Tag: Mya Loniewski

by Mike Pavlichko

Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Girls’ Basketball Team of the Year: Hillsborough Raiders

For the past two years, the Hillsborough girls’ basketball team has been rewriting the record books.

Last year, they won the program’s first-ever state sectional title. Last year’s team finished 21-9, and beat Elizabeth in a surprise North 2, Group 4 title game at home, thanks to upsets elsewhere in the bracket.

This year, they rewrote more history. Cesci Schrio became the all-time leading scorer in school history, girls or boys. The won another sectional title, this time as the No. 1 seed, and this time in Central Jersey Group 4, beating the No. 2 team in the Greater Middlesex Conference, Monroe, in the finals.

And for good measure, they had more up their sleeve. After topping Cherokee in the Group 4 semifinals, they went to the state Group 4 championship game and faced a familiar opponent: a West Orange team they’d beaten on the road, 58-54, less than a month earlier.

And they won again, this time by three, to finish as Group 4 champions, the No. 1 public school in the NJSIAA’s group of biggest schools in the state.

Where they finish in the state rankings is irrelevant. They went from start to finish, to the last game of the entire season in the state, and brought home another piece of hardware.

Hope they’ve got a bigger budget for the trophy case.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Hillsborough’s three key seniors – Cesci Schiro, Maya Loniewski, and Reghan Bice – as well as head coach Courtney Tierney:

by Mike Pavlichko

No. 3 Hillsborough girls use stifling defense, transition play to blow past Ewing, 69-41

The Hillsborough girls’ basketball team allowed Ewing just two field goals and a made free throw in the entire first quarter Saturday afternoon to build a 25-5 lead after eight minutes of play, en route to a 69-41 win in their MCCC Showcase game at Mercer County College in West Windsor.

They got it done with stifling defense, forcing the Blue Devils into bad passes, and picking off others, then scoring back down the other end. But ‘Boro also worked it well in the half-court offense, getting good looks down low, and getting a pair of first-half threes from senior Reghan Bice.

The Lady Raiders – who won their first-ever state sectional title in 2024 – have continued their strong play this season. At 5-0, it’s their best streak to start a season since 2006-07, when they went 19-6, following two straight Somerset County Tournament titles in 2006 and 2005.

Senior Francesca Schiro led Hillsborough with 15 points, while fellow senior Mya Loniewski had 13. Sophomore Isabella Ruh added ten points.

Eight different players scored for the Raider, who emptied the bench at the start of the fourth quarter with the game well in hand.

Hillsborough senior Francesca Schiro goes up for a basket against Ewing in the MCCC Showcase at Mercer Community College in West Windsor on December 27, 2024. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

Hillsborough will be back at the MCCC Showcase at 2 pm Saturday, taking on George (PA), which lost to Thrive Academy in Friday afternoon action.

Click below for postgame reaction from Hillsborough’s win over Ewing, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Schiro, Loniewski reaching more milestones at Hillsborough, picking up where Raiders left off

The 2023-24 basketball season was a historic one for the Hillsborough girls’ team.

Going 21-9, the Lady Raiders claimed the school’s first-ever sectional title, when they beat Elizabeth at home, 59-46, on March first.

Under the question, “What do you do for an encore?” the answer for Hillsborough might very well be, “Do it again.” After all, they return all five starters from last year’s team.

In fact, only two seniors – who contributed just 22 points, or 1.2 percent of last year’s scoring – are gone.

That means among the returning players are Francesca Schiro, the team’s leading scorer, who finished with a 20.6 point per game average last year.

There’s also Mya Loniewksi, who averaged 13.4 points per game, while dishing out a whopping 131 assists.

No doubt, Hillsborough knows how to share the ball, and share the love.

This season, both those players reached new milestones. Loniewksi joined the 1,000 point club on a late free throw in a Linden in the season opener on December 14th.

And against Madison last Saturday, Schiro became the all-time leading girls’ scorer at Hillsborough, surpassing the 1,455 point standard set in 1986 by Jinny Gill Strawderman, who was also a star softball player, and attended Brown University, becoming one of the school’s all-time top three-point shooters.

Hillsborough’s Jinny Strawdeman, c. 1986. (Source: Hillsborough Athletic Hall of Fame)

Schiro is about 100 points away from another milestone, breaking the all-time school record. The boys’ top mark is currently held by Kevin Ryan, who also graduated in 1986.

All that is fun stuff for the two and their teammates, but their sights are set higher.

Maybe a Somerset County Tournament championship is in the cards? Their last came in 2006, the second of back-to-back finals wins over Rutgers Prep.

Or maybe a sectional championship again? The Raiders are back into Central Jersey Group 4 this year, moving out of North 2, but still should be considered a favorite in whatever section they’re in.

Click below to hear Hillsborough senior Francesco Schiro – a Siena commit – talk about this year’s Raiders with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

Hillsborough (4-0) is back in action at home Friday afternoon when the Lady Raiders take on Ewing at 2:30 pm (1-3).