One roadblock nearly denied Bridgewater-Raritan High School its bid to make even more history in the final week of 2025.
Itself.
Already unbeaten through their first five games for the first time since the 2011-12 season, the Panthers’ boys’ basketball team had a longer layover than originally planned prior to its two-game showcase at Montgomery High School’ s Cougar Holiday Classic, which took place on Monday, December 29 and Tuesday, December 30 in Skillman.
The young winter’s first measurable snowfall that blanketed New Jersey shortly after Christmas Day wiped away numerous games statewide originally scheduled for Saturday, December 27, including all participating teams’ openers at Montgomery’s holiday event.
Therefore, Bridgewater-Raritan went nine days without playing in a game before competing in back-to-back contests just over 24 hours apart, and the Panthers found themselves in early trouble in their event opener.
Even though they fell behind by eight points after one quarter in their first game against North Hunterdon Regional High School, the Panthers responded with 27 of the second quarter’s 31 points on the way to a 15-point lead at halftime, and it appeared Bridgewater-Raritan was in the driver’s seat the rest of the way.
To North Hunterdon’s credit, nothing is ever a given in the mighty Skyland Conference.
The Lions surged ahead out of the locker room with 44 of the game’s next 72 points, and unbelievably, Bridgewater-Raritan found itself down by one point with five seconds remaining.
While the Panthers found themselves in heavy danger of losing for the first time this season, North Hunterdon only had one issue.
There was just enough time left on the clock for Bridgewater-Raritan senior Richie Gardner.
He capped off his team-high 26-point effort for the Panthers with a coast-to-coast, game-winning layup as time expired, and despite seeing its commanding lead over North Hunterdon (2-3) fade away, Bridgewater-Raritan sunk the game’s most important shot to escape with a thrilling 64-63 victory on Monday, December 29.
With a return trip to Montgomery High School the following morning still on the docket, unblemished Bridgewater-Raritan still went home with a sour taste in its mouth.
Even in triumph, the Panthers knew that their self-inflicted wounds almost cost them their undefeated start to the season.
“We were fortunate to win yesterday at the buzzer, and Richie made a really tough shot,” explained Gene McAteer, whose squad is off to its best start in his 18 seasons as the Panthers’ head coach. “Not to take anything away from North Hunterdon, but we certainly didn’t play our best basketball, and we didn’t guard the three-point line as we should have. We were outscored by 18 points from three-point range – they made nine [three-point shots], and we only made three. That is really difficult to make up for on [two-point shots] and free throws.”
“Fortunately, we were able to make that up by one to win by one.”
The next day, Bridgewater-Raritan responded in the most appropriate way to close out the calendar year.
They took their frustration out on its next opponent in Princeton High School.
Bridgewater-Raritan (7-0) exploded for 28 of the first quarter’s 31 points and left no doubt against Princeton (1-5), which was held without a field goal for the first 9:19 of regulation, and the Panthers tallied three times as many shot attempts in the first half on the way to an insurmountable 29-point halftime lead.
This time, Bridgewater-Raritan did not let its foot off the gas, as the Panthers built a 40-point advantage after three quarters and rolled to a 61-33 victory over Princeton on Tuesday, December 30.
“Our game [against North Hunterdon] should not have been that close, so we came into this game very mad,” said after the Princeton game by Gardner, who scored eight of his 10 points against the Tigers in a stretch of just 1:52 midway through what ended up being a 28-3 first period for Bridgewater-Raritan.
“That was the goal, and we expected that.”
Gardner now leads the Panthers with 131 points (18.7 points per game) scored so far this season.
But against Princeton, Bridgewater-Raritan showed its ability to balance its offense, score points in transition off turnovers, and demonstrate clear potential to beat opponents in a variety of ways.
While their 41-12 halftime lead against Princeton was impressive, including Gardner, the Panthers still managed to have four scorers reach at least nine points heading into the locker room: the other three being junior Tyler Hamby (nine points), sophomore Joe Chien (13 points), and the game’s leading scorer in senior Brandon Ur (18 points).
Ur’s result not only was a career-high, but it came in an efficient manner for Bridgewater-Raritan, which went 17-for-33 (51.5%) from the floor in the first half compared to just three-for-11 (27.3%) for Princeton in this span. The Panthers’ defense also held the Tigers to just two-for-13 (15.4%) from the floor in the third quarter, which saw Bridgewater-Raritan make six of its 12 shots (50%) alone on the other end of Montgomery’s court.
When Ur made his sixth and final bucket with 5:18 to go in the third quarter, Bridgewater-Raritan extended its lead to 50-14, and Princeton symbolically appeared to wave the white flag against the buzzsaw it ran into on Tuesday afternoon by emptying its bench moments later.
“I was disappointed with the role I had last year, but this year, I wanted to be a leader and one of the primary scorers on this team,” said after the game by Ur, who missed just one shot and went a perfect four-for-four from downtown against the Tigers.
“It took a lot of work with the team, a lot of work in the offseason, and nights and days with constant shooting.”
That hard work has paid off for players like Ur and Gardner, who both were not regular varsity starters for Bridgewater-Raritan during their sophomore years on campus. Their development at the sub-varsity levels of the Panthers’ program under McAteer’s overall leadership caused them to surge onto the scene as juniors in 2024-25, when Bridgewater-Raritan secured its first winning record in seven seasons and nearly pulled off a big upset as the No. 13 seed in the opening round of the state playoffs to cap it off.
That only proved to be the beginning of great things to come for what has been a busy Bridgewater-Raritan squad.
“We have been shooting together in the gym four to five nights a week,” shared Ur of some of the work he and his fellow senior teammates have done to get to this point.
“It’s translating really well so far.”
As a further testament to the deep foundation of the Panthers’ program, like Gardner and Ur, Hamby was also not a regular varsity starter until last season. Chien consistently played on last season’s junior varsity team, but through seven games in what has proven to be a successful transition up to Bridgewater-Raritan’s varsity squad, he has already eclipsed double digits on the scoreboard four times.
Senior Eli Milton (three points), who serves as a defensive guard for the Panthers, also rounded out the scoring from the Panthers’ starters from Tuesday afternoon who are members of the graduating Class of 2026 with Gardner and Ur. After Bridgewater-Raritan built its aforementioned 50-14 lead early in the third quarter, much to the delight of everyone on the Panthers’ sideline, every one of its seniors present on that day’s roster found their way into the scorebook.
Josh Baker (three points) buried a three-pointer in the third quarter’s final minute, and Alex Kolodziej (two points) opened the fourth-quarter scoring with 7:05 to go.
Junior Nate Zuckerman (two points) then capped off the calendar year with his first career varsity basket in the game’s final 15 seconds. Junior Jack Braswell, who rounded out the scoring with one more point for Bridgewater-Raritan against Princeton, also has had an immediate impact on the varsity squad after spending all of last season playing junior varsity basketball with Zuckerman and Chien according to Coach McAteer.
First-year assistant coach Jovan Ford, who replaced the role previously occupied by Steve Fischer last season, currently serves as the Panthers’ junior varsity coach.
“All the way from our freshman level with [assistant coach and freshman coach Steve Kline] to the varsity level with [McAteer and varsity assistant coach Matt Lyne], they have done a really good job in developing every player, specifically to get their strengths higher than they were,” Ur reflected of his teammates’ rises through the ranks of Bridgewater-Raritan’s program. “They make everyone who goes out on the floor confident in themselves, and they really just let everyone get going and be themselves, which also in turn helps our team chemistry.”
“That makes it a lot easier for us to trust each other.”
As a result, Bridgewater-Raritan is now off to its best start in 21 years, but its rout of Princeton proved to be a critical rebound needed to immediately put its escape against North Hunterdon into the rearview mirror.
And most importantly, send Bridgewater-Raritan into the New Year on a strong note.
“Our confidence goes back to the summer,” Gardner said of Bridgewater-Raritan, which also rallied from a three-possession deficit in the third quarter at Franklin High School before pulling away for a 70-63 victory back on December 16 in Somerset. “We played 20 games in the summer and 15 games in the fall against high competition, and we performed really well against them.”
“We expected to continue to perform well and set our expectations high.”
According to MaxPreps archives, the Panthers last started at least 7-0 in the 2004-05 season under Hall-of-Fame head coach Tim Ortelli, who guided that squad to victories in its first 12 games before the Panthers first fell at Elizabeth High School that season on January 22, 2005. That team ultimately won its most recent of Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s three state sectional titles under his leadership, which spanned from 1993-2008 and also included eight Somerset County Tournament crowns.
None of Bridgewater-Raritan’s current players at any of its levels were alive 21 years ago, though in their defense, McAteer was not even the Panthers’ head coach – he was on the sidelines at nearby Watchung Hills Regional High School before taking over at Bridgewater-Raritan High School in the 2008-09 season.
Now undefeated through seven games in 2025-26, although it still has work to do, Bridgewater-Raritan will now continue on its promising path as a contender in both Somerset County and amongst its fellow Group 4 public high schools.
“The growth of this team was apparent today,” praised McAteer of his team’s performance against Princeton. “If we’re going to be a good team or a great team, you’re going to have to sustain high levels of play no matter who you are playing, no matter what time you are playing, and whether it’s a packed gym or not. We certainly let our guard down [yesterday against North Hunterdon], and we didn’t play with the focus and energy that was required to be a really good high school basketball team. Coach Lyne and I harped on that to our guys last night and this morning.”
“To see them respond the way that they did, particularly in the first quarter today, was really good to see for our team.”
Fittingly, McAteer will now bring undefeated Bridgewater-Raritan (7-0, 3-0) back to his former gym in Skyland Conference Raritan Division rival Watchung Hills (3-3, 1-1) to open the New Year at 5:30 p.m .on Tuesday, January 6, in Warren.
The Panthers will then return home to square off against rival Immaculata High School (4-1, 0-0) at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 8, at Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium in Bridgewater.
Bridgewater-Raritan will then conclude the first week of 2026 at home with a weekend battle against Hillside High School (2-3) at 1 p.m.on Saturday, January 10.