Toms River East’s Gillen Picks Up Weekly Award

It has been an up-and-down season for a young Toms River East team that will take a 5-4 record into the final week of the "regular season."  The Raiders opened with a pair of wins, lost two straight, won 3 in-a-row and then dropped their last two.  While the team has been a bit inconsistent junior guard/forward Lizzie Gillen is someone Coach Kevin Cohen can count on each night and for her efforts last week when the Raiders went 3-0 was voted Burger 25 Player of the Week.

Gillen leads East in scoring with an average of 11ppg, is second in both rebounding (7.2) and assists and the team leader in steals.  Although just a junior she is a veteran on a team that boasts only one senior and is in her third year as a varsity player.  She averaged 3 points and just over 3 rebounds per game as a freshman, increased those numbers last year (6ppg, 5.2rpg) as part of a 20-win team loaded with seniors and now has emerged as the Raiders best overall player with a bright future.

Gillen received nearly 43% of the vote in a week with by far the biggest response of the season.  Holmdel's Olivia Palmer was second with 23% and Point Boro's Gen Fara third with 15%.  Gillen receives a $25 gift card from Burger 25 of Toms River for earning the weekly honor.

EPIC SHOWDOWN:

St. John Vianney and Red Bank Catholic have been locked in since the preseason as the top team teams in the Shore Sports Network Top 10 and on Saturday will meet in Holmdel in the most anticipated game of the season.  The Lady Lancers, who are also the #1 ranked team in New Jersey have collected impressive wins recently over other highly-regarded teams as they stretched their winning streak to 31 games against teams from the state.  RBC is back in action after a two-week shutdown and this is their chance to take over the top spot against a longtime rival for shore supremacy.  Saturday's game at SJV starts at 11:30am.