Girls basketball: Colonia’s Taylor Derkack is the Home News Tribune Player of the Year

Taylor Derkack concluded a memorable scholastic career with eye-popping totals of more than 2,000 points and nearly 1,250 rebounds.

With Derkack filling up the steals, blocked shots and assists columns, the Colonia High School girls basketball stat sheets overflowed, like fountain sodas at do-it-yourself convenience stores.

One more stat: Derkack would no doubt rank at the top of the statewide standings if there was data for most gimmick defenses seen by a high school player in New Jersey.

“It was really challenging being the focus of every team’s scouting report, but at the same time it was a testament to the work I put in and on some level a kind of respect for my game,” Derkack said. “Although it was hard having to navigate through whatever defense they threw at me it was also a great experience to expand my game and see new things and bigger challenges.”

“We saw all sorts of defenses from opponents,” said Colonia coach Sandra Chiera. “We saw box-and-1, her being double-teamed every time she touched the ball, or some sort of man on her – with everyone else sagging to her to clog up any drives and to make her give up the ball.”

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Despite all of the complex and well-disguised defensive schemes designed to confuse and frustrate Derkack – think of your favorite NFL quarterback facing a mad-scientist defensive coordinator – she produced one of the most scintillating and dominant seasons in recent memory.

Derkack overcame all of the attention, obstacles, defenses and bodies she faced, to average 23.4 points, 13.5 rebounds, 4.7 steals, 3.2 assists and 3 blocked shots per game on her way to joining the exclusive 2,000-point club and repeating as the Home News Tribune Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

She made 500 free throws in her high school career. And, here’s another attention-grabbing Derkack statistic: victories.

With the UMass-bound Derkack leading the way, Colonia reached the championship game of the GMC Tournament for the second straight season and advanced to the final of the North 2 Group 3 Tournament. The Patriots won 73 of the 102 high school games she played -- the last two seasons as a member of the GMC Red Division.

The high-flying and always-active Derkack scored at least 30 points four times during a six-game stretch from Jan. 11-23, including a 33-point, 23-rebound performance vs. Chatham.

“Taylor handled every single one of these defensive schemes with grit and composure,” said Chiera, who watched her score 2,062 points during her varsity career. “She is such a fierce competitor that she never lets it take her out of the game. She never stopped competing and never let it get the best of her.”

GMC Red Division foe St. Thomas Aquinas threw the kitchen sink -- and proverbial microwave and air fryer -- at Derkack and Colonia in the GMCT Final.

“The (defense) that probably sticks out the most is St. Thomas Aquinas literally played a triangle-and-2 on her; having two defenders guarding Taylor,” said Chiera.

“With Derkack, we had to get really creative in our gameplan due to the fact that she can score from anywhere on the court,” said St. Thomas Aquinas coach Tim Corrigan. “Last year, we used a 3-2 zone that morphed into a box-and-1 after the first pass. This year we used a mix of straight man-to-man – with her player never helping off her – a box-and-1 and a triangle-and-2 with the other defender guarding (Mya Patino).

“We put in a new defense for the GMC championship game, a defense we put in the day before the game. That defense had two players picking up Derkack around half court, one player guarding Patino man-to-man and the other two playing zone in a stack in the lane.”

The Taylor-made triangle-and-2 might’ve slowed Derkack a bit, but she still finished the GMCT final with a season-high six 3-pointers and 30 points as the Patriots fell to the Trojans in the final for the second year in a row.

“I think every team gave me their best every night and it was always difficult no matter who we played,” Derkack said. “I would say St. Thomas was probably the hardest (defense), being they had two girls face guarding me the whole time in the county championship game. But I found a way through it. Every team always gave me their best and always gave me different kinds of defenses to navigate through.”

“I don’t know if we’ll ever use that defense again,” Corrigan said.

Derkack very likely won’t be the focus of as much attention when she suits up for the University of Massachusetts in the Atlantic 10 Conference next season. She only faced man-to-man defense at Rutgers Prep on Sunday as a member of the North squad in the NJBCA’s North/South All-Star Game Classic (for seniors).

“I’m looking forward to playing against straight man-to-man defense in college,” said Derkack, Colonia’s all-time leading scorer. “This season has been the most challenging year of basketball I have ever played, but I wouldn’t change a single thing. Even though the past four years have been fun and challenging playing against junk defenses, playing (vs.) normal man-to-man will be fun.”

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Girls basketball: Taylor Derkack of Colonia, HNT Player of the Year