Tag: Tim Corrigan

by Mike Pavlichko

Make it seven straight for St. Thomas Aquinas: Trojans top East Brunswick, 62-41, to win yet another GMC Tourney title

It never gets old for St. Thomas Aquinas.

Having won six straight GMC Tournament titles coming in to Friday night’s 40th championship game, second-seed East Brunswick hung around for a while. The Bears were down just six after one, and even had a chance to cut it to nine before the half, but missed a three and ended up down 12.

But the third quarter was the difference. Things opened up – for both teams – but the last thing anyone wants to do is get into a track meet with St. Thomas. They did, and STA extended its lead to 49-29 at the end of three, and by that time, it was well in hand.

In the end, it ended up as a 62-41 win for the top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas (22-5) over second-seed East Brunswick (21-5), as heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio. It was the Trojans’ seventh straight title, extending their GMC-record streak, the longest for either the boys or girls in the 40-year history of the event.

Senior Jordan Barnes was the game’s high scorer, finishing with 20 points. She was MVP as a sophomore, and probably anyone could have been, but it went to Leah Kearney, well-deserved with a 12-point night, averaging 10 per game in the four tournament games.

The win wa also the 80th straight over GMC opponents – regular season and postseason – with their last loss coming in January of 2022, here against Monroe.

That means the senior fore of Barnes, Trista Whitney – who had nine in the final – and Kayla Navarro never lost a single game against a GMC opponent.

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko with junior and GMC Tournament MVP Leah Kearney, senior Trista Whitney, head coach Tim Corrigan, and senior Jordan Barnes, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Final CJSR regular season broadcast pits No. 2 vs. No. 3 as St. Thomas Aquinas girls visit Gill St. Bernard’s

A matchup between St. Thomas Aquinas and Gill St. Bernard’s is rare.

While the two prominent girls’ basketball programs met last year, with Gill claiming a 67-54 win last January 12th in the Coaches’ Choice St. Thomas College Challenge on the Trojans’ home floor, the last time they had played was in 2008, a three-point win for the Knights.

Gill has a different look this season, graduating a slew of talent like Gandy Malou-Mamel (UConn), Sidney Quinn (Naval Academy) and others. But yet, they’re back where they’ve always been – near the top of the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten, with a good shot at defending their Somerset County Tournament crown.

St. Thomas, on the other hand, has a lot of they key parts back, with a starting lineup that is averaging at least ten points per game each, a team which Gill St. Bernard’s coach Mark Gnapp knows you can’t just limit one or two girls, you have to play the whole team.

It’s an intriguing late-season regular season matchup, a good tune-up for the county tournaments and state tourney that are just down the road. And you can hear it on Central Jersey Sports Radio Tuesday evening, with Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas on the call. Tip off is at 5:30 pm up in Peapack-Gladstone, with pregame at 5:15. Click here to listen.

The one big question is whether junior point guard Lauryn Downing will play. She’s been bothered by an ankle injury, and has missed the last two games at Columbia and against Rumson-Fair Haven Sunday. Both were wins, and the Trojans did just fine, but head coach Tim Corrigan calls her “one of the best point guards in New Jersey,” and he’d sure like to have her Tuesday night.

Senior Jordan Barnes paces the Trojans in scoring, with a 16.5 point per game average. The rest of the leaders are spread out. Downing averages 6.4 assists per game, and leads the squad with 68 steals and 24 triples. Then Leah KEarney (11.1 ppg) leads the team in rebounding (10.4 per game) and has a team-best 28 blocks.

For Gill, senior guard Addy Platt has taken the scoring baton, averaging 18.3 points per game, while also leading the team with 42 blocks and 77 steals. Younger sister Kaity, a junior, leads at 6.8 rebounds per game, while Melina Miller has a team best 96 assists, and freshman Naima Morales-Solivan has a team-best 20 treys.

