Tag: Tim Corrigan

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.

by aleccrouthamel12

St. Thomas Aquinas girls complete wild comeback, outlasting Monroe in OT to advance to fifth straight GMCT title game

The last time St. Thomas Aquinas, the Greater Middlesex County Tournament’s top seed, lost to a GMC team was January 30th, 2022 against Monroe. In tonight’s semifinal round, history almost repeated itself, but the Trojans completed a double-digit comeback in overtime to take down the Falcons 57-55.

STA will take on Colonia, whose second-seeded girls beat 14-seed Middlesex in the night’s first semifinal, in Friday night’s 6 pm title game at Monroe Township High School, followed by the boys at 8 pm, featuring the same matchups. Both games can be heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

After the first quarter, Monroe led 22-12 and was able to pick apart the Aquinas defense with great ball movement leading to good shots on the inside and outside.

In the second quarter, the offensive efforts still kept going full speed ahead, but the Trojans were able to force some turnovers down the stretch and went into halftime trailing 32-25. Both teams were led by the bigs, as Aquinas’ sophomore forward Jordan Barnes went into halftime with 11 points – later finishing with 17 – while Monroe was led by senior forward Avery Labaska with 12 first-half points.

The Trojans really turned up the defensive pressure in the second half, limiting the Falcons to only five points in the entire third quarter and was able to cut the defecit to just one heading into the fourth.

That period went back-and-forth the entire way, as both teams traded buckets with neither leading by more than a possession for the whole quarter. However, with time winding down and the Falcons trailing by three, senior guard Halley Cottrell – who finished with a team-high 19 – nailed a game-tying trey with three seconds left in regulation to force overtime, after Aquinas could not score on the other end.

The Trojans were helped by an unsung hero in the extra period, as freshman forward Leah Kearney scored six of their nine points. She scored down low getting past a tough defensive effort from Monroe (16-9) and helped lead St. Thomas Aquinas (20-7) to its fifth consecutive GMC tournament finals appearance, where they won the previous four.

POSTGAME

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel with Aquinas head coach Tim Corrigan and freshman Leah Kearney:

by Mike Pavlichko

Monroe girls seek first GMCT title berth in four years, while Aquinas seeks fifth straight trip, fifth straight title

NOTE: Due to Tuesday’s snowstorm, the GMCT semifinals have been moved to Wednesday at Spotswood High School, with both games being played at the same times.

The Monroe girls’ basketball team has played St. Thomas Aquinas tight the past two years.

In those five matchups, the Falcons have kept the Trojans in the 60s, but they haven’t been able to beat them. But they have been able to beat the STA juggernaut. 

Monroe got a regular season win in their second meeting in 2021-22, and the year before knocked off Aquinas on the road top cap a 13-1 COVID-shortened season and win the Somogyi Family Pod, the top postseason playoff pod that year.

How that will play out Wednesday evening in the GMC Tournament semifinals at Spotswood High School is anyone’s guess.

In the two meetings this year, Aquinas won by 10 and 22. But “they” – whoever they are – say it’s tough to beat a team three times in a season.

Central Jersey Sports Radio will have coverage of Wednesday’s semifinals, with Alex Crouthamel providing pregame interviews, live updates, and postgame reaction during our coverage of the boys’ semifinals with Mike Pavlichko. A special, extended pregame show begins at 4:15 Click here to listen.

Aquinas hasn’t needed much adjustment to its new head coach, Tim Corrigan, who came on last year as an assistant to now-retired Joe Whalen, who has MS. Corrigan was brought on knowing he might have to fill in for Whalen a game or two, and poised to take over if and when Whalen stepped away for good.

Though he lost Leah Crosby to transfer to Rutgers Prep, players like junior Gianna Chuffo took over leadership roles, and younger talent like sophomores Jordan Barnes and Trista Whitney got valuable experience against top-flight competition that Corrigan now considers them veterans.

Also a veteran is Monroe head coach Leigh Vogtman, whose team is always in the mix every year, it seems. Seniors Halley Cottrell – the team’s top scorer – and Nicole Turco bring experience, and another senior, Avery Labaska, is leading the team in rebounding.

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
Monroe head coach Leigh Vogtman

MORE ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT’S SECOND SEMIFINAL:

(1) St. Thomas Aquinas (19-7) vs (5) Monroe (16-8)
When: Wednesday, 7 pm
Where: Spotswood High School
Live Updates: Alec Crouthamel

COACHES: 

St. Thomas Aquinas: Tim Corrigan, 1st season (19-7)
Monroe: Leigh Vogtman, 11th season (182-90)

HOW THEY GOT HERE:

St. Thomas Aquinas: The Trojans beat 16-seed Edison in the first round, 85-53. They amped it up in the quarterfinals, blowing past 8-seed Spotswood 90-36 behind a game-high 26 points from Fianna Chuffo, who also hit six treys and dished out seven assists.

Monroe: The Falcons routed 12-seed Metuchen, 77-41, in the first round, then won a slog Saturday in the quarterfinals in Spotswood, beating fourth-seed North Plainfield, 38-29. Top scorer Halley Cottrell hit six threes en route to a 31 point night against the Bulldogs, while Evangelina Francisco led with 11 against the Lady Canucks.

TOP SCORERS:

St. Thomas Aquinas: Gianna Chuffo (16.5 ppg, team-leading 82 treys), Jordan Barnes (14.2 ppg)
Monroe: Halley Cottrell (18.5 ppg, team-leading 80 treys), Evangelina Francisco (14.7 ppg)

TOP REBOUNDERS:

St. Thomas Aquinas: Leah Kearney (10.1), Jordan Barnes (8.9)
Monroe: Avery Labaska (7.2), Nicole Turco (4.8)

RECENT MEETINGS: Aquinas has won five straight, including two this year and three last year, but Monroe won two of the previous three. The teams split two regular season meetings in 2021-22, with STA winning the first and the Falcons winning the second. Monroe also beat Aquinas in the 2021 COVID-shortened season’s GMC Somogyi Family Pod, the league’s top four-game pod that year, in North Edison.

GMC TOURNAMENT HISTORY:

St. Thomas Aquinas: The Trojans have been to the finals the last four years, and won every time, looking for a fifth straight berth and fifth straight title this season. Aquinas (a.k.a. Bishop Ahr for several decades, though Aquinas was its original name) has been to ten GMC finals, and 12 county finals overall, winning seven GMC titles and one Middlesex County Tournament title.

Monroe: The Falcons are looking for their fourth overall trip to the GMC finals. Vogtman took them in 2020, where they lost to Aquinas, as well as in 2016 (they were the top-seed and lost to East Brunswick) and 2015 (where they lost to top-seed Piscataway in overtime).

by Mike Pavlichko

A year under now-retired Whalen has Corrigan well familiar with Aquinas girls’ hoops as he takes the reins in ’23-’24

A Middlesex County basketball guy, you could excuse Tim Corrigan if the idea seemed a little far-fetched.

Having played scholastically at St. Joseph-Metuchen, the connection made sense: his one-time AD, Jerry Smith, was now the man in charge at the other end of Plainfield Avenue at St. Thomas Aquinas in neighboring Edison.

But going from head coach at Watchung Hills…. to being an assistant coach at the other school?

Turns out that Smith wanted to bring him on as a Plan B, in case legnedary head coach Joe Whalen couldn’t make it through the year, or at best, if he indeed retired at the end of the year. Whalen had already gone public with his multiple sclerosis diagnosis, and the challenges it presented while coaching.

Corrigan signed on, and when STA’s season was over, after Whalen told the team it was time to step away, he was quickly elevated to head coach.

Aquinas has lost some key pieces, most notably fowards Nia Clemons and Jessica Cooper to graduation. Leah Crosby transferred to Rutgers Prep, and Amarillis Shubick is playing her senior year of high school ball at Perkiomen School in the Philly suburbs.

St. Thomas Aquinas sophomore guard Adrianna Summersett. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

But major three-point threat Gianna Chuffo, a junior, returns. “One of the hardest working people I’ve ever been around,” says Corrigan, she averaged 10.3 points per game last season, playing in all 29 games, and led the team with 86 three-pointers. Rising star Adrianna Summersett also will play a role. She was in all 29 games last years as well, and hit 19 from beyond the arc.

Sophomore Jordan Barnes also returns, with her 4.8 points per game and 4.4 rebounds per contest.

They will also add Edison transfer Trista Whitney, who Corrigan says reminds her of Clemons, who “could play any position on the floor.” Whitney averaged 12.5 points and four assists per game. And Corrigan expects a bunch of newcomers to make an immediate impact, just as younger players did under Whalen.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball coach Tim Corrigan about the upcoming season: