down from is post at Aquinas – as first reported by Simeon Pincus of MyCentralJersey.com – agreeing to become an assistant under Taylor.

By the following Monday, however, word had been spreading in coaching circles and among fans at the St. Joe’s football home game against Phillipsburg – rescheduled from Saturday due to a Nor’easter – that Taylor would not be coaching the team this season. And St. Joseph officially made the announcement last Friday, October 2nd.

Now, less than a week later, St. Joseph has a new man in place, capping a whirlwind couple of weeks intertwining the only two non-public high schools in the Greater Middlesex Conference.

Corrigan went on from St. Joseph to play college ball at Kean University in Union. The then played professionally overseas, getting into coaching while in Norway, then came back and was an assistant at Kean for two seasons. He is the owner of the New Jersey Celtics AAU basketball program for grades three through eleven, and has run the Holy Trinity/NJ Celtics Basketball camp since 2017.

“St. Joe’s didn’t just get a new coach, we got the coach,” Porambo added in the press release. “We can’t wait to watch Coach Corrigan develop our players over the coming season, as we eagerly anticipate the latest chapter in his success.”

Before joining St. Thomas Aquinas under Whalen, Corrigan had been the head coach of the Watchung Hills’ girls program for two years, going 7-8 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and 22-6 the following year before heading down the mountain to North Edison.

St. Thomas Aquinas beat East Brunswick 62-41 to win the 2026 GMC Tournament championship, its record seventh in a row. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

Whalen’s team went 22-7 that year, his final season before Corrigan took the reins, who went 69-22 as head coach during his tenure, winning no fewer than 22 games in any of those three seasons, and winning all three GMC Tournament titles, going 12-0 in tournament play.

The Aquinas girls have won the last seven GMC Tournament titles, a record streak for either a boys’ or girls’ team.

Click below to hear new St. Joseph-Metuchen basketball coach Tim Corrigan’s one-on-one with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

With Taylor gone from St. Joseph, Corrigan leaving Aquinas, where does it leave them, and GMC boys’ and girls’ basketball? 

The first announcement was enough to send some shockwaves through the girls’ basketball community in Middlesex county, and came out on a football Friday in the fall, rather than in the Spring or Summer:  third-year St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball coach Tim Corrigan was leaving to become as assistant at his alma mater, St. Joseph of Metuchen, in the boys’ side.

This is the same Trojan program that has won seven straight GMC Tournament championships with very talented players, over three coaches and two school names: the first under Brittney Griffin as Bishop Ahr, the next three under Joe Whalen under original name St. Thomas Aquinas, and the last three under Corrigan.  All have been characterized as a physical, dominating style of play that has led them to unprecedented heights, winning GMC Red Division games by an average 40-plus points.

When the news broke last week via Simeon Pincus of MyCentralJersey.com, the move was a surprise to many, even though Corrigan had taken that track before.  He left his post as head girls’ basketball coach at Watching Hills to join Whalen’s staff at STA, then eventually took over once Whalen stepped down as he dealt with MS.

St. Thomas Aquinas and East Brunswick play in the 40th GMC Tournament Championship Game at Monroe Twp. H.S. on February 20, 2026. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

The first question became: what would happen at St. Thomas, where two of their top returning players had transferred out – guards Lauryn Downing to Blair Academy and bug Leah Kearney to CAPS a ademy of Boston, where she’ll be joined by Aleah Sunkins of Franklin, another big loss of star power in New Jersey – and Jordan Barnes graduated and is now playing at Rider.  Numbers have been an issue, and the program had no JV team last season.

St. Thomas has been the dominant program in GMC girls’ hoops for the better part of a decade.  They have not lost a league game since January of 2022 at Monroe, winning 80 straight since, including the regular season and GMCT.  Will there be a vacuum?

At first glance: yes. And every single one of those opponents wants the first crack at them.

Or will they find someone internally or look outside to boost the numbers and keep the streak and dominance alive? Time will tell, but there’s not much time at all, with the season’s first practice less than two months away.

Meanwhile, Corrigan has wanted to coach on the boys’ side for some time now.  He was put his name in the hat, and was very much in the running for the St. Joe’s job the first time around, two years ago, when the Falcons unceremoniously dumped Jan Cocoziello, whose only crime appeared to be not being a part of a decade-long GMC tournament run where the Falcons and won nine of ten championships under Dave Turco and Mike Thompson.