St. Thomas hasn’t lost at all in 2026, having won 11 straight, all in the New Year, while Gill had won a dozen in a row before last Thursday’s 51-44 loss at Rutgers Prep, in a game that decided the Skyland Conference Delaware Division title. Aquinas is the GMC Red American champion, its ninth straight division title dating to 2019. (Division champs were not crowned in the COVID-shortened season of 2021.)

Click below to hear preview interviews with both head coaches:

St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Tim Corrigan with Chris Tsakonas
Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mark Gnapp with Mike Pavlichko
by Mike Pavlichko

No. 2 St. Thomas Aquinas is tested, but pulls away late for 61-51 win over Saddle River Day

Having dominated the Greater Middlesex Conference for a while now – winning 78 straight against league competition going back to January 2022 – St. Thomas Aquinas has challenged itself with a strong non-league schedule.

And while Saddle River Day doesn’t have the kind of record they’ve had in the past, they’re a traditionally strong program that had won five of their last six games after getting a key transfer in the lineup after an injury, and proved to be a more than worthy opponent for the Trojans Monday afternoon in North Edison.

In a game that was tight all the way and went back-and-forth in the second and third quarters, the Trojans eventually built up to a 12-point fourth quarter lead and beat the visiting Rebels 61-51, in a game heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Senior Trista Whitney finished with 14 points – nine in the second half – with two treys, while fellow senior Jordan Barnes added 11, and senior Leah Kearney chipped in 13 for St. Thomas Aquinas (14-3), which is now on a nine-game win streak.

With STA known for its intense defense, seemingly getting in the way of nearly every pass, Saddle River Day (8-6) clearly watched some tape and was prepared, using crisp, quick passing to break the Aquinas pressure in the back court. But it was still just a six point STA lead at the break.

And while Rebel sophomore Grace Darling, the team’s leading scorer, finished with 26 points and three treys – seven points above her average – Aquinas made Harper Cohn, in just her seventh game back recovering from and ACL injury, nearly invisible in the scoring column, holding her to five points, and just two in the second half.

St. Thomas led just 46-43 at the end of three, but pulled away on the strength of a 15-8 final eight minutes.

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko with St. Thomas Aquinas senior Trista Whitney and head coach Tim Corrigan, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

No. 2 St. Thomas Aquinas to meet Saddle River Day Monday in MLK Day matinee

Believe it or not, the regular season in high school basketball is well past the halfway point, seemingly speeding its way to the county tournaments, and after that, it’ll be the states.

The St. Thomas Aquinas girls basketball team is playing some really good basketball right now, and will continue to challenge itself Monday morning when the second-ranked Trojans welcome Saddle River Day to their brand-new court in North Edison.

The two will square off in an 11 am game on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, and you can listen to it all here on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel will bring you all the play-by-play, with pregame set for 10:45. Click here to listen.

After starting the season 6-1, then dropping two games in the Coaches Choice Holiday Classic up at FDU in Madison over the break, Aquinas (14-3, 10-0 GMC Red National) has won eight straight. And their point production in the latter part of that span has been tremendous, averaging a hair under 81 points per game in their last five, winning by an average of 37.6 points per game.

And while some really good seniors graduated – top scorer Leah Crosby and three-point specialists Gianna Chuffo and Adrianna Summerset – there’s a ton of experience back.

Senior forward Jordan Barnes has taken over the main scoring load, averaging 17.6 points per game, while junior Leah Kearney is cleaning up on the boards, and Lauryn Downing is lighting it up from three. Trista Whitney and Kayla Navarro round out a group of five who are all averaging at least 10 points per game.

The matchup also is an intriguing one as it features two former Greater Middlesex Conference standouts. While St. Thomas Aquinas coach Tim Corrigan is a St. Joseph-Metuchen grad (who later played at Kean), Saddle River Day is led by first-year head coach Corey Taite.

His name would be familiar to GMC fans in the early and mid-2010s. Taite was a point guard at Sayreville, playing under current head coach John Wojcik, and scored 1,176 points in his career, making him the first 1,000-point scorer at the time in 15 years. (Three more have joined the club since, including current players Sam Jones and Chidi Chukwuri.)

Taite played collegiately ate Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Delaware before heading overseas to play pro ball in Ireland. When he came back to the States, he got into coaching and liked it so much he decided his playing days were over.

Three years ago, he joined the Saddle River Day staff as an assistant, and now leads the program.

The Rebels are one of the top girls’ basketball programs in the state, and have won nine straight Bergen County Tournament titles. This year, they’ve struggled to an 8-5 start (4-1 in the NJIC) due to injuries.

Sophomore Olivia DiGiovanni – a projected starter – won’t play this year due to an ACL injury, freshman Jackie Sarkar is out with a bone bruise, and senior Madison Minicucci is out the rest of the year, too.

Even Harper Cohn – a transfer in from Mahwah with 752 career points – sat out the first three weeks or so of the season, finishing her recovery from her own ACL injury. But she’s a key part of the operation now, third on the team in scoring at 10.6 points per game. Another junior, Emily Mattson – who comes in from Union Catholic – is scoring at 12.6 per game, and also is close to joining the thousand-point club, with 813.

Sophomore Grace Darling leads the team with 19.5 points per game, 35 treys and 36 steals.

Click below to hear previews of Monday’s game with both head coaches:

St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Tim Corrigan
Saddle River Day head coach Corey Taite

by Mike Pavlichko

St. Thomas Aquinas girls still the team to beat in Greater Middlesex Conference in 2025-26

It’s been so long since someone else won the GMC Girls’ Basketball Tournament, that the team that has won the last six straight went by a completely different name when that streak began.

Not counting the four-team (actually three, due to illness) mini pod in the COVID-shortened 2021 season (Monroe won it), St. Thomas Aquinas has won every year going back to 2019, when it was still called Bishop Ahr. The wildest part is that was two coaches ago: Brittney Griffin won two in 2019 and 2020, then Joe Whalen won a pair in 2022 and 2023, and current head coach Tim Corrigan – who was on Whalen’s staff – has won the last two.

Little is expected to be different this year: the Trojans will be the heavy favorite to win the league again, with a slew of talent coming back.

Gone are Gianna Chuffo, Leah Crosby, Adrianna Summersett and Morgan Kotka to graduation but there are plenty more household names returning.

Trista Whitney – who led the team in scoring last season at 12.9 ppg, dishing out four assists per game, and hit 33 treys – is back for her senior season, and Lauren Downing (9 ppg, 5 apg) is back as a junior. Then, there’s also Kayla Navarro and Leah Kearney, as well as Jordan Barnes, who was second on the team in scoring last season at 10.w points per game, adding 35 triples.

Then, there are newcomers: 5-9 junior Sydney Joseph (16.5 ppg, 32 treys) transfers in from North Brunswick for more scoring power. Liana Lopena (10 ppg, 39 treys) comes in from Brick Memorial of the Shore Conference.

Click below to hear St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball coach Tim Corrigan preview the 2025-26 season with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

St. Thomas Aquinas will be heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio on Monday, January 19, when they entertain Saddle River Day at 5 pm.

by Mike Pavlichko

Local hoops coaches supportive of NJSIAA’s new H.S. Basketball mercy rule, running clock

With the NJSIAA instituting a statewide running clock mercy rule in high school basketball – standardizing the previously-optional rule across New Jersey – it will certainly have effects on many games and programs this winter.

The intent, of course, is to prevent mammoth blowouts, or at least keep them from getting further out of hand.. Now, when a score differential reaches 35 points in the second half, the clock will run continuously, only to be stopped for time outs, injuries, technical fouls, or officials’ stoppages. It will only return to normal if the game reaches overtime, which is a longshot.

But there are other effects, too. We’ve seen a couple running clock games in recent years, since the Skyland Conference already had such a rule, and the Greater Middlesex Conference was set to institute it this year, albeit at 30 points. (Now, 35 will be the statewide standard.)

For one, the games now go a lot faster. But that also means there’s less time to get bench players in the game, which could hinder development.

We asked a few coaches in the GMC and Somerset County what they thought of the rule, and many seem to be in favor of it.

One of the reasons the GMC decided to forge ahead was the many blowouts – even with bench players in – that St. Thomas Aquinas had been involved in. Winners of the last six GMC Tournament titles, they’ve dominated the league for years, but last year, it became a different story. Against seven other division opponents – Colonia, East Brunswick, Monroe, North Plainfield, Old Bridge, Piscataway and South Brunswick – they won by 45.1 points per game, on average. And in four GMC Tournament games, their average margin of victory was 59.5 points.

Head coach Tim Corrigan says it likely won’t affect his team in non-conference play, but it will in their league.

“Overall, it’s probably a good thing,” Corrigan tells Central Jersey Sports Radio. “The only downside to it that I see is the playing time for JV/swing players could be cut short as the clock runs in the second half.”

Overall, Corrigan believes the change is a “net positive” and “35 points is a reasonable number.”

The Monroe girls faced St. Thomas twice in the regular season and once in the GMCT final. And they came closer to Aquinas than anyone else in the Red Division.

Their first meeting – a 59-28 Aquinas win on January fourth – was STA’s sixth lowest point total of the season and second lowest scoring output in a win. The 29-point margin was their only Red Division game won by fewer than 30 points, and the game never reached 35. In fact, the deficit was just 12 going into the fourth quarter.

Monroe also beat Colonia by 33 (57-24) and Highland Park by 32 (66-34). So head coach Brian Hinz has seen it from both angles. Their two losses to Aquinas came by a 90-33 score in their second meeting, and 93-34 in the GMC Championship game.

“Having been on both sides of a blowout, I understand the need for a rule like this,” Hinz tells CJSR. “It’s not like the game just ends,” he notes, like it does in baseball.

“It still allows you to go deeper into your bench and help develop your players who look forward to and deserve those minutes in a lopsided game,” Hinz says.

“It will allow us as coaches to get out kids off the court quicker and into the locker room, where we can learn from it and move on to our next opponent,” Hinz added.

Kris Grundy, the boys’ coach at Montgomery – who also is the Cougars’ Athletic Director – considers another angle, too, saying it should also alleviate crowd issues. He says sometimes it can get tense in a blowout.

“We have all been there in those types of environments when teams feel embarrassed by the score and the clock seems to be standing still,” Grundy says. “It is ion those moments where that emotion can spill out onto the playing surface.”

“Hopefully, the running clock will help mitigate those types of situations for all as the second half will go extremely quickly.

by Mike Pavlichko

St. Thomas Aquinas cruises past North Plainfield 108-46, will meet Monroe in Friday’s GMCT final

Straightforward and business-like. A well-oiled machine. Superb.

All of those adjectives could be used to describe the St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball team on just about any night in the cold months of winter, as they roll through the GMC schedule, seemingly year-after-year.

Tuesday night was yet another example, a typical Trojans game.

Top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas clinched its sixth straight trip to the GMC Tournament final with a 108-46 win over 13-seed North Plainfield, in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio, giving them a chance to go and win an unprecedented sixth straight GMC Tournament title.

They did it with everyone getting into the scoring column, and a lot of them juniors. Jordan Barnes scored 16. Trista Whitney led the way with 18. Leah Crosby – back from a year at Rutgers Prep – added 15. Sophomore Lauryn Downing had 14, including three treys, and senior Adrianna Summerset had 11. Senior Morgan Jottka came off the bench to score nine, all from beyond the arc.

This one was over fairly early. Aquinas built a 28-7 lead after one – North Plainfield briefly had a 3-2 lead – and the Trojans led 61-15 at the half.

In the second, both both teams having all their starters in, Aquinas head coach Tim Corrigan called off the defense, and the game got quite entertaining, with both teams throwing up wild threes and hitting them, some with sweet kisses off the glass, to the delight of those who remained all the way to the end.

