Tag: Mary Klinger

by Alec Crouthamel

New No. 1 Rutgers Prep looks to build off opening win in Monday tilt against new-look No. 7 Franklin

The only thing unfamiliar for the Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball new No. 1 Rutgers Prep girls basketball team this year is how last year’s tournament season unfolded, missing the Somerset County Tournament final for the first time since 2014. Pretty much everything else — down to the players on the roster, with no outgoing seniors or transfers — has remained the status quo. And that’s a very high bar to maintain.

Meanwhile, for No. 7 Franklin, there is plenty of unknown to anticipate, with a new championship-winning head coach and players stepping into elevated roles, while developing the existing talent from the recent two years.

The teams will clash in an inter-township battle on Easton Avenue for the Warriors’ season-opener under new head coach Jimmy Kreie, who takes over for former coach and assistant Darryl Robinson, while the home Argonauts already have a game under their belt. That game will tip off at 5:30 pm from Rutgers Prep, and you can hear it live on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Alec Crouthamel calling all the action, and coverage starting at 5:15. Click here to listen.

The Argonauts come into this matchup at 1-0 on the year after a 52-40 win over Morris Catholic on Sunday in the NJBCA Tip-Off Showcase. That victory gave the Crusaders their first in-state loss in nearly three years, since a 76-44 loss to Paul VI and Notre Dame star Hannah Hidalgo in January of 2023.

The winning effort did not come without its fair share of adversity, either. Morris Catholic stormed ahead on a 12-2 run to open the game, and eventually ended the opening quarter up 12-4. Rutgers Prep hit back with its own response immediately after, however, going on a 16-2 run to head into halftime with a lead. The Argonauts ultimately pulled away to win by double digits, led by senior point guard Ava LaMonica’s 15 points and a 16-point, 16-rebound double-double from sophomore forward Hailey Benbow.

42nd-year head coach Mary Coyle-Klinger has plenty of talent at her disposal as per usual, all of which return from last year. That includes seniors Ava Frith and Sophia Georgiades — who sits just six points away from 1,000 in her career — and plenty of underclassmen contributors such as juniors Natalia Valdez and Hannah Fraser, as well as sophomores Maeve Hoebich and Brooke Bredeson, who Coyle-Klinger is “thrilled” to have on board after a breakout season for the Argonauts’ top-ranked soccer team.

The Warriors, on the other hand, open the season after an exciting summer, with scoring talent and athleticism all over the roster.

Leading the way is junior Aleah Sunkins, who finished as the team’s leading scorer and rebounder as a sophomore, and continued to improve over the offseason. She won’t do it alone, though.

Franklin’s senior guard trio of Kayla Duncan, Gianna Mattia, and Alissa Myers will all be trusted to handle the opposing defensive pressure late in games. Junior Alivia Stewart and sophomore Nola Bright will handle the grunt work, playing hounding defense and rebounding the ball, and junior Anaiyah Martin serves as the team’s “lightning rod of energy.”

Much like their opponent, the Warriors also have their fair share of strong soccer players who “never run out of gas,” according to Kreie.

Speaking of, Franklin’s new coach joins the fray after a Non-Public B title at now-closed Montclair Immaculate, including a defeat of upcoming Somerset County foe Gill St. Bernard’s in the semifinals. Kreie racked up an impressive 116-42 record in six years at the Essex County school, and has an even longer track record spanning nearly two decades in the AAU ranks.

Most important to Kreie? The community has fully bought into his new program, as he and Athletic Director Anthony Brito have been in lockstep since taking the job over the summer.

But all of that goes out the window once the ball is lofted into the air Monday night, as two talented teams in Somerset County will battle it out for early-season bragging rights.

Click below for previews of the Rutgers Prep-Franklin game in the opening game of CJSR’s girls basketball season with both head coaches, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel:

Franklin head coach Jimmy Kreie
Rutgers Prep head coach Mary Coyle-Klinger

by Mike Pavlichko

Rutgers Prep girls hoops in unfamiliar, yet familiar territory heading into 2025-26 season

On the one hand, this is new, or at least different for Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball coach Mary Klinger. The Lady Argonauts are coming off a season in which they did not play in the Somerset County Tournament final, their first miss since 2014.

On the other hand, everyone who played a significant contributing role in 2024-25 – a season in which Klinger didn’t have a single senior to rely on – is back for this season. That’s also a rarity in this day and age of transfers and player movement.

In fact, she has a few newcomers from the nationally top-ranked Argonauts’ girls’ soccer program joining the team now.