But they were a solid contender year after year, and there was stability.

Enter Karl Towns, the father of one of the school’s most celebrated student-athletes of all-time, Karl-Anthony Towns, who won a Tournament of Champions in 2014, played a year at Kentucky under John Calipari then went to the NBA.  It was a big splash and also brought KAT back into the fold, after he’d all bust disowned the place when they let go of his head coach, Dave Turco in 2017.

But when Karl-Anthony was traded to the Knicks in September 2024, things changed.  His father would be seen often courtside at Madison Square Garden, and St. Joe’s seemed to take a backseat.  His assistants not only were running practices but taking the lead in games.  Eventually, the school and Towns parted ways as the program foundered, punctuated by an early exit from the GMC Tournament.

And so, the school was looking for a new coach again, and again, Corrigan was in the mix.  But when they looked back to the past glories 1983 alum Mark Taylor brought them, both as a player and coach, he became the home run choice.  He mentored Jay Williams and Andrew Bynum, among a host of other major D1 recruits.  He later did the same at St. Benedict’s and even turned around Ridge in Somerset County.  The move seemed like a great fit.  No way Taylor was coming here to lose.

He brought in three high-profile transfers, raising eyebrows across the state.  Aiden Carter was coming in from right down the road at St. Thomas, big man Andrew Kretkowski shuffled over from Rutgers Prep, and Ghana native Joel Patrick signed on as well.  The three helped lead the Falcons to the 2026 GMC Tournament championship – its first in seven years since that nine-in-ten run from 2010 to 2019 – and a 29-2 record.  They were the Central Jersey Sports Radio Boys’ Basketball Team of the Year, too.

St. Joseph’s Andrew Kretkowski (in white) plays defense on Piscataway’s Josh Lima in a GMC Red American Division game in Piscataway on January 3, 2025. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

But then, one by one, they transferred out during the summer: Carter to an academy in Kansas, Kretkowski to a brand-new one in Massachusetts, and Patrick to Montverde in Florida.

And now, whatever brought it about, Taylor is gone, too.

So where does that leave St. Joe’s, besides entering its third coaching search in as many years, and being a program now that will have had four different head coaches in four seasons once 2026-27 tips off?

Again, it’s getting late early to find a new coach. They’ve got one if they want one, in Tim Corrigan, who’s currently in a state of not-his-fault limbo.

To add to it, leadership at the Metuchen school changed over the summer.  President John Nolan retired, and Stephen Balog (Class of ’73) is the interim president.  Football coach Bill Tracy is no longer doubling as Athletic Director, the school also confirmed this week, though he is still listed on the St. Joseph website as such.  (But one can also be relatively certain the Towns and Taylor hirings were not his doing; at least Towns very likely came from above, as the school long wanted to heal the wounds left with his son.) 

One would not have assumed Taylor was going to stay at St. Joseph forever.  Many, when they heard the Corrigan story, figured he might be in line for the job some day (though not today) and it probably sounded like a great opportunity to at least get back in the door of the school he once attended, after coming oh-so-close to landing the head job in 2024 and 2025.  How could it hurt?

At the end of the day, the best course of action very well might be for St. joseph to hand the keys to Corrigan after all. And not just because of the time crunch, and certainly not to settle. In fact, maybe he should have gotten the job three years ago?

Jan Cocoziello’s tenure was the last time St. Joseph had stability.  The Towns hire made headlines, and the kids were surely excited figuring they’d see KAT around more, but the year was pure chaos.  Taylor brought instant success, but even if he’d stayed as coach, he’d have to replace his three biggest stars; would he be able to turn the same trick again so quickly?  The point is moot, though, and now, he’s gone, too.

Then-St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Jan Cocozziello talks to Central Jersey Sports Radio after a 46-42 win at Montgomery on February 22, 2021. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

Corrigan has proven to be a very good coach.  He’s an alum.  He has connections that can bring in and develop freshmen.  St. Joe’s has an academic eighth grade “Bridge Program” that can work as a feeder.  They’ve got the infrastructure and the history, and Corrigan is a part of that history.  He was on the very first St. Joe’s team to win the GMC Tournament, in 1993, with Joe Koslick as head coach and one of the greats in John Somogyi also on the staff.

But most importantly, Corrigan’s even-keeled demeanor, the way he runs a program?  He’d be the ideal fit and bring much-needed stability to a program that has always been a winner.  He’s been in the running before, now should be his chance.

Despite a GMC championship last year, the way it all ended, that’s a swing and a miss on the last two hires. St. Joe’s isn’t looking to strike out.

As for the rest of the league, the boys’ coaches wait with baited breath, too. Joe’s may not dominate, at least right away, but they will compete. Face it, the Falcons would have been the odds on favorite to repeat as GMC champions had Taylor, Carter, Kretkowski and Patrick stayed on. But now none are there, and GMC boys’ hoops this year could look more like 2024-25, when it was a wide-open tournament.

You don’t always need a home run to win the game.

by Mike Pavlichko

After just one year in second run, Mark Taylor is out as St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach

When former St. Joseph-Metuchen standout Mark Taylor – Class of 1983 – was hired for a second go ’round with the Falcons back in April of 2025, the news was a big splash in the world of high school basketball in New Jersey.

A standout in the ’80s, he later coached the school in the 90s, responsible for several D1 college players, most notably Jay Williams.

And after a year with Karl Towns, Sr., the father of the school’s biggest name since Williams, Karl-Anthony Towns, leading the program to disastrous effect – the team floundered as he often missed games to watch his son play in at Madison Square Garden, after he was traded from Minnesota to the Knicks, much closer to home – the move seemed like a slam dunk.

But now it’s over, as Taylor – who orchestrated a major turnaround last season, bringing in some high profile transfers like Andrew Kretkowski from Rutgers Prep and Aiden Carter from St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as Joel Patrick from Ghana – has stepped down, school officials confirmed to Central Jersey Sports Radio Friday afternoon.

Taylor did not immediately return a message from Central Jersey Sports Radio seeking comment.

In a press release posted on the schools’s website issued soon after Central Jersey Sports Radio broke the story, the school said it “wishes Mark Taylor ’83 well following his decision to resign as head basketball coach.”

It also contained a quote from Taylor, saying “Today I am stepping down as head basketball coach of St. Joseph High School to pursue other professional opportunities.  I am grateful to my alma mater for the impact it has had on my life and for the opportunity to coach such fine young men.  I wish Saint Joe’s nothing but the way in the future.”

What’s notable is that all three of his standout transfers from last season had already transferred out over the last few months.  Kretkowski is now at the brand-new Masters Academy International in Massachusetts; Carter is at Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas, and Patrick is now at national powerhouse Montverde Academy in Florida.

News broke last week, first reported by Simeon Pincus at MyCentralJersey.com, that St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball coach Tim Corrigan had left the Trojan program to join Taylor as an assistant; Corrigan is a St. Joseph alum as well.

School officials could not confirm Corrigan’s status on the record Friday afternoon, saying a search for a new head coach is underway. They would not say whether Corrigan would be in the running for the position. Corrigan says he’s still interested in coaching at St. Joseph, and in being the head coach, but could not comment further on whether he’s officially a candidate.

As a player, Taylor twice went to the Middlesex County Tournament finals – prior to the formation of the Greater Middlesex Conference – then played in College at Fordham. He also in the St. Joseph Athletics Hall of Fame.

He came back to coach at St. Joe’s for eleven seasons, breathing new life into the program, winning two GMCT crowns in six trips to the finals, as well as two state sectional titles and seven division championships.

After that, he went to Ridge, and revived that program as well, winning 94 games in five seasons from 2006 to 2011, more than any other Somerset County public school in that time frame, winning the Somerset County Tournament title in 2010, their first such trophy since 1977.

Taylor then moved to St. Benedict’s, and in 14 seasons, went 333-60, bringing his overall record – compiled from various sources – to 599-171 in 30 seasons overall at the scholastic and prep levels. Current UConn coach Danny Hurley had spent nine years there – with a down year in between – before Taylor arrived and rejuvenated the program.

Overall, he’s produced eight NBA draft picks and over a hundred Division I NCAA players.

by Mike Pavlichko

From 6-16 to GMC Tournament champs, rejuvenated St. Joseph-Metuchen named CJSR Boys’ Basketball Team of the Year

A year ago, St. Joseph boys’ basketball was a mess. Karl Towns, Sr. – the father of Falcon great Karl-Anthony Towns, who brought the Metuchen school a Tournament of Champions title in 2014 – was on his way out after a disastrous 6-16 season, where he barely coached the team, and seemed to spend more time watching his famous son play at Madison Square Garden after being traded from Minnesota to the Knicks.

Oh, how things changed quickly.

St. Joseph went with a known commodity: Mark Taylor, a 1983 graduate who later coached Jay Williams and Andrew Bynum and won two GMC titles in his first go-round, then later coached at Ridge and St. Benedict’s Prep.

He brought in key transfers, including Aidan Carter from nearby St. Thomas Aquinas, Andrew Kretkowski from Rutgers Prep, and Joel Patrick from Union, among others. The last two played right away, but Carter had to sit 30 days due to NJSIAA transfer rules.

A beautifully-voiced singer once told us it’s “never as good as the first time,” but this one proved the exception to the rule.

The Falcons won their first 16 games before taking a loss, a 55-54 defeat on the road at South Plainfield. It prompted a nearly 45-minute postgame meeting in the visiting lockerroom, but Taylor later called it the best thing that could have happened to his team.

It must have been, because they won their next 13 games, too – blitzing through the GMC Tournament to win the championship, making it all the way to Jackson for the Non-Public South A finals, where they eventually lost to St. Peter’s Prep, a juggernaut that beat five different Central Jersey Sports Radio-area squads this year.

And while they may not have finished the year No. 1 – that went to Gill St. Bernard’s, which won its division, county tournament, state sectional and first-ever state championship – the Falcons’ turnaround and league title earns Team of the Year honors from Central Jersey Sports Radio.

By the way, the Falcons aren’t done yet. Who knows what Taylor has up his sleeve for next year, with Alijah Muprhy the biggest senior graduation, as the core of Kretkowksi, Carter and Patrick will return.

Click below to hear from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Boys’ Basketball Team of the Year, including juniors Aidan Carter and Andrew Kretkowski, along with head coach Mark Taylor:

by Nick Hart

St. Peter’s Prep outlasts St. Joseph-Metuchen, captures Non-Public South A championship

When two of the top non-public teams in the state face off, fans anticipate an exhilarating game, and that is exactly what transpired. St. Peter’s Prep defeated St. Joseph-Metuchen 59-46 despite early offensive struggles.  

With a first-quarter score more fit for a baseball game, 7-5 in favor of the Falcons (29-2), it seemed as though offense would be at a premium in this one.  Aiden Carter, five points, and Andrew Kretkowski, two points, were the only two St Joe’s players to record points in the first quarter, while Oscar Martinez knocked down a triple, along with a bucket from Caden Post, accounted for all of the Marauders’ scoring in the first eight minutes. 

As the second quarter progressed, both teams struggled to get the scoring started, as the Falcons could not find production from players other than Kretkowski and Carter, who combined for the 10 points in the quarter. Carter finished the first half with an impressive 11 of his team’s 17 points.  

Conversely, St. Peter’s Prep saw five different players tally a basket, with Richie Rosa leading the way with four points in the second stanza. St. Joe’s has a chance to take the lead with the last possession of the half, but missed three straight open threes as the final seconds ticked away. With two vastly different quarters, things were all knotted up at 17 when the horn sounded at the end of the first half. 

Coming out of the break, both teams continued to trade shots back and forth, yet defense was still the leading factor. At points, the Marauders looked to be pulling away, but defensive stops turned into offensive chances, allowing the Falcons to keep the game within one possession for most of the quarter. The defensive effort for St. Joes was punctuated by 6-foot-10 center Joel Patrick, who pinned a layup attempt against the glass to keep it a one-score game entering the fourth as St. Peter’s led 33-31 with eight minutes left to decide a champion.

Up to this point, it had been anybody’s game, with either side coming through in big moments. But ultimately, it was one aspect of the game where the Marauders outshone the Falcons, and that was shooting from long range. 

St Peter’s knocked down six triples in the second half, compared to just two by St. Joes which ended up being the difference on the scoreboard. While the scoreboard told one story after the made baskets, the Falcons’ players and fans told a different story. With each three that fell it seemed as though the energy of St. Joe’s did as well.  Mason Santiago and Martinez led the three-point barrage in the second half, pouring in all six made by the Marauders. 

When the clock struck triple zero, it was St Peter’s who emerged with a 13-point victory and a trip to the Non-Public A championship.

For the Falcons, the end goal was not achieved, but there is a lot of success to build on from head coach Mark Taylor’s first season at the helm. Without a senior in its starting rotation, St Joe’s could very well run back the same rotation next season.

“We’re gonna be back.. and we are going to come back with a vengeance next year”

Despite not achieving the goal he and his team set out for at the beginning of the season, Taylor had one message for his squad.

Click below for post game reaction from St. Joseph head coach Mark Taylor with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Nick Hart:

by Mike Pavlichko

St. Thomas Aquinas had opportunities, but St. Joseph-Metuchen prevails, 63-51, in GMC Tournament semis, as Taylor leads alma mater back to finals

Mark Taylor won two GMC Tournament championships in his first go-round as the head coach at his alma mater. But right now he’s a win away from what may be his masterpiece.

St. Joseph-Metuchen hasn’t been to the league’s championship game since 2019 the last of a ten-year stretch in which they appeared every year, and won nine of ten titles, the first eight under Dave Turco, the second eight under Mike Thompson, a teammate of Taylor’s with the Falcons in their playing days.

But now, they are back, in Taylor’s first year in his second stint at the Metuchen school, after a 63-51 win over St. Thomas Aquinas in the GMC Tournament semifinals, as heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

It wasn’t the most convincing win, but considering they’ve been knocked off once this year, 55-54 by South Plainfield on January 27th, Taylor will take it.

The turning point of the game might actually have been the first six minutes of the ball game. If not, it was certainly the most consequential moment. While top-seeded St. Joe’s built an eleven-point lead, they held the Trojans off the ball until the 2:08 mark of the first. Had they hit just a couple of buckets, the second half – and the final result – might have been different.

Joe’s (25-1) led by 13 at the half, 38-25. But fifth-seed Aquinas (11-14) got it to nine with six minutes left in the third, and 43-25 with 3:25 to go. But the Falcons went on a 10-1 run and led again by 13 heading into the fourth.

And still, St. Thomas was back for more. And and-one opportunity with a missed free-throw by Albion Ahmetaj cut it to eight with 4:38 left in the game. But with Dan Jennings and his brother, Jared, in foul trouble, that was as close as they would get.

Meanwhile, Aquinas transfer Aidan Carter had another monster game with 22 points, going 11-of-13 from the foul line. He led all scorers in the game, as he did at the half when he had 17 points. Big man Andrew Kretkwoski, the transfer in from Rutgers Prep, scored 18.

St. Thomas was led by Dan Jennings’ 15, including two triples, the first of which got Aquinas on the board late in the first quarter.

St. Joseph will go for its 13th GMC title Friday night at 8 pm when the Falcons take on second-seed Piscataway, which is back in the final for a second year in a row after a 64-59 win over third-seed Colonia Wednesday night. That will follow the girls’ final at 6 pm at Monroe Twp. High School, which features top-seed and six-time defending champion St. Thomas Aquinas taking on second-seed East Brunswick. Central Jersey Sports Radio will have live coverage of both games.

Click below for postgame reaction with St. Joseph of Metuchen junior Aidan Carter and head coach Mark Taylor, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Nearly-perfect St. Joseph-Metuchen seeks first trip back to GMCT finals since 2010s run as Falcons face rejuvenated St. Thomas Aquinas in all-parochial semifinal Wednesday

The St. Joseph-Metuchen boys’ basketball program hit its peak in the 2010s, making every GMC Tournament final in that decade, and wining nine of them, with just one loss – to Colonia in 2015.

Wednesday night down at Monroe Township High School, the top-seeded Falcons (24-1) will seek to get back to that game for the first time since 2019 when they take on fifth-seed St. Thomas Aquinas (11-3) in an all parochial school semifinal, immediately following an all-public matchup between Piscataway and two-time defending champion Colonia.

You can hear that game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with tip-off at 7 pm and pregame at 6:45 as Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau call the action, immediately following the Chiefs and Patriots in their 5 pm opener. Click here to listen.

Both teams are intriguing stories this year. In the off-season, St. Joseph parted ways with Karl Towns, Sr., the father of Karl-Anthony Towns of the NBA’s Knicks. That reunion lasted one season, as Towns frequently missed Falcons’ games to watch his son play.

