Tag: Tim Corrigan

by Alec Crouthamel

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: