Tag: Tim Corrigan

by Mike Pavlichko

It’s official: St. Joseph-Metuchen names Tim Corrigan new boys’ basketball coach in wake of Mark Taylor’s resignation

In 1993, St. Joseph-Metuchen won its first Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament boys’ basketball title, with a young man named Tim Corrigan on the squad.

Now, 33 years later, he is the program’s new head coach, it was announced Wednesday afternoon by the school in a press release. He replaces fellow alum Mark Taylor, who resigned last Friday.

Corrigan signed a contract with St. Joe’s Wednesday morning, and is working on assembling a coaching staff for the upcoming season, which gets underway with practices in less than two months – on November 30th – while the season can officially start as early as December 7th.

“Tim Corrigan is a developer of players and a developer of men,” new Athletic Director Carl Porambo said in the release. “He dominated the Greater Middlesex Conference since 2022, winning four championships for the girls’ team at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Edison and we fully expect him to bring that same success and passion to the boys’ team here.”

The first of those four titles came as an assistant under Joe Whalen, who stepped down as he battled with MS at the end of that championship run. Corrigan had been the head coach the last three years, never losing a single GMC game out of 68 league games played in that span.

But back on September 25th, Corrigan stepped down from is post at Aquinas – as first reported by Simeon Pincus of MyCentralJersey.com – agreeing to become an assistant under Taylor.

By the following Monday, however, word had been spreading in coaching circles and among fans at the St. Joe’s football home game against Phillipsburg – rescheduled from Saturday due to a Nor’easter – that Taylor would not be coaching the team this season. And St. Joseph officially made the announcement last Friday, October 2nd.

Now, less than a week later, St. Joseph has a new man in place, capping a whirlwind couple of weeks intertwining the only two non-public high schools in the Greater Middlesex Conference.

Corrigan went on from St. Joseph to play college ball at Kean University in Union. The then played professionally overseas, getting into coaching while in Norway, then came back and was an assistant at Kean for two seasons. He is the owner of the New Jersey Celtics AAU basketball program for grades three through eleven, and has run the Holy Trinity/NJ Celtics Basketball camp since 2017.

“St. Joe’s didn’t just get a new coach, we got the coach,” Porambo added in the press release. “We can’t wait to watch Coach Corrigan develop our players over the coming season, as we eagerly anticipate the latest chapter in his success.”

Before joining St. Thomas Aquinas under Whalen, Corrigan had been the head coach of the Watchung Hills’ girls program for two years, going 7-8 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and 22-6 the following year before heading down the mountain to North Edison.

St. Thomas Aquinas beat East Brunswick 62-41 to win the 2026 GMC Tournament championship, its record seventh in a row. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

Whalen’s team went 22-7 that year, his final season before Corrigan took the reins, who went 69-22 as head coach during his tenure, winning no fewer than 22 games in any of those three seasons, and winning all three GMC Tournament titles, going 12-0 in tournament play.

The Aquinas girls have won the last seven GMC Tournament titles, a record streak for either a boys’ or girls’ team.

Click below to hear new St. Joseph-Metuchen basketball coach Tim Corrigan’s one-on-one with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

With Taylor gone from St. Joseph, Corrigan leaving Aquinas, where does it leave them, and GMC boys’ and girls’ basketball? 

The first announcement was enough to send some shockwaves through the girls’ basketball community in Middlesex county, and came out on a football Friday in the fall, rather than in the Spring or Summer:  third-year St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball coach Tim Corrigan was leaving to become as assistant at his alma mater, St. Joseph of Metuchen, in the boys’ side.

This is the same Trojan program that has won seven straight GMC Tournament championships with very talented players, over three coaches and two school names: the first under Brittney Griffin as Bishop Ahr, the next three under Joe Whalen under original name St. Thomas Aquinas, and the last three under Corrigan.  All have been characterized as a physical, dominating style of play that has led them to unprecedented heights, winning GMC Red Division games by an average 40-plus points.

When the news broke last week via Simeon Pincus of MyCentralJersey.com, the move was a surprise to many, even though Corrigan had taken that track before.  He left his post as head girls’ basketball coach at Watching Hills to join Whalen’s staff at STA, then eventually took over once Whalen stepped down as he dealt with MS.

St. Thomas Aquinas and East Brunswick play in the 40th GMC Tournament Championship Game at Monroe Twp. H.S. on February 20, 2026. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

The first question became: what would happen at St. Thomas, where two of their top returning players had transferred out – guards Lauryn Downing to Blair Academy and bug Leah Kearney to CAPS a ademy of Boston, where she’ll be joined by Aleah Sunkins of Franklin, another big loss of star power in New Jersey – and Jordan Barnes graduated and is now playing at Rider.  Numbers have been an issue, and the program had no JV team last season.

