One site, two days, eight games – four on the girls’ side, four on the boys.
It’s time for the Greater Middlesex Tournament quarterfinals, as the girls take the first day of four games at Middlesex County College in Edison all day Saturday. Seven of the top eight seeds made it to the quarters, with the only one not to make it eighth-seed Spotswood, which got knocked off by No. 9 Middlesex in the “first round” on Wednesday night.
Here’s a closer look at all four games on Saturday’s schedule:
#3 Colonia (12-10) vs. #6 Old Bridge (13-8), 11 am
The Patriots have taken their lumps having moved up from the White to the Red Division, but they can be a dangerous team, and they’re still the No. 3 seed for a reason. They also could just as well by 16-6 right now, with four of their five losses in the division coming by a total of 22 points, and none by more than seven. These teams have split their last four games, but only played once each in 2018 and 2021 before meeting twice this year. Old Bridge won 52-45 on January third, while Colonia won the rematch 46-43 on January 24th.
For the third season in a row, the Patriots are led by Mattison Chiera and Taylor Derkack. A junior, Derkack is the team’s top scorer at 21.6 points per game, while Chiera is averaging 14.7. That’s a combined 36.3 points; the problem is, they’re only scoring 47. They’ll need others to chip in, like swing sophomore Isabel Gidado, who’s third in scoring at 4.5 a game. No one else has scored more than 51 points the entire season. That’s something head coach Sandi Chiera – Mattie’s mom – was looking for coming into the year, a supporting cast, and so far, it’s been elusive.
Old Bridge, meanwhile, has won four of its last five, including a 52-44 win over Piscataway Wednesday night in the first round, their third win over the Chiefs this season. In their early January win over Colonia, Gabrielle Walker led the way with 14 points and seven boards, while Malvina Sullivan grabbed 11 rebounds. Limiting Chiera and Derkack will be the main goal here for Alec Alspach’s team. It doesn’t happen often, but Colonia is 1-3 when Chiera is held to single digits, 3-5 when Derkack scores in the teens.
#2 South Brunswick (16-6) vs. #7 East Brunswick (13-10), 1 pm
The Vikings are a serious No. 2 seed, and have a lot of offensive weapons. They finished 10-4 in the Red Division, second behind top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas, which they lost to twice this year, but only by eight in their first meeting back on December 20th. That, along with Aquinas’ following game against Old Bridge, were their closest division games all year. Senior Katie Rausch – a newly-minted 1,000-point scorer – leads the team at 13.7 points per game, along with a team-best 44 three-pointers. But they have balance at the top. Alexis Lease-Springer – just a sophomore – averages 12.8 a game, and has hit 31 from downtown, while junior Meher Vig averages 11.1 per game. She’s hit 26 threes, while Leilani Pinder – another junior – has hit 20. Senior guard Cynai Price rounds a tough lineup that shares the ball, which is part of what makes them so tough.
The Lady Bears dropped both meetings this year to the Vikings, but played them to within 11 their last time out, just nine days ago, an 80-49 defeat. And they may be the hottest team all of a sudden on the GMC girls’ side. Consider than on January 26th, they were 6-9, and come into this one 13-10, having won seven of their last eight games. In the first round Wednesday, it was senior guard Nicole Motusesky, willing her team to a win in the final two minutes of the game, spurring a monumental comeback from down 12, scoring the last dozen points of the game on four three-point baskets. And she’s not even the team’s leading scorer. That falls to senior forward Tamea El with 12.1 points per game (and 10.8 rebounds) as well as Brooke Motusesky – Nicole’s cousin – with 11 a game. The Bears are deep as well, which makes this a great matchup.
#4 Monroe (13-7) vs. #5 Edison (19-4), 3 pm
The Falcons have beaten Edison five straight times, dating back to 2018, and none but that first one five years ago – by a 54-52 score – was close. The others have been wins by 34, 21, 25 and 24 points. This year’s matchup went Monroe’s way, 60-36, but the Falcons have come up with some big wins in years past, and this goes right on the list (see: their upset of eventual GMCT Champion St. Thomas Aquinas in the regular season last year). Leigh Vogtman is one of the top coaches in the GMC, and she will have her team ready for an Edison squad that is having its best year since 2018-19, when they went 20-7, lost to then-Bishop Ahr in the GMC Tournament final, and went to the North 2, Group 4 quarterfinals. Junior Halley Cottrell is the team’s leading scorer at 13 points per game, also getting significant contributions from seniors Katelyn Louro (also the team’s top rebounder at 5.5 a game) and Haley Higgins, as well as sophomore Evangelina Francisco, and junior Nicole Turco, the niece of Aquinas boys’ coach Bob Turco, daughter of his brother Dave, the current Kean men’s basketball coach who lead St. Joseph-Metuchen to the Tournament of Champions title in 2014.
Edison won its first eleven games of the year before that loss to Monroe on January 12th, and since has defeats to North Plainfield, East Brunswick and South Brunswick. They’re coming off a dismantling of Woodbridge in the opening round, 62-31, behind Ghelsey Go’s 24 points and 14 rebounds, her ninth game with 20 or more points this season. She averages 16.7 points and 7.8 boards a game, and is having a fantastic year. But so is the rest of the team. Go, senior Keisha Ortiz and freshman Trista Whitney – both averaging 12.7 points per game – all can score from deep; all have at least 30 made threes this year, with Go leading the way with 34. They’ve won some big, and some close this season, and that should make this one a good one to watch.
#1 St. Thomas Aquinas (18-6) vs. #9 Middlesex (17-5), 5 pm
An intriguing matchup as Blue Jays’ head coach Kevin Harper goes up against his old school, which unceremoniously let him go in 2016. The winningest coach in GMC girls’ history, he was quickly snapped up by Middlesex AD Mike O’Donnell, and has flourished since, now 122 and 26 with the Jays’ program. (He’s 719-322 overall, including 27 years at then-Bishop Ahr, where he won two GMCT titles.) And these teams naturally don’t play much. Their last meeting was in the COVID-shortened season, a game Middlesex won 59-50, but a highly anticipated matchup in the GMC’s Somogyi Family Pod that year never materialized, as they had to bow out due to COVID cases on the team before the four-game mini-tournament even began.
It’s a tall order for them in Saturday’s finale, simply because of their depth. Only six, maybe seven players see significant minutes, but they do have some very talented players in that group. Senior Neysa Aguilar – the only senior in the rotation leads the team in scoring at 21 points per game, grabbing nearly eight rebounds per contest. Then there’s sophomore Jess Divine, who is averaging 18.7 a game, along with a whopping 6.4 steals per, and dishing out 6.4 assists per contest. She sure get everyone involved, and is a three-point threat herself, with 31 from downtown, second only to junior Jaclyn DeShields, with a team-leading 41 treys on the year. Aguilar his hit 21 on the season, as well. Middlesex can get up and down the floor, and they will, but so can Aquinas.
St. Thomas – led by another girls’ basketball coaching giant in Joe Whalen, who’s 203-42 in his nine seasons in North Edison, plus time spent at St. Rose Belmar and Montclair-Immaculate – is deep and talented. And they’ve won three straight GMC Tournament titles. Amarillis Shubick is the point guard who makes everything go, and has not been needed to score as much this year. Senior Jessica Cooper – an Albany commit – leads the team there with 12.6 points per game. Gianna Chuffo (9.7 ppg) can bury it from deep, with 66 made baskets from beyond the arc. But maybe the biggest plus is the defense, which is averaging nearly 11 steals a game. They can get up and down the floor, too. They’re long, smart, and have been challenged by a grueling out-of-conference schedule, playing teams like Saddle River Day and Long Island Lutheran, the top team in the country for much of the year, among others. They’re the tournament’s clear-cut favorite, and watching them play, it’s easy to see why.