Senior Ava LaMonica is the most experienced player back. She’s started since she was a freshman, and while she’s not the biggest scorer, she did average 13.4 points per game last season, but also gets to the line a lot as she hustles and boxes out for every rebound and loose ball. She also led the team with 81 assists and 65 steals a year ago.

Sophia Georgiadis was the second leading scorer a year ago as a junior, at 11.6 points per game, while adding 37 treys, one fewer than classmate Natalia Valdez, who had 38 and scored at an 8.3 point per game clip.

Sophomore Hailey Benbow and junior Hannah Fraser will be key contributors as well.

For this year’s club, the past is the past and it’s time to write a new chapter. And Klinger will have her team ready using the regular season as their pre-season, to gear up for another SCT run, and some more NJSIAA hardware as well.

Click below to hear Rutgers Prep girls’; basketball coach Mary Klinger preview the upcoming season with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

Rutgers Prep will make its season debut on Central Jersey Sports Radio on Monday, December 15m when the Lady Argonauts welcome in Franklin for a 5:30 tip off. Alec Crouthamel will have the call. Bookmark this link to listen live on the day of the game.

by Mike Pavlichko

Rutgers Prep girls go for 4th straight Non-Public North B title when Argonauts play Gloucester Catholic down in Jackson

Jackson Liberty High School was good to Rutgers Prep last year.

So was Seneca the year before that, and Long Branch back in 2022.

The Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball team hasn’t lost a sectional final since COVID at any of those three venues, and Mary Klinger’s 2024-25 team doesn’t plan to start now.

Monday evening, they’ll play in their fifth straight Non-Public South B title game – the first in that stretch was in 2020, when they fell to Trenton Catholic – as the second-seeded Argonauts take on top-seed Gloucester Catholic at 5 pm, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Mike Pavlichko has the call, followed by the Prep boys at 7 pm against St. Rose in their final, with pregame for Game One starting at 4:45. Click here to listen.

Rutgers Prep is 20-6 on the season, still a solid year despite graduating three starters, and losing a fourth plus two others to transfer.

That left Ava LaMonica as the lone starter back, but with transfers like Ava Frith and Sophia Georgiades, freshman Hailey Benbow, and others, the Argonauts maybe haven’t picked up where they left off, but are right back where they belong: playing for hardware in March.

LaMonica is the leading scorer this season at 13.7 points per game, but Georgiades and Benbow have been stellar in two state tournament games so far, averaging 20.5 and 15 points per game, respectively. And Georgiades has hit ten threes in two games – five each against Holy Cross Prep in the quarterfinals and Wildwood Catholic in the semis.

For the Argonauts, the issue has been consistency. But head coach Mary Klinger scheduled their last game before the states against Morris Catholic, the team that beat them in the last two Non-Public Group B state finals.

They lost that one 90-52, but it gave her program one more look at how they stacked up against they best – at 25-0, they’re the top team in the state – but they won’t get to play them this year. The Crusaders moved up to Group A this season.

Gloucester Catholic (24-5) is also having a very good season, and since a loss in the South Jersey Invitational Basketball Tournament to Paul VI on February 9th, they’ve won eight straight, including taking the Tri-County Tournament Flight A title over Washington Township, 72-29.

The Rams are paced by Jahzara Green, who’s averaging over 18 points per game this season, and 17 in two state tournament games against Koinonia and Ranney. Amanda Eggers is averaging 12 a game, and also leads the team in three-point shooting with 63 triples on the season.

Click below to hear Rutgers Prep coach Mary Klinger talk about the Argonauts and the Non-Public South B final against Gloucester Catholic:

Rutgers Prep vs Hillsborough
by Mike Pavlichko

Strong start for No. 1 Rutgers Prep girls hands No. 3 Hillsborough season’s first loss

Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball coach Mary Klinger often calls the regular season the preseason, a time for her to figure out what her team is for when the games really count:  in the county tournament and the states.

She’s still working on that.  After all, the season isn’t even a month old yet. 

But one thing she does know:  in the first few weeks of 2024-25, her top-ranked Argonauts have beaten the two biggest threats they’ll face in Skyland Conference play. 

First, it was Gill St. Bernard’s on opening night.  Thursday, it was Hillsborough, as the Argonauts handed the third-ranked Raiders their first loss of the season, 66-52.

Junior Ava LaMonica – who’s from Hillsborough – tied a career high, scoring 22 against her hometown team.  She had seven in the first quarter and eleven points in the third.

Prep got out to a 6-0 lead on three straight drives to the hoop by junior Sophia Georgiades.  They built up slowly to a 23-point halftime lead before winning by 14.

The Argonauts (8-2, 4-0 Skyland Delaware) now have won 53 straight games against Somerset County opponents and 68 straight against Skyland Conference does, their last loss to either coming in the 2019 Somerset County Tournament final to Franklin, which won the Tournament of Champions that year.

Hillsborough (8-1, 3-1 Skyland Delaware) was led by Francesca “Cesci” Schiro with 18.

Click below for postgame reaction from Rutgers Prep junior Ava LaMonica and head coach Mary Klinger, presented by Sportsplext at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Same ol’, same ol’ for new-look Rutgers Prep: No. 1 Argonauts take down No. 3 Gill St. Bernards… again

In six prior games against Rutgers Prep, Gandy Malou-Mamel – the UConn-bound Gill St. Bernard’s senior – never scored in double figures. In fact, she scored ten or more in all but three games last season, and those three came against the Argonauts.

So, when after one quarter, Malou-Mamel had nine and Gill was down by just three, at 17-14, you’d figure this would be a close one down to the wire.

It wasn’t.

The problem was, the supporting cast couldn’t do much else – the rest of the starting five combined for just 11 points – and top-ranked Rutgers Prep came away with a 61-38 win over third-ranked Gill St. Bernard’s, the Argos’ 24th straight in the series.

Malou-Mamel – who sat the bench for a bit in the second quarter with two fouls – finished with a game-high 21 for Gill (1-1).

The contest saw five lead changes and two ties, but all those came in the first quarter. The Argonauts never trailed after taking the lead for the third time in the first eight minutes.

Prep (2-0) eventually built up to as big as a 17-point lead in the third before winning by 23, as they started hitting from beyond the arc. Junior Natalia Valdez – little used last year – broke out with a 13-point night, including three treys, all in the second half.

Freshman Hailey Benbow finished with 11, including a triple, and junior transfer Sophia Georgiades (from Ridge) also had 22, including three treys.

Click below for postgame reaction from head coach Mary Klinger, and juniors Ava LaMonica and Natallia Valdez, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Young Rutgers Prep, with slew of newcomers, hosts experienced Gill St. Bernard’s Tuesday

This is a bit of a role reversal for Rutgers Prep and Gill St. Bernard’s.

The third-ranked Knights open their season Tuesday night with four starters back, while the top-ranked Argonauts graduated three starters last year, and a fourth moved out of state.

Yes, Rutgers Prep is the less-experienced group.

You might not know that from their opener. Though they were slow out of the blocks, they eventually found their way, and rolled past Ewing 66-29, thanks to the Avas.

For the uninitiated, that’s Ava LaMonica – the lone returning starter from last year’s squad – and Ava Frith, a junior transfer in from public powerhouse Manasquan.

LaMonica scored 18 points and went 6-of-8 from the foul line against Ewing, while Frith scored a game-high 25, and added ten rebounds for a double-double.

For perspective, that’s more than half the points she scored in 29 games over two seasons at ‘Squan, where she scored six points in eleven games her freshman year, and 34 in 18 contests last year.

Rutgers Prep may need a lot more than that Tuesday, when they take on a star-studded, veteran Gill St. Bernard’s squad at home at 6 pm. You can hear that game on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino on the call. Pregame starts at 5:45; click here to listen.

Both teams are 1-0.

While Gill graduated Brooke Baisley, who’s now at Boston University, it returns Maya Abramson, Sindey Quinn, Tessa Lozner and Gandy Malou-Mamel, who all signed their National Letters of Intent back on November 13th.

Abramson will be attending Stevens Institute of Technology, Quinn will be off to the Naval Academy, Lozner is going to Johns Hopkins, and Malou-Mamel has signed on to play for Geno Auriemma at UConn.

While the group has done many things, one thing they haven’t done is beat Rutgers Prep. The Argnoauts have won 23 straight in the series, with Gill’s last win coming over Prep in the 2014 Somerset County Tournament final, 77-47.

Since then, Rutgers Prep was won three state tournament matchups, and five in the county finals. Last year’s was the closest, a 58-55 win by the Argos, in which they trailed at halftime against a Skyland Conference opponent for the first time since losing to Franklin in the 2019 SCT title game.