St. Thomas has been the dominant program in GMC girls’ hoops for the better part of a decade.  They have not lost a league game since January of 2022 at Monroe, winning 80 straight since, including the regular season and GMCT.  Will there be a vacuum?

At first glance: yes. And every single one of those opponents wants the first crack at them.

Or will they find someone internally or look outside to boost the numbers and keep the streak and dominance alive? Time will tell, but there’s not much time at all, with the season’s first practice less than two months away.

Meanwhile, Corrigan has wanted to coach on the boys’ side for some time now.  He was put his name in the hat, and was very much in the running for the St. Joe’s job the first time around, two years ago, when the Falcons unceremoniously dumped Jan Cocoziello, whose only crime appeared to be not being a part of a decade-long GMC tournament run where the Falcons and won nine of ten championships under Dave Turco and Mike Thompson.

But they were a solid contender year after year, and there was stability.

Enter Karl Towns, the father of one of the school’s most celebrated student-athletes of all-time, Karl-Anthony Towns, who won a Tournament of Champions in 2014, played a year at Kentucky under John Calipari then went to the NBA.  It was a big splash and also brought KAT back into the fold, after he’d all bust disowned the place when they let go of his head coach, Dave Turco in 2017.

But when Karl-Anthony was traded to the Knicks in September 2024, things changed.  His father would be seen often courtside at Madison Square Garden, and St. Joe’s seemed to take a backseat.  His assistants not only were running practices but taking the lead in games.  Eventually, the school and Towns parted ways as the program foundered, punctuated by an early exit from the GMC Tournament.

And so, the school was looking for a new coach again, and again, Corrigan was in the mix.  But when they looked back to the past glories 1983 alum Mark Taylor brought them, both as a player and coach, he became the home run choice.  He mentored Jay Williams and Andrew Bynum, among a host of other major D1 recruits.  He later did the same at St. Benedict’s and even turned around Ridge in Somerset County.  The move seemed like a great fit.  No way Taylor was coming here to lose.

He brought in three high-profile transfers, raising eyebrows across the state.  Aiden Carter was coming in from right down the road at St. Thomas, big man Andrew Kretkowski shuffled over from Rutgers Prep, and Ghana native Joel Patrick signed on as well.  The three helped lead the Falcons to the 2026 GMC Tournament championship – its first in seven years since that nine-in-ten run from 2010 to 2019 – and a 29-2 record.  They were the Central Jersey Sports Radio Boys’ Basketball Team of the Year, too.

St. Joseph’s Andrew Kretkowski (in white) plays defense on Piscataway’s Josh Lima in a GMC Red American Division game in Piscataway on January 3, 2025. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

But then, one by one, they transferred out during the summer: Carter to an academy in Kansas, Kretkowski to a brand-new one in Massachusetts, and Patrick to Montverde in Florida.

And now, whatever brought it about, Taylor is gone, too.

So where does that leave St. Joe’s, besides entering its third coaching search in as many years, and being a program now that will have had four different head coaches in four seasons once 2026-27 tips off?

Again, it’s getting late early to find a new coach. They’ve got one if they want one, in Tim Corrigan, who’s currently in a state of not-his-fault limbo.

To add to it, leadership at the Metuchen school changed over the summer.  President John Nolan retired, and Stephen Balog (Class of ’73) is the interim president.  Football coach Bill Tracy is no longer doubling as Athletic Director, the school also confirmed this week, though he is still listed on the St. Joseph website as such.  (But one can also be relatively certain the Towns and Taylor hirings were not his doing; at least Towns very likely came from above, as the school long wanted to heal the wounds left with his son.) 

One would not have assumed Taylor was going to stay at St. Joseph forever.  Many, when they heard the Corrigan story, figured he might be in line for the job some day (though not today) and it probably sounded like a great opportunity to at least get back in the door of the school he once attended, after coming oh-so-close to landing the head job in 2024 and 2025.  How could it hurt?

At the end of the day, the best course of action very well might be for St. joseph to hand the keys to Corrigan after all. And not just because of the time crunch, and certainly not to settle. In fact, maybe he should have gotten the job three years ago?

Jan Cocoziello’s tenure was the last time St. Joseph had stability.  The Towns hire made headlines, and the kids were surely excited figuring they’d see KAT around more, but the year was pure chaos.  Taylor brought instant success, but even if he’d stayed as coach, he’d have to replace his three biggest stars; would he be able to turn the same trick again so quickly?  The point is moot, though, and now, he’s gone, too.

Then-St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach Jan Cocozziello talks to Central Jersey Sports Radio after a 46-42 win at Montgomery on February 22, 2021. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

Corrigan has proven to be a very good coach.  He’s an alum.  He has connections that can bring in and develop freshmen.  St. Joe’s has an academic eighth grade “Bridge Program” that can work as a feeder.  They’ve got the infrastructure and the history, and Corrigan is a part of that history.  He was on the very first St. Joe’s team to win the GMC Tournament, in 1993, with Joe Koslick as head coach and one of the greats in John Somogyi also on the staff.

But most importantly, Corrigan’s even-keeled demeanor, the way he runs a program?  He’d be the ideal fit and bring much-needed stability to a program that has always been a winner.  He’s been in the running before, now should be his chance.

Despite a GMC championship last year, the way it all ended, that’s a swing and a miss on the last two hires. St. Joe’s isn’t looking to strike out.

As for the rest of the league, the boys’ coaches wait with baited breath, too. Joe’s may not dominate, at least right away, but they will compete. Face it, the Falcons would have been the odds on favorite to repeat as GMC champions had Taylor, Carter, Kretkowski and Patrick stayed on. But now none are there, and GMC boys’ hoops this year could look more like 2024-25, when it was a wide-open tournament.

You don’t always need a home run to win the game.

by Mike Pavlichko

After just one year in second run, Mark Taylor is out as St. Joseph-Metuchen head coach

When former St. Joseph-Metuchen standout Mark Taylor – Class of 1983 – was hired for a second go ’round with the Falcons back in April of 2025, the news was a big splash in the world of high school basketball in New Jersey.

A standout in the ’80s, he later coached the school in the 90s, responsible for several D1 college players, most notably Jay Williams.

And after a year with Karl Towns, Sr., the father of the school’s biggest name since Williams, Karl-Anthony Towns, leading the program to disastrous effect – the team floundered as he often missed games to watch his son play in at Madison Square Garden, after he was traded from Minnesota to the Knicks, much closer to home – the move seemed like a slam dunk.

But now it’s over, as Taylor – who orchestrated a major turnaround last season, bringing in some high profile transfers like Andrew Kretkowski from Rutgers Prep and Aiden Carter from St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as Joel Patrick from Ghana – has stepped down, school officials confirmed to Central Jersey Sports Radio Friday afternoon.

Taylor did not immediately return a message from Central Jersey Sports Radio seeking comment.

In a press release posted on the schools’s website issued soon after Central Jersey Sports Radio broke the story, the school said it “wishes Mark Taylor ’83 well following his decision to resign as head basketball coach.”

It also contained a quote from Taylor, saying “Today I am stepping down as head basketball coach of St. Joseph High School to pursue other professional opportunities.  I am grateful to my alma mater for the impact it has had on my life and for the opportunity to coach such fine young men.  I wish Saint Joe’s nothing but the way in the future.”

What’s notable is that all three of his standout transfers from last season had already transferred out over the last few months.  Kretkowski is now at the brand-new Masters Academy International in Massachusetts; Carter is at Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas, and Patrick is now at national powerhouse Montverde Academy in Florida.

News broke last week, first reported by Simeon Pincus at MyCentralJersey.com, that St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball coach Tim Corrigan had left the Trojan program to join Taylor as an assistant; Corrigan is a St. Joseph alum as well.

School officials could not confirm Corrigan’s status on the record Friday afternoon, saying a search for a new head coach is underway. They would not say whether Corrigan would be in the running for the position. Corrigan says he’s still interested in coaching at St. Joseph, and in being the head coach, but could not comment further on whether he’s officially a candidate.

As a player, Taylor twice went to the Middlesex County Tournament finals – prior to the formation of the Greater Middlesex Conference – then played in College at Fordham. He also in the St. Joseph Athletics Hall of Fame.

He came back to coach at St. Joe’s for eleven seasons, breathing new life into the program, winning two GMCT crowns in six trips to the finals, as well as two state sectional titles and seven division championships.

After that, he went to Ridge, and revived that program as well, winning 94 games in five seasons from 2006 to 2011, more than any other Somerset County public school in that time frame, winning the Somerset County Tournament title in 2010, their first such trophy since 1977.

Taylor then moved to St. Benedict’s, and in 14 seasons, went 333-60, bringing his overall record – compiled from various sources – to 599-171 in 30 seasons overall at the scholastic and prep levels. Current UConn coach Danny Hurley had spent nine years there – with a down year in between – before Taylor arrived and rejuvenated the program.

Overall, he’s produced eight NBA draft picks and over a hundred Division I NCAA players.

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: