St. Anthony’s Defeats Linden for 13th T of C Title; Vianney Wins 7th TOC Girls Crown
TRENTON, NJ—On Monday night, GMC Hoops traveled down to Sun National Bank Center to take in both the Girls and Boys T of C Finals. The first game of the Championship twin bill was the T of C Girls Championship between Manasquan and St. John Vianney. In a rematch of last year’s T of C Girls Final, the Warriors of Manasquan trailed Vianney, 36-26 late in the third period before they rallied to tie the game at 49-49 with 4.6 seconds remaining in regulation.
The two teams would then battle to two overtimes before the Lady Lancers took control, and pulled away for a 65-58 victory. Then, in the nightcap, which didn’t start until a few minutes before 9:00 PM, third seeded Linden took on top seeded, top ranked, and undefeated St. Anthony’s. The Friars took control early with a 12-4 first quarter lead, but Linden rallied back to tie the game up on a couple of occasions in the second period before St. Anthony’s took a 24-20 lead into the intermission. In the third period, the Friars outscored the Tigers by a 17-8 margin to take a 41-28 lead, and never looked back as they went on to win, 55-38. Below are capsules on both games:
#2 Manasquan (28-6) vs. #1 St. John Vianney (30-1)—TOC Girls Final—For the first time since 2009, the Lady Lancers of St. John Vianney from Holmdel won the Tournament of Champions. It was the 7th time that Vianney won the T of C Championship. Manasquan, which won the title last year over Vianney, gave a valiant battle before falling in double-overtime. The Lady Lancers jumped out to a 27-18 lead with 3:50 remaining in the first half before Manasquan scored 6 of the last 11 points to trim the deficit to 32-24 at the intermission despite a three from SJV’s Julia Ramos.
The third quarter was a relatively low scoring quarter with no rhythm as both teams shot themselves in the foot with miscues, but Vianney did manage to increase its lead to 36-26 after scoring 4 of the first 6 points of the second half including a steal for a layup by Vanessa Pinho. Manasquan, led by Dara Mabrey, Stella Clark, and Faith Masonius, rallied back with 23 of the last 36 points of regulation including a basket with 4.6 seconds left in regulation to tie the game up at 49-49. In the first overtime, Vianney appeared to be on the ropes as they missed a couple key free throws in the extra session, but did manage to tie the game again at 53-53, and force a second overtime.
In the second extra session, Vianney took the opening tip, and came down the court for a score on a jumper from the left wing by Gigi Caponegro for her only points of the game, and a 55-53 lead with three minutes to play. Then, Kelly Campbell took over. The senior, who along with teammate Caponegro was selected to play in the NJSCA North-South Girls All-Star Game at Rider University on Sunday, helped her team pull away from there by going 9 of 10 from the foul line while Tina Lebron sank a pair of free throws with 9.2 seconds left to wrap up the 65-58 victory. It was the fourth time that SJV defeated Manasquan this year. It was the second time that the two teams went to overtime before Vianney won. The first meeting between the two schools went to overtime. The third meeting was for the Shore Conference Tournament Championship, which Vianney won 59-48 to secure their first county/conference title since 2006.
Campbell finished with 23 points along with 11 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals according to NJ.com. Kimi Evans chipped in with 11 points while Pinho added 10 points. Seven different players scored for Vianney while only five scored for Manasquan. Faith Masonius put the Lady Warriors on her back, especially when sophomore Dara Mabrey fouled out in the first overtime. Masonius finished with a game high 27 points along with 9 rebounds. Stella Clark added 10 while Mabrey finished with 13. Vianney enjoyed a 12-9 edge in points scored from beyond the arc while also enjoying a 21-9 edge in points scored from the charity stripe thanks in large part to Campbell, who scored 14 of her 23 from the foul line. With the victory, St. John Vianney completed its season at 31-1 while Manasquan concluded its campaign at 28-7.
#3 Linden (25-5) vs. #1 St. Anthony’s (31-0)—In the nightcap, which started almost an hour later due to the double overtime drama in the TOC Girls Game, St. Anthony’s claimed its 13th overall T of C title, and first since 2012 with a 55-38 victory over Linden. The Friars jumped out to a 12-4 first quarter lead on a three pointer by R.J. Cole, two layups by Idris Joyner, a three by Asante Gist, and a floater before the buzzer by Jagan Mosely.
Linden battled back though by scoring the first 8 points of the second on threes by point guard Joey Krempa and sophomore Tavon Jones, and a bucket by Jones to knot the score at 12-12. St. Anthony’s retook the lead on back to back layups by Gist before Linden got another three from Krempa, and then a free throw to tie the score again at 16-16. The Friars would take the lead for good though by scoring 8 of the last 12 points including another trey by Gist, who had 10 first half points while Joyner chipped in with eight. Jones led Linden with 7 points while Krempa chipped in with 6.
The third quarter saw St. Anthony’s increase its advantage even further with a 17-8 showing including a layup by Joyner at the 4:50 mark for a 33-23 lead and a trey by Gist late in the period for a 41-28 lead. The Friars maintained their 13 point lead at 46-33 when Joyner got another score inside off a great feed by R.J. Cole at the 5:44 mark. Cole then got into the act with a transition layup at the 3:11 mark for a 53-37 lead. St. Anthony’s then ran out the clock for much of the last two minutes of the contest as it cruised to a 55-38 victory.
Gist and Joyner were huge in this game for St. Anthony’s. Gist, who had played his first two seasons at Roselle Catholic before transferring to Marist a year ago, and then to St. Anthony’s this year, finished with 16 points including four threes while Joyner added 12 points. R.J. Cole, who transferred in from Newark Tech a year ago, chipped in with 11 points while Georgetown bound, Mosely finished with 10. Linden was led by Khalief Crawford with 13 points including three treys while Jones finished with 12. Both teams combined to have 13 different players score in the contest including 7 for St. Anthony’s and 6 for Linden. Each team had six threes in the contest as well.
According to NJ.com, St. Anthony’s had a 21-20 edge in rebounds including 11 from guard Juvaris Hayes, who also dished out 7 assists. The Friars also had a 9-2 edge in points scored from the foul line, and a 28-18 edge in points scored from within the arc. Leading 21-20 late in the first half, St. Anthony’s outscored Linden by a margin of 34-18 over the last 17 minutes or so of the game. With the victory, St. Anthony’s improves to 32-0 and 13-1 in TOC finals, and 28-1 overall in the 14 years it has appeared in the TOC. The only loss suffered during that stretch was to Elizabeth in 1990. One of those years, 1995, the Friars were actually a 3rd seed, played all three rounds and won it all by defeating top seeded Shawnee (47-44). Linden concludes its season at 25-6, and the public school T of C drought now extends to 17 years.