Click below to hear Rutgers Prep head coach Mary Klinger talk about the team’s opening win over Ewing, and Tuesday’s home opener against Gill St. Bernard’s, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

Rutgers Prep boys’ and girls’ find role reversal; Bloom has experienced squad while Klinger starts with nearly blank slate

Since the debut of Central Jersey Sports Radio in the 2020-21 school year, only one school has topped the girls’ basketball rankings that entire time: Rutgers Prep.

Going back to the days of Christina Dalce, then Antonia Bates and Mikayla Blakes, there has always been some overlap and consistency. Not so much this year.

On the boys’ side, head coach Matt Bloom had a very young and inexperienced team last year, but one that gained valuable experience throughout the course of the season, and – ultimately – won the Somerset County Tournament for a second straight year. This year, almost the entire team is back.

The script has been flipped, and yet, both teams could still be the favorite to win their respective sides of the SCT this winter.

For Mary Klinger’s girls, the No. 1 ranking is theirs to lose. They have topped the rankings for 37 straight weeks, won 51 straight games against Somerset County opponents, and won 64 in a row against the Skyland Conference, their last defeat to any of those teams coming to Franklin in the 2019 SCT Final, almost six years ago now.

All that will face a stiff early test in the Argonauts’ home opener next Tuesday – our first broadcast of the season on Central Jersey Sports Radio – when Gill St. Bernard’s travels down to Somerset. The Knights are another veteran squad.

The Prep girls return just one starter in Ava LaMonica. Mikayla Blakes is tearing it up at Vanderbilt, having been named SEC Freshman of the Week for a third time already, and scoring over 20 points a gamewhile Chloe Escanillas and Zahra Alexander are thriving at Marist and NYU, respectively. NYU is the top-ranked team in Division 3.

LaMonica averaged about 11 points a game last year and nearly five rebounds, though missed a good chunk of the year and the entire SCT due to injury.

Hannah Fraser, is the next-most experienced returnee, a sophomore who played in 13 games last season as a frosh.

The girls open up Saturday at 11:30 am in Game Two of the inaugural Tip-Off Showcase at Montgomery against Ewing, which was 26-6 last year and won Central Jersey Group 3.

Click below to hear Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball coach Mary Klinger preview the 2024-25 season with Mike Pavlichko:

Rutgers Prep’s Jacob Canton (#1) takes it to the basket against Hillsborough in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals in Somerset on February 15, 2024. (Photo: Vin Ebenau)

Meanwhile, on the boys’ side, head coach Matt Bloom’s squad had little experience last year, but as they came together throughout the season – playing their typically challenging schedule – they were good enough to outlast Montgomery in the Somerset County Tournament Championship game.

They’ll lose senior John Kelly – who would have been a big contributor had he not missed much of the season due to injury – but have their top six returning scorers back, including uber-freshman Jacob Canton, now a sophomore, who averaged just over 16 points a game last year, as well as now-senior Myles Parker and his 14.7 points a game.

The Argonauts won’t be taking it easy either with the schedule, opening up with Manasquan – last year’s Central Jersey Group 2 champions, who were embroiled in controversy over the end of that group semifinal game against Camden – in the same event the girls will play in Saturday, the Tip-Off Showcase at Montgomery.

That will be Game Three of the day, starting at 1:00, right after the girls take on Ewing.

Click below to hear Rutgers Prep boys’ basketball coach Matt Bloom preview the 2024-25 season with Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

Morris Catholic beats Rutgers Prep in a battle of the state’s top two teams to win second straight Non-Public Group B title

This year was different, but not different enough, for the Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball team.

In the 2023 Non-Public Group B final an early lead evaporated and a third-quarter surge by Morris Catholic did in the Argonauts.

This time, the score was tied at 22 at the half, and there was no big run. But Morris Cathlolic edged ahead a few minutes into the third. The game went into the fourth quarter close, never more than two possessions.

But in the end, Rutgers Prep had some missed shots, and missed opportunities that cost them the game.

In her final game with Prep, Vanderbilt-bound senior Mikayla Blakes led all scorers with 21 points, while sophomore GiGi Battle – part of a core that will return next year with Leah Crosby and Ava LaMonica – notched her fourth career double-double with a solid 14 point, 13 rebound game.

Rutgers Prep didn’t have a great night from the field, shooting 18-of-46, but kept their lead – and stayed in it when behind – with a perfect night from the foul line, shooting 18-for-18.

The Pauldo twins for Morris Catholic were again the focal point for the Crusaders, up by a possession, running the clock down because any defender who doesn’t give Mia or Mya space can get left in the dust by either. It allowed them to run over 40-seconds off the clock on their penultimate possession, which started with about 90 seconds to go in the game.

Mia Pauldo finished with 20, while Mya Pauldo had 16.

Rutgers Prep’s season finished 24-5, with a fourth straight county title and third straight Non-Public South B title. They came into the game ranked No. 2 in New Jersey, with Morris Catholic No. 1.

The Crusaders will finish as the state’s top-ranked girls’ basketball team, 27-1, Morris County Tourney champs, and Non-Public Group B state champions.

Click below for postgame reaction from Rutgers Prep, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Time for another title: Rutgers Prep to take on St. Rose-Belmar in Non-Public South B final

When you talk to Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball coach Mary Klinger in the preseason, she’s quick to point out that the preseason is long. Specifically, 23 games long.

In her world, the regular season is the tune-up. They’ll play their Skyland Conference games, some other top Jersey schools out of league, and go to showcases like the John Wall Invitational in North Carolina to play nationally-ranked foes.

All that prepares her team for the real season: the postseason.

Well, their first postseason ended with their third straight Somerset County Tournament title, and now they’re looking for their next one in the state tourney, in Non-Public South B.

The top-seeded Argonauts (23-4) have won the last two titles in this section, beating Wildwood Catholic each of the last two seasons. Monday, they’ll face third-seed St. Rose-Belmar (19-9) in the Non-Public South B final down at Jackson Liberty High School. Central Jersey Sports Radio will have live play-by-play with Mike Pavlichko on the call beginning with pregame at 3:45 pm, tip-off at 4; click here to listen.

The Purple Roses are led by sophomore Jada Lynch, who’s averaging team-bests 15.1 points per game and 6.5 rebounds. She also leads in assists (89), blocks (11) and steals (62). Meanwhile, junior Cassidy Kruesi is scoring nine points a game and leads the team in threes with 48.

Expect a lot of shots from downtown in this one, if either team can find good looks. Rutgers Prep hits a lot of them, 159 this season in 27 games, an average of almost six per contest. The Purple Roses have hit 183.

Rutgers Prep is led by Vanderbilt-bound senior Mikayla Blakes, who’s averaging 20.7 points per game, and four others are scoring in double figures as well: sophomore GiGi Battle is at 11.7 a game, while sophomore Ava LaMonica and senior Chloe Escanillas are both averaging an even 11 points per game.

And that’s where the difference may lie. St. Rose has won low scoring games, averaging just 54.1 per game, but the Argonauts are averaging 71 per contest on the season. Although the Purple Roses scored a lot in the first two rounds of the sectionals – in an 82-11 win over St. Joseph-Hammonton in the first round and a 76-34 victory over Holy Spirit in the quarterfinals – they just eked one out against Ranney in the semis, 46-43.

Meanwhile, all but two of Prep’s wins this season have seen them score at least 60 points.

Click below to hear both head coaches preview Monday’s Non-Public South B Final:

Rutgers Prep head coach Mary Klinger
St. Rose head coach Chrissy Hatfield
by Mike Pavlichko

Rutgers Prep girls face toughest battle all season, but prevail 58-55 over Gill in SCT title tilt

The Rutgers Prep girls basketball team had beaten Gill St. Bernard’s twice this season, both times by large margins.

But Saturday, in the Somerset County Tournament title game at Montgomery Township High School, it was much closer.

In a game that featured nine ties after 0-0, and 14 lead changes – and saw the Argonauts trailing at halftime for the first time since the 2019 SCT final, a loss to Franklin that remains their most recent defeat to a Skyland Conference opponent – Rutgers Prep ultimately came out on top.

The No. 1 seed Argonauts beat second-seeded Knights 58-55.

Prep was without sophomore Ava LaMonica, who injured her ankle early against Franklin Thursday in the semifinals. It forced head coach Mary Klinger to adjust her rotation.

And early on, Prep wasn’t hitting shots. But they did down the stretch, and that was the difference. That and Gill’s Gandy Malou-Mamel fouling out in the fourth quarter.

Mikayla Blakes led Prep (21-4) with 18 points, eleven after halftime, and with two three-pointers in the fourth, following another in the third. Chloe Escanillas also had three treys, finishing with 13. Two of those triples came in the fourth quarter.

Brooke Baisley led the Knights (23-4) – and all scorers – with 20.

The win gives Rutgers Prep its 10th county title in program history, and fourth straight, having won in 2020, 2022, 2023 and this season. In between they won the Skyland Conference’s top pod in the 2021 COVID-shortened season.

Click below for postgame reaction with Rutgers Prep’s Mikayla Blakes and head coach Mary Klinger, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen: