Six of the teams in the Bellamy & Son Paving boys' basketball rankings had perfect weeks last week, and it led to no changes in the Week Six Top Ten. Gill St. Bernard's (12-2) picked up a pair of league wins in the week gone by - 69-38 over No. 3 Pingry Tuesday, and 74-46 at Bridgewater-Raritan on Thursday. The Knights have won eight straight and - absent a big upset loss in the next week - should be the No.

The boys have been all over the place. The girls? Not so much. It's another week of few changes in the Bellamy & Son Paving Girls' Basketball Top Ten, starting at the top. Just two teams moved this week, as most teams just keep on winning. In fact, the top five teams are on a combined 38-game win streak. That starts with…

What happens when the top ten barely loses a game? Not much apparently. There were only three losses in 32 games played this past week by the Bellamy & Son Paving girls' basketball top ten, meaning very little change in the rankings. It's now five straight weeks at No. 1 for Rutgers Prep (8-2), which had two wins in a light week, 66-22 over Hunterdon Central on Monday, and 57-24 at Mount St.

For the first time this season, the entire Bellamy & Son Paving Boys' Basketball Top Ten got a complete reshuffle. It was a challenging week to be sure, as a few top ten teams suffered multiple losses this week, whether in conference play or at showcase games. And the end result is one new team in the rankings, and a new No.

After a game-tying three with 10 seconds to go by Sayreville's Sam Jones, East Brunswick's Matt Mikulka drew a foul on offense and hit one of two free throws with 2.7 seconds left to put the Bears over the Bombers, 48-47, in GMC Red National Division play. Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko call all the play-by-play from Sayreville High School in Parlin on January 10, 2026.

The all-time leading scorer in East Brunswick boys' basketball history already had 24 points when he headed to the free throw line for the first time in the game with under a minute to go in a tight game at Sayreville. But down the stretch, he made two of four - including the winner with 2.9 ticks left on the clock - to help the Bears rally from an 11-point halftime deficit for a 48-47 GMC Red National Division game in Parlin, heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

In their first meeting less than a month ago, the East Brunswick and Sayreville boys' basketball teams played a tight game from wire to tire, won by the Bears, 58-53. If that one is any indication, Round Two between the GMC Red National Division rivals should be very much the same. They will meet with a lot on the line Saturday afternoon - in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio - with an East Brunswick win giving them the inside track at the division title, with still a lot of basketball to be played.

Only three teams - Montgomery, Somerville and Immaculata - held their ground this week in the latest Bellamy & Son Paving boys' basketball Top Ten, the first of the New Year. Montgomery (8-1) holds at No. 1 after a 2-1 week. In their own Cougar Holiday Classic, they beat Princeton 70-33 on Monday, then North Hunterdon 71-47 on Tuesday. Monty took its first loss of the season Saturday, 53-51, falling to Linden in the Warrior Classic down at Manasquan.

Despite the top two teams in the Week 3 Bellamy & Son Paving Girls' Basketball Top Ten going 1-2 last week, Rutgers Prep and St. Thomas Aquinas held their ground in Week Four, with the top six remaining unchanged, but one new team joining the rankings. For a fourth straight week, it's Rutgers Prep (6-2) at No. 1. The Lady Argonauts lost to Red Bank Catholic Monday in the Kevin Williams Christmas Classic Showcase at Toms River North's RWJBarnabas Health Arena, 59-42, then bounced back Friday with a win over South Bronx Preparatory (NY) 62-41 in the Garden State New Year's Ball at Weequahic.

Saturday was blustery cold in Central Jersey, but boys' high school basketball is clearly heating up. In the Greater Middlesex Conference, there was the first big clash between 2025 GMC Tourney runner-up Piscataway and the new-look St. Joe's, South Plainfield and Sayreville tussled in a critical Red National Division game, and Metuchen put its perfect record on the line. Over in Somerset County, unbeaten Bridgewater-Raritan was idle, while Montgomery put its perfect record on the line, and Rutgers Prep faced some top-flight competition.

We know, we know, the cutoff date isn't for another six weeks. But we've learned a lot about positioning for the playoffs in high school basketball, and a number of teams are in the running - or holding the top spots - in the power points chase in their respective sections. There are some notable alterations to the system this year.

As we all get set to take down the 2025 calendars and hang 2026 up on the fridge, there are just three unbeaten girls' basketball teams left in the Greater Middlesex Conference. Piscataway Magnet is off to a good start in the Blue National, 7-0 overall. Colonia has been a pleasant surprise in the Red National in its second season under Jill Bachonski.

Nearly two dozen girls' basketball teams were in action Tuesday, the last big day of holiday tournaments, with much of the action compressed into Sunday and the first two days of this week, due to the big winter storm that hit Friday and Saturday across the Garden State. Here's a look at Championship and Consolation games in the four tournaments that wrapped up Tuesdya, followed by other events with round robin-style action.

There was a full slate of games on the docket Monday in boys' basketball holiday tournament action, with the original Monday schedule, plus all the games rescheduled from over the weekend due to the winter storm that swept across New Jersey Friday into Saturday. Two of the tournaments wrapped up Saturday, with Bound Brook edging Bernards for the Crusader Classic Championship, while Manville topped North Plainfield to win the Manville Holiday Tournament.

Make it three weeks in a row for undefeated Rutgers Prep at the top of the Bellamy & Son Paving Girls' Basketball Top Ten, with St. Thomas Aquinas and East Brunswick making upward moves in the latest rankings. Half the top ten remains undefeated on the season. Rutgers Prep (5-0) was 2-0 last week, beating Princeton Monday, 72-26, then topping St.

No cancellations, no postponements. Sunday was just a typical Sunday between Christmas and New Year's for holiday tournaments across New Jersey, with some Friday night and a good deal of Saturday games moved around due to the snow and ice storm that hit the state. On the boys' side, Perth Amboy continued its great start to the season with a win over host Rahway in the round-robin style Butch Kowal Holiday Tournament.

It was thirteen years ago, the last time East Brunswick got off to a start like this. That one got off with a bang, as the Bears won their opener at rival St. Joseph-Metuchen, beating a Falcon squad with a young, spindly freshman named Karl Towns. (There was no "Anthony" yet, at least not publicly.) That team won its first 15 games of the season, beat St.

A week after regaining the top position in the Bellamy & Son Paving Girls' Basketball Top Ten, Rutgers Prep remains at the top, while two new teams join the rankings: unbeatens Colonia and Bound Brook. Overall, the top six teams remain in the same place as a week ago. Rutgers Prep (3-0) had a light week, but won both games. First, …

The first full week of play in high school basketball didn't have anything in the way of seismic upsets, but there is a new No. 1 team in the Bellamy & Son Paving rankings - with a very fine line and little room for error among the top five teams, which are a combined 17-2 following this weekend's action - as well as two new teams joining the bottom half of the rankings.

New divisional alignments and no guaranteed seeds in the GMC Tournament may give this year's event a different look and feel, and while we've barely gotten the first week of play in the books in high school basketball for 2025-26, there are some games with big implications this weekend on the boys' side. Starting this season, the GMC abandoned the traditional Red, White, Blue, Gold and sometimes Silver Divisions for a National and American Division in the Red White and Blue - still with six divisions - plus mandatory crossovers to help scheduling.

No doubt defending Non-Public B State Champion Morris Catholic took a heavy graduation hit when twins Mia and Mya Pauldo got their diplomas last spring, but Rutgers Prep's win over the Crusaders Sunday in the NJBCA Tip-Off Classic - handing them their first loss to a New Jersey school since 2023 - has put the Lady Argonauts back to the top of the Bellamy & Son Paving Girls' Basketball Top Ten for Week One.

For the first time since Central Jersey Sports Radio's initial season of high school basketball coverage in the COVID-shortened 2021 campaign, there's someone else besides Rutgers Prep beginning the year at No. 1: Gill St. Bernard's. The Knights won the Somerset County Tournament in 2025, their first county title since 2014, which also was the last time Rutgers Prep missed the county final before last season, when they were knocked out in the semifinals by Hillsborough.

In the end, it was three strong candidates coming down to the wire to be chosen as Borden's Baller of the Year for 2025. Every year, CJSR analyst Marcus Borden picks his "Borden's Ballers" team of 59 players, one from each of the Big Central's schools, and then gives the fans their say. The first round of voting picks a finalist from one of three different regions: Middlesex County, Union County, and the Big Central "West," featuring schools from Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren Counties.