Tag: NJSIAA

March 13, 2026March 13, 2026 by Mike Pavlichko

Experienced and ready, Montgomery boys seek first-ever state title in Group 4 finals rematch with Plainfield

At the end of the day, throw the seeds out, and just look at where the two teams playing in Saturday’s Group 4 state boys’ basketball title game rank statewide.

Montgomery was a three-seed in its Central Jersey Group 4 playoff section, and had to go on the road to beat top-seed Hillsborough in overtime to win it. Plainfield was a four-seed in North 2, Group 4 and had to travel to beat a higher seed as well – Linden, the two – to win the title.

But these are not your typical three- and four-seeds. Montgomery is the tenth-ranked team in the state, per NJ.com, with Plainfield five spots ahead. They are No. 1 and No. 2 when you take out the non-publics.

And quite truthfully, that’s more like it.

But no matter how you slice it, whoever is inside Jersey Mike’s Arena at Rutgers Saturday when Montgomery (26-4) and Plainfield (25-5) play for the Group 4 title in a rematch of last year’s title game should get every single penny of their dollar’s worth.

You can hear that game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio – for free, with no paywall – beginning with the pregame show, set for 1:40 pm with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel. Click here to listen.

The Cougars have it going on all cylinders right now, and have been well-tested in the state tournament. After a blowout win over Manalapan in the opening round of the sectionals, they earned a ten-point win over Trenton, then went on the road and won back-to-back games: by 12 at Marlboro and 55-47 in OT at neighboring Hillsborough to take home their third straight sectional title, and fourth overall, all of which have come under current head coach Kris Grundy.

And he has a more than capable team.

It starts with Ethan Lin, the Penn-bound senior point guard who runs the show, in every sense of the word. Through the sectional finals, he had poured in 25, 31, 30 and 22 points, but one might be prompted to wonder how he was held to just nine in the Group 4 semis against Cherry Hill.

Watch the game, and you’ll know. Lin has an uncanny ability to know when he has to score, and when he doesn’t. He’ll gladly concede 20 points off his game to let someone else have them if that means Montgomery wins.

And that’s what he did against Cherry Hill East Tuesday night. He kept feeding the ball to two sophomores, Mike Simborski and Shriyans Mallavarapu. Simborski finished with 28, three shy of a career high, while Mallavarapu topped his previous best of 16 points with 23, while he also grabbed 12 rebounds and said “no” to a number of layup attempts by the other team named the Cougars.

But those three are just the start. Connor Benedict – always busy making deflections and stealing the ball – also can light it up from three. And then there’s the literal “X” factor off the bench, junior Xavier Harrigan, a multi-sport athlete who recorded 49 tackles last year – 41 solo – from his spot in the secondary.

Monty has four losses all year: twice to Rutgers Prep – once in the regular season and once in the Somerset County Tournament – once to North 2, Group 4 finalist Linden, and once to newly-minted Non-Public Group B state champion Gill St. Bernard’s.

Not bad at all.

On the Plainfield side, the Cardinals won’t win 30 games again this year – they finished 29-3 last season – but are still among the top public schools in the state

Micah Gordon – an uncommitted junior with his biggest offers from Tennessee and Mississippi State, among others – is the top dog (bird?) for the Cards. The point guard is averaging a shade under 25 points a game on the season, and he’ll eclipse the 2,000-point mark in his career very early next season/later in 2026, already sitting at 1,821 points.

He’s scoring at a 24.4 point per game clip in the state playoffs, where – even more impressive, in a dominating win over Linden – he had perhaps his finest moment in the tournament: 33 points, seven assists, three treys, and something you rarely see at any level of basketball: 14-of-16 from the foul line.

Then three of the next four top scorers – seniors Rashawn Williams, Devin Thomas, and Kamai Lowery – are, like Montgomery’s Harrigan – football players, and bring a unique dynamic to a team that plays in the rugged Union County Conference.

Williams and another senior, Tylor Hunter, are the team’s top rebounders, while Gordon and Thomas have each hit 48 triples on the year.

With two point guards who can take over the game at any time, this one might be as entertaining for the offensive exploits of those on the floor as it is watching each side’s defense try to contain the other side.

Click below for preview interviews with both head coaches:

Montgomery head coach Kris Grundy with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko

Plainfield head coach Mike Gordon with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel

Quirky/Useless Stat of the Day: Montgomery is 2-0 against teams whose schools start with the letter C. Ironically, both are named “Cougars.” They had a 72-32 win over the Central Jersey College Charter Cougars on January 30th, and beat the Cherry Hill East Cougars Tuesday in the Group 4 semifinals, 67-57.

