It was a championship 2024-25 high school boys basketball season, with plenty of other hardware won from our area teams.
Here are our teams of the top players in the Greater Middlesex Conference and southern Union County area, and those that led their teams this season.
FIRST TEAM
CHIDI CHUKWURAH
Sayreville
Junior
The junior forward narrowly edges classmate Sam Jones for first-team recognition due to his interior contributions for the undersized GMC White Division champions. Like Jones, he scored his 1,000th point as a junior, while leading the Bombers in scoring (18.2), rebounding (8.9) and blocks. Scoring average has steadily risen from his freshman (10.4) and sophomore (14.3) campaigns and will enter his final season with 1,153 career points.
NATE DAVIS
Piscataway
Senior
The senior guard’s numbers may not match others on this list except for one: wins (24). He was the primary on-court force for a team that improved from 11-14 to 24-6. Led the team in scoring (14.5) and 3-pointers and scored in double-digits in each of the last 11 contests, including all post-season outings.
AIDEN DERKACK
Colonia
Junior
Derkack earned his second Player of the Year honor after a spectacular junior campaign in which he scored his 1,000th career point and later became the program’s all-time leading score. He led his team to back-to-back GMC Tournament titles and a fourth consecutive sectional title. He upped his scoring average from 20 to 24.7 ppg, grabbed a team-leading 8.1 rebounds, and sank a career-high 25 3-pointers. Derkack will begin his senior campaign with 1,739 career points.
JALEN FLEMING
Timothy Christian
Senior
The Plainfield native secured his standing as, arguably, the greatest player in school history. He led the team in scoring (26.2) and 3s (52) as the Tigers captured their first outright GMC divisional crown, winning the Blue Division. Fleming delivered a school-record 2,152 points as Timothy Christian accumulated 61 wins during his career.
ALEX GROSPE
South River
Senior
When asked for his goals as a senior, Grospe said to add to the school’s banners, motioning towards the one listing GMC divisional titles, not individual scoring. Toward that end, he often gave up the ball in an effort to lift his inexperienced teammates, yet still managed to lead the GMC in scoring for a second consecutive season at an even 30 ppg. That included 49 3s, delivering more than 47 percent of his team’s points. The Gettysburg commit scored 40 or more points on five occasions as a senior and notched 2,173 points, including 170 3s.
SECOND TEAM
Jordan Jones, South Plainfield, senior
Sam Jones, Sayreville, junior
Matt Mikulka, East Brunswick, junior
Krish Patel, Old Bridge, senior
RJ Wortman, Colonia, junior
THIRD TEAM
Jayden Holman, Linden, junior
Eric McClain, Rahway, senior
Donald Nwaigwe, Piscataway, junior
Owen Reynolds, Middlesex, senior
Zach Smith, Colonia, senior
HONORABLE MENTION
Calvary Christian: AJ Mecke
Carteret: Jeremiah Arrington
Colonia: Dylan Chiera, Colin Kroner, Jayce Rodriguez
Dunellen: Jamael Davis, Ryan Hutchins, Danny Watts
East Brunswick: Cam Vick
East Brunswick Magnet: Sebastian Ortiz
Edison: Dedrick Harvey, Dheeraj Samparaboyina
Highland Park: Jayden Guadalupe
JF Kennedy: Jayden Cummings, Grant Lorentzen
JP Stevens: Kerem Ozdemir
Linden: Jekhi Burnam, Martin Drejaj, Asante Jones
Metuchen: Cameron Hayes-Durina, Jason Woods
Middlesex: Dom Parenti, Julian Samuels
Monroe: Logan Fotiadis, Braeden Hoiberg
New Brunswick: Christopher Moronta
North Brunswick: Srijay Bandi, Tommy Koroma
North Plainfield: Aaron Potts, Quadir Williams
Old Bridge: Brandon Medel, Victor Przepiora
Perth Amboy: Laivon Balthazar, Jadiel Manzueta
Perth Amboy Magnet: Anthony Vega
Piscataway: Josh Lima, Vaughn Turner
Piscataway Magnet: Kenneth McKindra, Joel Polynice
Rahway: Dmitri Dulorie
Sayreville: Keithan Shuler, Christian Torres
Somerset Tech: Kenny Ponteras
South Amboy: John Kelly
South Brunswick: Anish Vankhadara
South Plainfield: Andrew Bena, David Wallace
South River: Anthony Costa
Spotswood: Zeyad Elshazly, Brayden Krahling, Se’mir Tolbert-Brimage
St. Joseph: Braydan Danchak, Alijah Murphy
St. Thomas Aquinas: Daniel Jennings, Aiden Ur
Timothy Christian: Chukwudi Raphael Mamah, Elijah Pierre
Wardlaw-Hartridge: Jace Green
Woodbridge: Bryan Anderson, Derek Anderson, Emmanuel Cruz
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Boys basketball: GMC and southern Union County All-Area teams
