It'll be defending champion Trenton Catholic against Trenton in one girls basketball semifinal and Stuart is headed back to the big arena in Trenton to face Notre Dame in the other semifinal on Wednesday.
Those semifinals of the Mercer County Tournament were set Friday night after home teams prevailed in three of the four quarterfinal games, with top-seeded Trenton Catholic rolling again, this time 76-16 over ninth-seeded Hightstown, fifth-seeded Trenton beating fourth-seeded Allentown 47-41, third-seeded Notre Dame over sixth-seeded Ewing 50-38, and second-seeded Stuart over seventh-seeded Hopewell Valley 51-23.
The Stuart-Notre Dame semifinal is up first on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at the CURE Insurance Arena and the TCA-Trenton game is at 6 p.m.
TCA's pursuit of its third straight MCT title continues, while Trenton is back in the semis for the first time since 2015. The teams will be meeting for the first time since Jan. 13, 2018, a 68-43 Trenton Catholic win, and Trenton last made the MCT final in 2011.
In its win over Hightstown, the Lady Mikes got 19 points from Zoe Brooks and 10 from Ciara Bailey as 10 players contributed to the point total. Isabella Benitez led Hightstown with eight points.
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Trenton and Allentown had another close one in Allentown 10 days after the Redbirds beat the Tornadoes 65-64 in overtime in Trenton. Allentown led just 21-19 at the break before Trenton outscored the Redbirds 14-3 in the third quarter to take control. Leianya Massenat, who has scored at least 20 points in 18 consecutive games, put in 26 to lead all scorers while Nevaeh Pickett added 10 for Trenton. Brianna Schweitzer scored 11 for Allentown while Sophia Conti had 10.
Stuart will be making its second straight county semifinal appearance and is in pursuit of its first-ever final, and Notre Dame is back in the semis after losing in the quarterfinals last year. The Irish last made the final in 2016, when they won their second title in three years.
The Tartans got double-doubles from Laila Fair (14 points, 14 rebounds) and Ariel Jenkins (11 points, 13 rebounds) in its win over Hopewell Valley, which saw Ally Oldfield lead the Bulldogs with nine points.
Paityn Morgan led Notre Dame with 15 points in their win, while Tamia Warner put in 14 points for Ewing and Machaya Williams-Traylor added 11.
Should the top two seeds advance on Wednesday, it'd make this the third straight year that the MCT final had no Colonial Valley Conference teams, after TCA and Pennington met in consecutive finals in 2018 and 2019. The MCT final had never been without a CVC team prior to that 2018 game.
TCA (23-1) enters the MCT semis on a roll, having won 18 straight games since its lone loss of the year, to Maryland's Bishop McNamara on Jan. 5. The win-streak victories have come by an average of 40 points, and the run has the Lady Mikes parked at No. 2 in the NJ.com Top 20, behind only St. John Vianney.
The NJ.com Top 20 ranks only NJSIAA teams, and while the Lady Mikes have yet to begin their NJSIAA tournament, their fellow higher-seeded team in Wednesday's semifinal has already won its state championship. Stuart (20-6), which has won 16 straight games, won its third straight NJISAA Prep B title on Wednesday. The Tartans' wins during the streak have come by an average of 31.7 points a game.
Notre Dame (16-6) has won 13 of its last 16 games after a 3-3 start, and Trenton (16-6) has put together a similar run after a 3-4 start, having won 13 of 15.