Enter Mark Taylor: a St. Joe’s alum, who later coached them and future NBA players like Jay Williams and Andrew Bynum. Following stops at Ridge and St. Benedict’s, he’s back in Metuchen, and with an influx of transfer talent like Aidan Carter (from St. Thomas Aquinas) and Andrew Kretkowski (from Rutgers Prep), the Falcons have had a nearly-perfect season. Their lone loss came to South Plainfield in a road stunner, 55-54. Still, they were the GMC Red American Division champions, going 8-0 in divisional play.

On the other side, Tom Weiler is the first-year head coach of the Trojans, and worked briefly as an assistant under Bob Turco during the COVID-season, when STA lost to Colonia in the league’s top postseason pod – there was no full GMC Tournament that year. Turco left for Piscataway after the 2023-24 season, and Weiler came on board following an awkward season where Austin Whitehurst was let go mid-year due to off-the-court issues, and Victor Verdecia finished out the year.

Weiler’s first job was changing the culture around the program, and it’s been a grind this year, to be sure. They’re two games below .500 and finished 2-6 in the Red American Division – fourth place out of five – with their divisional wins coming over Old Bridge.

They also have a transfer from the other school, Dan Jennings, who headed south down Plainfield Avenue last season. He and Albion Ahmetaj are the team’s top two scorers, at 14.1 and 14.2 points per game, respectively. Ahmetaj is a big with 53 blocks, and is thee team’s top rebounder at 10.7 per game. Then, there’s Zymere Weaver, a sophomore who’s also the starting quarterback on the football team, and has a team-best 70 assists and 33 steals.

St. Joe’s is led by Carter, the STA transfer, who had to sit out the first 30 days of the season. That’s one reason the Falcons opened the season as early as they could – and earlier than everyone else – with a 103-36 blowout of Wesley College from Australia, to start that 30-day clock as soon as possible. Once he stepped on the floor, the winning margins (minus that season-opening blowout) got larger and larger. Carter is averaging a double-double – 17.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game – while Kretkowski is scoring 17 a game and has 22 treys. Junior Imaad Johnson has 33 to lead the Falcons, who are scoring about 12 more points per game on the whole than Aquinas.

Click below for preview interviews with both head coaches:

St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Mark Taylor with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Vin Ebenau
St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Tom Weiler with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko
by Mike Pavlichko

Shots stop falling for No. 4 Piscataway, and No. 5 St. Joseph-Metuchen takes down Chiefs in OT

There were a couple of ways this one could have gone at halftime, when No. 4 Piscataway took an 18-point lead into the home locker room at halftime over visiting No. 5 St. Joseph-Metuchen on Saturday afternoon.

It wasn’t likely to stay that way. It felt like had the Chiefs kept the momentum going they’d come out with a huge home win, pulling further away. Or, the Falcons would make a game of it.

Switching to a 1-3-1 zone after playing most of the first half man-to-man – something Piscataway head coach Bob Turco figured they’d do at some point, if not from the tip, St. Joe’s beat the Chiefs at their own game.

In the first half, a stifling defense forced at least a dozen turnovers, as Piscataway built a 35-17 halftime lead.

But after the break, the tables were turned. The Chiefs scored three points in the third quarter – all from the foul line – and had only one field goal in the fourth – a trey from Josh Lima. And still, they never trailed, going to OT tied at 49-49.

But St. Joe’s would take its first lead in OT, and pull away for a 64-53 win heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Senior guard Alijah Murphy and junior forward Andrew Kretkwoski each had game-highs of 18 points. Kretkowski – a transfer in from Rutgers Prep – was in-and-out, in foul trouble a good part of the game, but had a couple of monstrous dunks – on in the second quarter, and another in overtime that signalled the game was over, even with time still remaining on the clock.

Piscataway wasn’t just not hitting shots, they took very few, unable to get good looks, and were dominated down low by 6′ 10″ sophomore center Joel Patrick, swatting away layups and grabbing rebounds with authority.

In a battle of unbeatens, the Falcons improved to 6-0, while the Chiefs fall to 9-1, their first loss of the season, just two days after knocking off state 12th-ranked Teaneck in the BWB Resolution Bumble at FDU-Madison on New Year’s Day.

Click below for postgame reaction from St. Joseph’s Andrew Kretkowski, Alijah Murphy and head coach Mark Taylor, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Early January battle of unbeatens – No. 5 St. Joseph at No. 4 Piscataway Saturday – has big implications in GMC Tournament race

While the Greater Middlesex Conference doesn’t seed its tournament until early February, Saturday’s matinee between fourth-ranked Piscataway and fifth-ranked St. Joseph-Metuchen could have a lot to say in deciding the top part of the bracket.

The Chiefs and Colonia were last year’s finalists. The Patriots lost a ton of talent for various reasons, and while they should improve by the stretch run, they’ve struggled early. St. Joseph hired alum and former coach Mark Taylor, who brought in a slew of transfer talent to go with some solid pieces already in place, and East Brunswick is off and running to its best start since the days of Bo Henning manning the sidelines and players like Amir Bell and Rob Ukuwuba in the early 2010s.

All that said, while it’s still just the first of two meetings between the two, St. Joe’s visit to Piscataway Saturday has all the trappings of a conference tourney game from the round of eight on.

OF course, you can hear tomorrow’s game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with tip-off tentatively set for about 11:45 – shortly after the 10 am JV game ends. Pregame starts 15 minutes prior; Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe will call all the action. Click here to listen.

The Falcons will, for sure, have the height advantage, with Rutgers Prep transfer Andrew Kretkowski now with the Falcons. The 6′ 7″ junior already has asserted himself in a leadership role, and is scoring just under 20 points per game. Senior guard Alijah Murphy is one of the key returnees, and big Ryan Hilongos will get time, too.

Piscataway coach Bob Turco may say “Attitude and Effort” is the team’s mantra, but it might as well be “An ugly win is as good as a pretty one.” That’s not because they play poorly; quite the opposite. They play a stifling defense, dive all over, and get a ton of steals. In fact, of their top eight rotation players who have made 69 total game appearances, 62 have earned at least one steal in a game.

That means it’s not just one or two guys breaking up passes and forcing turnovers. Everyone in the lineup is doing it, night in and night out.

Both teams might need oxygen tanks by the time this one’s through.

Click below to hear pregame interviews with both head coaches:

Piscataway head coach Bob Turco with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko
St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Mark Taylor with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Justin Sontupe

by Mike Pavlichko

New coach, new players at St. Joseph-Metuchen could upend top of GMC boys’ hoops

The warning shot came back in April.

That’s when Mark Taylor, a 1983 alum and later head coach of the basketball program was brought back to lead the Falcons.

Then, the transfers started rolling in. Andrew Kretkowski from Rutgers Prep, with two more years to play. Chase Pettiford, also an incoming junior, makes his way down from the now-closed Immaculate Conception in Montclair. Marcel Carra, who saw minimal action as a freshman last year playing for Taylor at St. Benedict’s. And sophomore Joel (pronounced “joe-el”) Patrick, who is from Ghana, also has joined the team.

Put them alongside last year’s top scorer – guard Alijah Murphy, who scored 12.2 points per game and had a team-best 28 treys – and swing Ryan Hilongos, who averaged 8.8 points in seven games after missing much of the season with a wrist injury, and Taylor has made quite the splash before a single game is even played.

That changes Monday night, when St. Joseph will be one of the few area teams opening the season on the first possible day, when they welcome Wesley College High School of Australia into the Maglio Gymnasium for Game One of the 2025-26 season.

For Taylor, he’s come home, to the place where he was a student, played and coached. In between his eleven-year run coaching at St. Joe’s – where he won two GMC Tournaments in six trips to the finals, as well as two NJSIAA sectional crowns and seven division championships – Taylor spent five seasons at Ridge, then another 14 with the Bees up in Newark, mentoring hundreds of Division 1 players all along the way.

At those two stops, he rebuilt, and that’s the task at hand at St. Joseph. With a proven track record, there’s little doubt he’ll do it again. The only question is, how quickly can he do it? Will it take time for this year’s group to jell, or will they come out hot, right out of the box?

We’ll know a lot more before the calendar flips to 2026.

Click below to hear “new” St. Joseph-Metuchen basketball coach Mark Taylor preview the season with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

St. Joseph-Metuchen will appear on Central Jersey Sports Radio on Saturday, January 3, when the Falcons visit Piscataway for an 11:30 am tip-off.