Aquinas (21-6) will face second-seed Monroe in Friday night’s 6 pm final back at Monroe High School, a game that can be heard on CJSR, followed by the boys’ title game at 8. The Canucks fall to 8-17 with the loss.

Click below for postgame reaction from St. Thomas Aquinas junior Trista Whitney and head coach Tim Corrigan, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Tall task ahead for North Plainfield girls, as Canucks take on powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas in GMCT semifinals

The St. Thomas Aquinas girls basketball team is the No. 1 seed in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament for a reason, and it’s not just because they were the first place team in the Red Division.

They were, of course. They were the best team in the league by far all year, defeating fellow Red Division foes by an average of 45 points in 14 games, winning all of them. In fact, the Trojans haven’t lost to a GMC foe from any division since January 2022, a string of 65 straight games.

Now, it’s up to anyone to prove them wrong.

That’s the job that awaits North Plainfield Tuesday night, when the 13th-seeded Canucks (8-16, 4-10 in GMC Red, 7th place) take on Aquinas (20-6, 14-0, GMC Red Champs) in the second of two GMC Tournament semifinals at 7 pm.

You can hear the game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio – presented by the George Street Playhouse in downtown New Brunswick – with Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau on the call, immediately following the 5 pm game between second-seed Monroe and third-seed Middlesex. Click here to listen.

North Plainfield’s big star is Layla Gutierrez, who’s averaging 14.8 points per game and leads the team in assists with 74. But there’s an up-and-comer right behind her in freshman Jordyn Patrick, who’s scoring 13.7 points per game, averaging 6.5 rebounds, and has a team best 74 steals.

But they’ve also had their share of injuries, leaving them without Amaliyah Jean-Louis, a 5′ 10″ sophomore averaging almost six rebounds per game, out for the rest of the year with a knee injury. And the status of Liaha Paynter (5.5 ppg) is also in question for the remainder of the season, though she won’t suit up Tuesday night either.

That’s not great news considering how deep St. Thomas is. The Trojans have won the last five county tournaments, and while they’ve done it as a young group in the past, they have even more experience now.

One big addition had been a subtraction the year before: Leah Crosby, who transferred after he sophomore year to Rutgers Prep, is back in North Edison, and leading the team with 16.5 points per game and 7.9 rebounds.

The rest reads like a laundry list of stars: Junior Trista Whitney (12.4 ppg), senior Gianna Chuffo (10.3 ppg, team-best 47 treys), and Jordan Barnes (9.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg). And there are four more players averaging at least five points a game.

North Plainfield coach Derek Eatman – in his third season, coinciding with the arrival of Gutierrez and the school’s move from the Skyland Conference to the GMC in 2022-23 – says defense will be the key, limiting STA’s possessions, if they can. They want to keep the score down.

Easier said than done, but that’s why they play the games.

The Canucks will be playing for their first-ever trip to a county final. Besides their first two years in the GMC, they never made the Somerset County Tournament final since the event moved to one tournament in the late ’80s.

Click below to hear previews with both head coaches:

St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Tim Corrigan
North Plainfield head coach Derrick Eatman

by Mike Pavlichko

Five-peat! St. Thomas Aquinas girls take out Colonia to win 5th straight GMCT title

In the 2023 Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final, frosh Jordan Barnes was getting her feet wet. She played in the game, but didn’t score.

Friday night in the 2024 title game, she scored 23 points – to match her number – and was named MVP.

You could say “What a difference a year makes,” but that would be an understatement.

Losing several key players to graduation and transfer and with a new head coach in Tim Corrigan – who was on last year’s staff as an assistant – one could be forgiven if they discounted the Trojans in 2023.

But they’d have to eat some crow now.

The top-seeded Trojans (21-7) won their fifth title in a row, seventh GMC title, and eighth county championship overall, beating second seed Colonia (19-8) at Monroe Township High School 71-52 as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Aquinas came out on fire, up 11-0 to start the game. But Taylor Derkack answered with back-to-back-to-back threes to cut it to 11-9. That was as close as they’d get the rest of the way.

The Trojans played lock down defense on everyone else – Derkack finished with 30 – and only two Colonia players scored in the first half; they were down 36-23 at the half. The second half was more of the same.

Barnes took tough feeds down low and turned them into easy buckets all night, exploiting her height advantage.

Junior Gianna Chuffo finished with 16 for the winning Trojans, while sophomore Trista Whitney had 13.

Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

GMC Tournament Girls’ Final Preview: Colonia seeks first title as St. Thomas Aquinas seeks one for the thumb

No other school has had a run like St. Thomas Aquinas/Bishop Ahr in the GMC Tournament.

Clinching a record fourth-straight title last year, the top-seeded Trojans will try to make it five in a row Friday night, when they take on second-seed Colonia in the GMC title game at Monroe High School.

Last year was a first for Colonia, its debut in the county final. And after a narrow loss following two blowout defeats during the regular season, and two close losses this year, have the Patriots finally closed the gap?

Central Jersey Sports Radio will have coverage of Friday’s GMC Tournament Championship Doubleheader, with Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino calling all the play-by-play. Coverage starts at 5:40 pm for the girls’ game, with the boys final – between the same schools – tipping off at 8 pm. Click here to listen.

For St. Thomas, the tournament has belonged to sophomore Jordan Barnes, who’s nearly averaging a double-double through the first three games, with 15.7 points per game and nine boards a contest. In fact, she notched double-doubles in the last two games, with 18 points and 12 rebounds against Spotswood in the quarterfinals, then scoring 19 and grabbing 10 rebounds against Monroe in the semifinals.

Gianna Chuffo also has had a hot tourney, averaging nearly 19 points a game against the trio of Edison, Spotswood and Monroe.

On the other side, it’s Taylor’s world, and the GMC is just living in it. No, not that Taylor. Senior Taylor Derkack – the all-time leading scorer at Colonia, boys or girls, with 1,961 points – could crack the 2,000 mark if she goes off Friday night. She’s averaging 24.1 points per game this season, and a double-double on the year, with 12.5 rebounds per game. She leads in every key statistical category: two-pointers, treys, free throws attempted and made, steals, blocks and assists. In the tournament, she’s averaging 27 points and 17.5 rebounds a game, with double-doubles in all three.

And yet, the supporting cast is key. Mya Patino can hit the three ball, along with Isabel Gidado. And head coach Sandi Chiera says her team has improved defensively; they’ll want to keep the score low against Aquinas.

Click below to hear both coaches talk about the semifinal matchup, and scroll down for more info on the game:

St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Tim Corrigan
Colonia head coach Sandi Chiera

MORE ON THE GMC TOURNAMENT GIRLS’ FINAL:

(1) St. Thomas Aquinas (20-7) vs. (2) Colonia (19-7)
When: Friday, 6 pm
Where: Monroe Township High School
Broadcast Team: Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino (LISTEN HERE)

COACHES: 

Middlesex: Tim Corrigan, 1st season (19-7)
Colonia: Sandi Chiera, 5th season (75-35)

HOW THEY GOT HERE:

Colonia: The Patriots topped 18-seed Carteret 52-36 in the first round, then beat 7-seed East Brunswick 43-22 in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Taylor Derkack poured in 38 of her team’s 52 points against the Ramblers – including five from beyond the arc – then scored a human 16 in a lower-scoring victory over the Lady Bears. In the semifinals against 14-seed Middlesex, the Patriots grabbed a 56-40 win, with Derkack going for a monster 27-point night with 15 rebounds, while Hailey Conklin added 14 points and six boards, while Nashaelah Hooker chipped in seven points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

St. Thomas Aquinas: The top-seeded Trojans cruised through their first two games, beating 16-seed Edison in the opening round, 85-53, then blowing out 8-seed Spotswood 90-36 in the quarterfinals on the Chargers’ home floor. Monroe was a different story, as the fifth-seeded Falcons led them 22-12 after one quarter Wednesday night in the semifinals, and 30-14 at one point. But they chipped away, and came out with a 57-55 overtime victory. Sophomore Jordan Barnes finished with a double-double of 19 points and ten rebounds, while Lauryn Downing had her best game of the tournament scoring-wise, adding 12 points and four rebounds.

TOP SCORERS:

St. Thomas Aquinas: Gianna Chuffo (16.2 ppg, team-best 83 treys), Jordan Barnes (14.4 ppg), Trista Whitney (9.6 ppg)
Colonia: Taylor Derkack (24.1 ppg, team-best 43 treys), Mya Patino (9.4 ppg, 37 treys), Isabel Gidado (6.5 ppg, 20 treys)

TOP REBOUNDERS:

St. Thomas Aquinas: Leah Kearney (10.2), Jordan Barnes (9)
Colonia: Taylor Derkack (12.5), Nashaelah Hooker (5.8)

RECENT MEETINGS: St. Thomas Aquinas/Bishop Ahr has won 18 straight against Colonia, with the Patriots’ last win coming on February 1, 2014, a 52-36 victory. Since then, Aquinas/Ahr has won by an average of 31 points. But in the last three meetings – including last year’s GMC Tournament final, and two regular season meetings this year, the gap has been an average 8.3 point margin of victory.

GMC TOURNAMENT HISTORY:

St. Thomas Aquinas: In addition to winning the last four GMC Tournaments, the first of which was under the moniker Bishop Ahr, they also won it in 2001 and 1994, while also claiming the 1981 Middlesex County Tournament title. Aquinas is 6-4 in the GMCT, 1-1 in the MCT. St. Thomas had never been a one-seed before the current run they’re on, but has been the top-seed in all four wins on the current streak.

Colonia: Last season was the Patriots’ first trip to the county final, a 49-42 loss to St. Thomas Aquinas.

OTHER NOTES:

Trojans’ streak: Though St. Thomas Aquinas lost in the 2021 de facto GMC championship – the “top” Somogyi Family Pod – to Monroe, they have won the last four full GMC Tournaments, going back to pre-COVID, when they won in 2020 over Edison as the top-seed and under its old moniker, Bishop Ahr. No other school has won four in a row, though several have won three, including Hoffman (which won the first in 1986, then won again in ’87 and ’88), JP Stevens (2003-05), and Piscataway (twice, from 2009-11 and again from 2013-15). Nobody won more than two in a row in the Middlesex County Tournament, which ran from 1975 through 1985.

Coaching in the Big Game: Tim Corrigan of St. Thomas Aquinas is a head coach for the first time in the GMC Tournament final, though he was on the bench next to Joe Whalen last year as an assistant. Sandi Chiera of Colonia is in her second final as a head coach.

How have the seeds fared? This one is a battle of No.1 vs. No. 2, with the top-seed winning 29 titles overall, and the No. 2 winning it just nine times. The top-seed is 29-13 in the title game. The top two seeds have met 22 times, with the No. 1 seed going 17-5 in those games. Only the first of Aquinas’ four-straight titles came against the 2-seed, Edison in 2019. Otherwise they beta 3-seed Monroe in 2020, 7-seed South Brunswick two seasons ago, and third-seed Colonia last year. The last 2-seed to win the tourney was Piscataway in 2018, and the last second-seed to knock off the top-seed in a final was East Brunswick in 2016 over Monroe.

Bonus Ball: Since St. Thomas is fresh off an overtime victory in the semifinals, we figured you’d want to know there have only been two overtime games in the history of the girls’ GMCT, both won by schools that are now closed. Third-seed Cardinal McCarrick of South Amboy beat top-seed Piscataway in double overtime in 2008, while St. Peter’s of New Brunswick upset top-seed East Brunswick as the two seed in 1992, led by Kristen Somogyi, the New Jersey Player of the Year that season.