NJSIAA State Tournament – Central Jersey Sports Radio

The Monroe Falcons girls’ basketball team had lost twice to South Brunswick this year, and the third time turned out to be the charm.

A semifinal win over the Vikings Saturday morning – on the road, mind you – now has them in the Central Jersey Group 4 title game against another somewhat familiar foe. They’ll take on defending champion Jackson Memorial, a team they don’t play all too frequently, but which knocked them out of the CJ4 bracket in last year’s semifinals.

Everyone remembers, and you know how things go in the state tournament.

Monroe is 17-9 this season, fairly on par with last year’s 18-6 campaign. Jackson is 20-9 under head coach Rachel Goodale – the sister of Rutgers wrestling coach Scott Goodale – also about where they were last year.

So how do things go in the state tournament?

Well, when the third-seeded Falcons beat 2-seed South Brunswick on Saturday, they probably figured they should hire a bus just down the road to Hightstown, the top-seed, for Monday night. But as it turns out, the Jaguars upset the Rams, 61-44 Saturday, leaving Monroe as the higher seed, and thus hosting a title game for the first time since 2016. They won CJ4 that year, too, beating Hunterdon Central before losing to South 4 champ Lenape in the group semifinals.

The Falcons have only one player scoring in double figures on the season, and don’t go terribly deep, but their starting five all averages at least seven-and-a-half points a game. Junior Halley Cottrell leads with 11.8 per contest, though it’s sophomore Evangelina Francisco who has really come on in the NJSIAA Tournament.

Of her five highest games the entire season, the last three in the states all figure into that mix, including a career-best 26 – her only 20-plus point game ever – in the semifinals against South Brunswick. She’s averaging 12.7 points a game in the playoffs.

No other Falcon has more than one 10-plus point game in the last three. But they really haven’t had to, and Francisco will look to continue the hot hand.

But in all, the lineup is steadied by two seniors – Haley Higgins and Katie Louro – who have been starters all four years in high school, and have been a part of 71 total victories in that span, an enormous feat considering 2021 was shortened by COVID.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with Monroe seniors Haley Higgins and Katie Louro:

As for Jackson, they’ve had a similar season to last year, record-wise. They made it through the preliminary round of the Shore Conference Tournament – an invitational, not an automatic qualifier tourney like the GMC – with a win over Monmouth, before getting bounced by St. Rose of Belmar in the first round. They were 8-2 in the Shore A South division, finishing second to Toms River North. But the Mariners were bounced from South 4 in the semifinals by Lenape.

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Senior Zoie Maffei is the top scorer, at 18.2 points a game, and fellow senior Chloe Messer is right behind at 13.7. And they have a little more height than Monroe, which could present some matchup problems.

In the 61-44 semifinal win over Hightstown, the Jags got a double-double from Maffei – 12 points and 10 rebounds – while another senior, Kamile Makselyte – added 18 points and 12 boards.

Every year is a different team, but sometimes it’s the same result.

Fans of the Colonia boys’ basketball team hope that’s very much the case this year, as their fourth-seeded Patriots (21-8) will play for a second straight North 2, Group 3 title Monday night at 6:00 when they take on sixth-seed Snyder (17-11) out of Jersey City.

Colonia got there with a semifinal win over top-seed South Plainfield, an upset by seed, but really could have gone either way between two of the top teams in the GMC all year. The Patriots took control of after the Tigers got off to a hot start. Read more on Colonia’s semifinal win here, including postgame interviews by Chris Tsakonas with junior point guard Jaeden Jones and head coach Jose Rodriguez.

And so, here they are, back in the sectional finals for a fourth straight time, having never missed a sectional title tilt under head coach Jose Rodriguez, now in his fifth season.

The stretch began in 2019 when the blue-and-gold made the finals in Rodriguez’ first season, losing to Irvington. The next year, they came back and beat West Morris 57-33 on the road. Unfortunately, Colonia wouldn’t get a chance at a title the next year during the COVID-shortened season, but won the next-best-thing: the Jay Williams-Karl Anthony Towns GMC pod, a four-game “postseason” allowed by the NJSIAA in lieu of county and state tournaments.

But once the NJSIAA tournament came back last season, Colonia picked up right where it left off: winning a title, beating South Plainfield 56-52 in a double-overtime instant classic.

READ MORE ON THE 2022 CHAMPIONSHIP: Colonia needs double-OT to stave off South Plainfield as Pats take North 2, Group 3 title

So, here are the Patriots, looking for a third straight title in North 2, Group 3. Not to look past, but they hope to take it a step further this year, as the last two times they have been knocked out in the group semifinals, last year by Ramapo, and in 2020 by Irvington.

Junior point guard Jaeden Jones makes it all go, averaging 15 points per game but perhaps more importantly six assists in three state tournament games so far, wins over North Hunterdon, Chatham and South Plainfield. Senior Noah Taylor had a double-double in the quarterfinals against Chatham – 16 points and 10 boards – and though he was held scoreless against the Tigers, he grabbed another ten rebounds, critical in the victory as the Patriots had a 27-19 rebounding edge in the game.

Click below to hear them talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

The Patriots will be playing for their eighth sectional title in program history. And a win against Snyder would give them three in the last four NJSIAA state tournaments. In addition to the 2019 and 2022 wins, they also won North 2, Group 3 in 2015.

Chris Chiera was the head coach of that 2015 title team, which beat Chatham in a raucus game in Colonia’s gym, 45-43. Colonia had to rally in the fourth quarter, down 35-29 heading into the final eight minutes. The place was rocking that night, and even alum Eric LeGrand was in attendance. One of Chiera’s assistants on that team was Joe LaSala, LeGrand’s childhood friend and football teammate at Colonia, who now is the head football coach at Woodbridge.

That team then lost to Bergenfield in the Group 3 semifinals up at East Orange Campus High School.

Other titles also included a win in North 2, Group 3 in 2007, Central Jersey Group 3 titles in 1994 and 1985, and a Central Jersey Group 4 crown in 1972.

Colonia has never made it to a group final.

As for Snyder, the Tigers got knocked out of the Hudson County Tournament in the quarterfinals, 59-56 by Union City. They’ve not won more than four games in a row this season, and that only happened once: in their first four games, with wins over Lincoln, Columbia, Bayonne and Dickinson.

They have been led all year long senior point guard Ahmad Robertson, averaging 12.9 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. He also averages just over four assists per game to lead the team, and has a Snyder-best 61 steals on the year.

But the key late in the year has been Senior Samir Jordan – a transfer from North Star Academy – who didn’t play until February second. And since then, all he’s done is pour in points. Specifically, he scored 23 against Payne Tech in the semifinals, had a career high 28 against Mendham in the semis, and has averaged 21.2 points in the ten games he’s played since becoming eligible.