Peddie Athletics

The second-seeded Peddie varsity boys basketball team (21-7) defeated third-seeded The Hill School, 59-56, in the semifinals of the 2025-2026 MAPL Boys Basketball Tournament on the road at The Pennington School.

“It was another game where we had to dig down for some toughness, against a really tough team,” Head Coach Joe Rulewich said. “Coach Eilberg coaches those guys to his identity and his personality and he’s tough. It was a great battle. Both teams had to respond at different times, it felt like we were giving punches and taking punches and it was just a great game. It really showed our spirit and our toughness in late-game situations. I’m really proud of this team and I feel like we’ve had a great mission going into this weekend which is to win three games in a row.”
Gabe Hornberger’s 3-pointer with 3:25 left in the fourth quarter cut the Peddie deficit to 55-52. Josiah Broko stole the inbound pass after the timeout and threw down a slam dunk to make it a 55-54 deficit. Ethan Nelson’s 3-pointer with 1:52 left gave Peddie a 57-55 lead.
The Hill School missed both free throws with 46.7 seconds left down 57-55. Sean Griffin was fouled with 21.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. He missed both free throws.
With 3.8 seconds left, The Hill School was fouled and was awarded three free throws. The first was made and the next two were missed. Josiah Broko grabbed the rebound for Peddie with 2.5 seconds left, up 57-56.
Jordan Moton went to the free throw line with 2.5 seconds left and made both free throws to extend the Peddie lead to 59-56.
Gabe Hornberger scored a team-high 20 points. Josiah Broko and Sean Griffin each added 16 points.

“It feels great, but the job’s not done,” Hornberger ’26 said. “We won two out of our three games, the Peddie support from students was great and really elevated us at the end of the game, so I’m really excited for tomorrow.”

“It was pretty exhilarating, but at the same time I was kind of nervous,” Broko ’28 added. “We made some big plays down the stretch. Coach told us that we’re going to beat Pennington, beat Hill and go beat Blair, so that was in our minds the whole game.”

The Falcons next face top-seeded Blair Academy in the 2025-2026 MAPL Boys Basketball Tournament Championship Game on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 3 p.m. at The Pennington School.

Peddie varsity wrestling competed in the New Jersey/New York National Prep Qualifier at Blair Academy. The Falcons qualified nine wrestlers for the National Prep Wrestling Championships, which will take place from Friday, Feb. 20 to Saturday, Feb. 21 at Lehigh University.

113 pounds: Zane Shama
126 pounds: Ryan Horner
132 pounds: AJ Stover
138 pounds: Landon Lill
190 pounds: Chris Horsch
215 pounds: Augie Cassidy

107 pounds: Amelia Kenney
120 pounds: Addie Collins
145 pounds: Sarah Karlekar

The second-seeded Peddie varsity boys basketball team (20-7) defeated seventh-seeded The Pennington School, 70-46, in the quarterfinals of the 2025-2026 MAPL Boys Basketball Tournament on the road at The Pennington School.

Sean Griffin scored a game-high 21 points. Ethan Nelson added 17 points. Gabe Hornberger added 13 points.

“I feel like adversity hit us and we got punched in the face with tough defense from The Pennington School, but we fought back and we persevered.” Ethan Nelson ’28 said. “We stuck together as a team and we won the game.”

“Our guys really responded to the atmosphere and great environment at Pennington in front of their home crowd,” Head Coach Joe Rulewich. “I thought we were just tough tonight. I thought we made tough plays. We were relentless defensively in our pressure and we just came up with plays during stretches. That was the response we had to their crowd. We knew they were going to keep playing hard and we just played a little bit harder.”

The Falcons next face The Hill School (third seed) in the 2025-2026 MAPL Boys Basketball Tournament Semifinals on Saturday, Feb. 14 at 6 p.m. at The Pennington School.

The Peddie junior varsity girls basketball team (2-6) defeated The Hill School, 27-8, the final home game of the season. Anh Tran and Emily Griegel each scored a team-high 10 points. Brooke Berliner added five points. Cailyn Butts led the team in rebounds. Cailyn Butts and Paris Wreaks each added two points. Sophia Kong and Anh Tran each had six steals. The Falcons next conclude the season on the road at West Windsor-Plainsboro South High School on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 4 p.m.

The seventh-seeded Peddie varsity girls basketball team fell to (1-16) second-seeded Mercersburg Academy, 52-14, in the quarterfinals of the 2025-2026 MAPL Girls Basketball Tournament on the road at The Pennington School. Vanessa Harrison scored a team-high six points. Sam Forte added four points. The Falcons next travel to West Windsor-Plainsboro South High School on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 5:30 p.m.

The Peddie junior varsity boys basketball team (10-6) defeated The Hill School, 59-55, at home, in the final game of the season.

The Peddie third boys basketball team (0-10) fell to The Hill School, 51-44, at home, in the final game of the season. Ben McMahon scored a team-high 11 points. Caden Daniel added nine points.

The Peddie junior varsity boys basketball team (9-6) defeated The Lawrenceville School, 54-50, at home. Kaya Deldag scored a game-high 14 points and made both free throws with 24.4 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to extend the Peddie lead to 54-50. Connor Mahoney added 10 points. Aaron Motley tallied eight points. The Falcons next host The Hill School in the final game of the season on Friday, Feb. 13 at 4:30 p.m. at Erik B. Hanson ’83 Field House, Court 1.

The Peddie varsity wrestling team (6-12) fell to Hightstown High School, 54-23, in a dual meet on the road.

Falcons who earned wins:

113 pounds: Zane Shama (win by pin in first period in 1:48)
132 pounds: Ryan Horner (TF 16-1)
138 pounds: AJ Stover (win by pin in first period in 34 seconds)
144 pounds: Landon Lill (win by pin in third period in 5:59)

The Falcons next compete in the New Jersey/New York National Prep Qualifier on Saturday, Feb. 14 at 10 a.m. at Blair Academy.

Rescheduled, was originally on 1/25