LINKS TO PREVIOUS MONTGOMERY STATE TOURNAMENT COVERAGE:

March 13, 2026 by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY – Group 4 Semifinals (Girls): Lenape 54, Franklin 35

Central 4 champion Franklin couldn’t find its shot, and fell to South 4 champion Lenape 54-35 in the state Group 4 semifinals. The Warriors were led by Nola Bright, who narrowly missed a double-double with ten points and nine rebounds.

Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Deptford High School on March 10, 2026.

March 13, 2026March 13, 2026 by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY – Group 4 Semifinals (Boys): Montgomery 67, Cherry Hill East 37

Central 4 champion Montgomery got a career high 23 points and some big blocks from Shriyans Mallavarapu and a game-high 28 points from Mike Simborski – both sophomores – as the Cougars beat South 4 champion Cherry Hill East in the Group 4 state semifinals. The win sends Montgomery back to the state Group 4 championship game against Plainfield for the second year in a row.

Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Deptford High School on March 10, 2026.

March 12, 2026March 13, 2026 by Mike Pavlichko

Historic Knight! Dominant defense by Dixon and Co. lead Gill St. Bernard’s boys to first-ever state title, 39-28 win over Holy Cross

A low-scoring game, with both teams feeling each other out, turned into a defensive clinic at Rutgers’ Jersey Mike’s Arena Thursday night.

No, it wasn’t a Steve Pikiell summer camp. It was the Non-Public Group B state title game.

And it was Gill St. Bernard’s – after leading just 6-2 after one quarter – ahead 20-2 at halftime.

While one might think it was over at that point in the Non-Public Group B final, the mantra for Holy Cross this post seaosn has been “We’re there, why not us?”

And with that, they got back into the game.

Tristan Ganges – who had the only points of the first half for the Lancers, quickly got the first six of the second half to cut into the lead. Holy Cross kept it around ten most of the second half, even getting it down to six in the fourth quarter.

But in the end, the Gill defense was just too strong, led primarily by Jahmal Dixon, always assigned the opposition’s best player. But Prosper Sonkoua also had a number of blocks – as he does – and even Connor Junker was cleaning up with loose floor rebounds. The Knights forced 16 turnovers, while only committing nine, and they outrebounded the Lancers 34 to 17.

In the end, Gill held on for a 39-28 win, earning the Knights’ (27-2) their first ever state championship.

Their season also ends with a 24-game win streak, matching a school record set in the 2010-11 season, head coach Mergin Sina’s first year leading the program after coaching the Gill girls for six years.

Junker, the sophomore who hit some big threes to lead Gill to the 2025 Somerset County Tournament title – a feat they reprised this year – finished with a game-high 13 points, while senior Dorsett Mulcahy had a dozen. Each also had a triple, while Dixon had one, too, and finished with seven.

Holy Cross finished its season at 27-4.

Click below for postgame reaction from Alec Crouthamel with Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mergin Sina, as well as guards Connor Junker, Jahmal Dixon and Dorsett Mulcahy, as well as forward Prosper Sonkoua, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

March 12, 2026 by Mike Pavlichko

Gloucester Catholic’s aggressive D too much for Gill St. Bernard’s, dashes Knights’ hopes in Non-Public B final, 62-39

Lisa Gedaka, the head coach in her 37th year at Gloucester Catholic, had 760 wins coming into Thursday’s Non-Public Group B girls’ title game.

But coming into last year, the Rams had never won a sectional title.

Well, now they have two, and two state titles as well, as they beat Gill St. Bernard’s 62-39 Tuesday night in the state finals at Rutgers’ Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway – in a game heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio – led by 22 points from senior Jahzara Green, and 13 from junior Amanda Eggers, who also had four treys.

Gill had a tough time getting shots to go down early, and had a tough time finding open looks, even as they would double- and triple-team senior Addy Platt, who finished with 15 points in her final game before heading off to St. Joseph in Philadelphia.

The Knights (22-6) made a bit of a run early in the second half. The difference is they hit their first couple of shots, and were able to set up their pressure and defense. But the run was short-lived, even though they trimmed what was a ten-point halftime deficit to seven midway through the third.

Junior Kaity Platt, Addy’s younger sister, had some key threes in the third as the Knights tried to come back. She finished with 13 and three treys.

The Rams finish their season at 25-4.

Click below for postgame reaction from Gloucester Catholic head coach Lisa Gedaka, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen.

Gill St. Bernard's guard Kaity Platt (14) goes up with a layup through contact.

March 12, 2026March 12, 2026 by Alec Crouthamel

Gill St. Bernard’s girls bring good times to Rutgers for Non-Public B final against Gloucester Catholic

Think back to March of 2012.

Adele and Flo Rida ruled the music charts, the Big East Conference was finishing up its penultimate year in its prime form before realignment destroyed it (nope, definitely not bitter), and the Gill St. Bernard’s girl’s basketball team stood at the top as Non-Public state champions, and sectional champions for the third straight year, under former head coach Aaron Gratch.

Now in 2026, the Knights (22-5) are back near the peak of the mountain in the state final, though no Tournament of Champions to follow like the 2012 team, so this is it.

Gill plays for all the marbles on Thursday at Jersey Mike’s Arena on the campus of Rutgers University, in the Non-Public B final against Gloucester Catholic. Tip-off time from Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway is at 5 pm, and we’ve got live coverage on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel calling all the action. Pregame starts at 4:45; click here to listen.

The boys’ game for the Non-Public Group B title against Holy Cross Prep of Delran against will also be broadcast live on CJSR at 7 pm.

Gill has played efficient, workmanlike basketball throughout its path to its first sectional title since the three-peat from 2010-12, but now faces one of its toughest tests yet against the Rams (25-4).

Addy and Kaity Platt once again steal the headlines, and combined for 31 points in the sectional final win over Saddle River Day, but it’s been a team-wide effort to get to this point for the Knights. With point guard Melina Miller setting the table and wing Sadie Finn doing the dirty work with tough defense and extra passes, it’s no wonder Gill has responded with a deep run after a tremendous senior class graduated.

This also won’t be the first time these two teams have seen each other this season. Way back in December — where three months ago feels like three years ago — Gloucester Catholic responded from an early deficit and put the clamps down on Gill for a 60-45 victory at the Shore Games in Colts Neck.

But both teams have evolved in the time since, and are playing at their best at the right time.

It’s a battle of similar but contrasting styles. Neither team goes particularly deep into their bench — both stick with a main six in the rotation, with a seventh usually mixed in somewhere — and both will send pressure in the backcourt. But Gill wants to get out and run, while the Rams are happy to play in a slower, grind-it-out type game.

That’s exactly how Gloucester Catholic — the second seed and champion of South Jersey Group B — won its second straight sectional title against top-seeded Rutgers Prep back on Monday night. The Rams were able to slow the game down and, combined with plenty of missed shots from the Argonauts, hold Rutgers Prep to its lowest scoring total of the year.

They also have continuity on their side, with no graduating seniors from a team that made it to this same stage last year. Senior trio Jalyn Moore, Jahzara Green, and Talia Shumate all played in that state title — a 41-30 loss to Montclair Immaculate, led by now-Franklin head coach Jimmy Kreie before the school closed at the end of the year — and all played pivotal roles in Gloucester Catholic’s December win over the Knights.

Add in a leader with over 700 career wins in 37th-year head coach, and Rams graduate herself Lisa Gedaka, and Gloucester Catholic will not be fazed by the bright lights. The Rams will battle for their first state title since 1983, Gedaka’s junior season.

But Gill is executing at some of the highest levels ninth-year head coach Mark Gnapp has seen in his time in Gladstone. With the state crown — and two long championship droughts — on the line, it may come down to who has the ball last at Rutgers.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel talk with Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mark Gnapp about the Knights’ Non-Public B title matchup against Gloucester Catholic:

March 12, 2026March 12, 2026 by Mike Pavlichko

Sectional trophy in hand, Gill St. Bernard’s boys seek first-ever state title when Knights head down to Rutgers to take on Holy Cross Prep

With all the success Mergin Sina has had leading the boys’ basketball program at Gill St. Bernard’s – including too many Division 1 prospects to count and ten Somerset County titles – it had been a while since they won a sectional championship.

So close last season, and with a wacky finish that cost Sina the first two games of this season for arguing a controversial late game call – something he’ll willingly bring up on his own, by the way – the Knights avenged their defeat at the hands of perennial state power Roselle Catholic with a 58-47 win Monday in the Non-Public North B title game.

Now, there’s just one more game left, as Gill seeks its first ever state title when it takes on Holy Cross Prep out of Delran in the Non-Public Group B final at Rutgers. Tip-off time from Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway is at 7 pm, and we’ve got live coverage on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel calling all the action. Pregame starts at 6:45; click here to listen.

That game will follow the Gill girls taking on Gloucester Catholic for the girls title at 5 pm, which also can be heard on CJSR.

Gill St. Bernard’s was the top-seed in North B, and comes in with a 27-2 mark, on a 23-game win streak. That’s one win away from what’s likely a school record of 24, which they set in 2011, albeit in a season where they won the Somerset County Tournament, but fell to St. Patrick’s of Elizabeth in the sectional semis.

Nearly all season long, Gill has just been consistently good. They always play “big boy” basketball, but this squad – while they’re also having fun – has been all business on the court. They get up and down in transition, Dorsett Mulcahy leads the offense, Prosper Sonkua cleans up on the glass and blocks shots like it’s going out of style, Jahmal Dixon plays lock-down defense, and Connor Junker hits threes.

Gill has hit a whopping 251 threes on the year. That’s not No. 1 in the state – Rutgers Prep is, with 282 – but it’s pretty darn close. And they’re easily the top perimeter-shooting team left in the state tournament.

Meanwhile, Holy Cross Prep – the second-seed in Non-Public South B out of Delran in Burlington County, just south of Trenton – comes in at 27-4, winners of 11 straight. They beat Westhampton Tech, the eventual Central Jersey Group 3 champion, to win the Burlington County Tournament a few weeks ago, and fifth-seed Bishop Eustace, 55-42, back on Monday to win the South B sectional title.

They’re led by senior Josh Swain, averaging 18.2 points per game, while fellow senior Jordan Owens is averaging 17.5 per contest. They’ve also hit a lot of threes – 205 on the year – but are a lower scoring team than Gill, averaging 60 points per game, compared the the Knights at 71.1. And Gill has a rebounding edge, too on the season, averaging just under 34, while the Lancers are at 25.8 per game.

Gill is coming off its second sectional title in school history, with Holy Cross picking up its first, so both teams are looking for their first-ever state title.

Click below to hear Gill St. Bernard’s coach Mergin Sina talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko about the Non-Public B title game against Holy Cross Prep:

March 12, 2026March 11, 2026 by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY – Non-Public North B Final (Girls): (1) Gill St. Bernard’s 57, (2) Saddle River Day 40

Senior Addy Platt scored 16 points and had eight rebounds, while four Knights scored in double figures, as top-seed Gill St. Bernard’s beat second-seed Saddle River Day, 57-40, in the Non-Public North B championship game, giving Gill its first sectional title since 2012.

Click below to listen to Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from JFK High School in Paterson on March 9, 2026.

March 12, 2026March 11, 2026 by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY – Non-Public North B Final (Boys): (1) Gill St. Bernard’s 58, (2) Roselle Catholic 49

Gill St. Bernard’s got 19 points and five treys from Dorsett Mulcahy, plus 16 from Prosper Sonkoua and ten from Jahmal Dixon en route to a 58-49 win over Roselle Catholic in the Non-Public North B final, giving the Knights their first sectional championship since 2012.

Click below to listen to Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from JFK High School in Paterson on March 9, 2026.

March 11, 2026March 13, 2026 by Mike Pavlichko

Record four Central Jersey Sports Radio-area basketball teams head to Rutgers for state finals

Talk about a banner year. In our sixth season of existence, a record four high school basketball teams from the Central Jersey Sports Radio coverage area will be playing for state championships over the next few days at Rutgers University.

There are two publics and two non-publics in the bunch, with Colonia the lone Middlesex County team to make the state finals. Gill St. Bernard’s will send its boys’ and girls’ teams to Piscataway, while Montgomery heads back for a second year in a row giving Somerset County three teams playing for titles.

Here’s the schedule for area teams, and all games can be heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Bookmark this link to listen all weekend!

THURSDAY, MARCH 12

Gill St. Bernard's celebrates a North Jersey Non-Public B championship on March 9th, 2026 (Photo: Alec Crouthamel). — Gill St. Bernard’s celebrates a North Jersey Non-Public B championship on March 9th, 2026 (Photo: Alec Crouthamel).

Non-Public Group B Girls’ Final: Gill St. Bernard’s (22-5, 1 seed, North) vs. Gloucester Catholic (25-4, 2 seed, South), 5 pm
Non-Public Group B Boys’ Final: Gill St. Bernard’s (27-2, 1 seed, North) vs. Holy Cross Prep, Delran (27-4, 2 seed, South), 7 pm