6 things we learned at the girls basketball Hoop Group Boardwalk Showcase
LINCROFT — For girls high school hoops fans, the NFL on Sunday took a back seat to the Hoop Group Boardwalk Showcase at Brookdale Community College's Robert J. Collins Arena.
There were a handful of highly talented players who hit the court, which made for five straight interesting games. Shore teams to participate were St. Rose, Ocean Township, St. John Vianney, Manasquan, Trinity Hall and Red Bank Catholic.
Other schools that participated included ESPN Top 100 kids and other high major commits. As far as the Shore goes, here are the six biggest takeaways from the showcase.
More: Ranking the Top 30 girls basketball teams in the Shore Conference
1. Ocean Township’s action-packed week: Wins in 3 out of 4 games
For some, the first week of the year has been people easing back into their everyday routine, but not for Ocean. The Spartans had four games in which they lost to Red Bank Catholic, but got wins over Point Pleasant Beach, Wall, and on Sunday they defeated St. Rose 35-30. Junior Kayden Clark led with 11 points and two steals, Gamila Betton grabbed seven boards for the Spartans (8-2). Their match against St. Rose was sluggish and not much like their typical games with a lot of scoring, but they still managed to pull it out despite St. Rose’s gritty effort.
“When we’re playing back-to-back games like that, and I don’t have a deep bench, not a lot of kids are getting in, it’s just the nature of what we are, my kids are tired,” said Ocean head coach Michael Lazur. “So they’re exhausted but I’m super proud of them gutting this one out against a super tough team.”
2. St. Rose sophomore Jada Lynch is a star
The sophomore made up for 46.6% of St. Rose’s total offense as she finished with 14 points. Her tall 6-foot frame and being able to score on all three levels is what makes her a threat at all times. So much that, Ocean was well aware of her reputation before stepping on the court.
“Jada is an incredibly tough player, that was our primary gameplan,” said Lazur. “Number two on our board was control Jada which we didn’t do a great job of, she’s so physical, the body on her is physical and she’s quick as hell too. She’s only a sophomore so I’m hoping I don’t have to see her the next two years.”
3. Trinity Hall coming alive amid tough schedule
After suffering back-to-back losses, Trinity Hall got back on track and defeated St. Thomas Aquinas 49-35. Harvard commit Nina Emnace led the Monarchs (5-4) with 16 points and eight steals, however, it was the supporting cast that made a big difference. Sophomore guard Grace Feeney finished with 10 points and junior forward Lilly Riggi had eight rebounds.
“I’m so proud because we had a tough loss against Franklin so we needed this win to come together as a team,” said Riggi.
Teagan Drennan finished with 10 points, nine of which came from behind the arch. Matt McCarthy gave her the green light to shoot the ball, her teammates believe in her - now it’s on the sophomore guard to do the rest.
“It’s great,” said Drennan on being encouraged to shoot. “It makes me want to shoot better knowing my teammates have the confidence in me and my teammates have my back.”
More: Here are 11 standout players from Shore Conference girls basketball for Dec. 26-Jan. 1
4. St. John Vianney still has some ‘maturing’ to do against the top teams
St. John Vianney fell 49-38 to Blair Academy after going into halftime up 25-22. In the first half, SJV looked sharp with Madison Kocis scoring all her eight points in the first quarter. Stella Lockhart led the team with 10 points. However, when Blair started to lock-in defensively, SJV (7-2) couldn’t find its offense. With only three seniors on the roster, inconsistent habits aren’t surprising at this point of the season.
“Our defense schemes a certain way - and until everyone commits in wanting to do that it's going to continue being a problem,” said SJV head coach Dawn Karpell. “The other thing maturity-wise is, we really let our offensive side of the ball dictate how we’re competing on the defensive end.”
5. Red Bank Catholic deserves to be considered one of the best in the country
The Caseys were a shot away from beating Morris Catholic, a team ranked No. 14 according to ESPN going into Sunday's game. RBC led by one point after a Tessa Ligio three-pointer with 1:24 left in the fourth quarter. However, when No. 7 nationally ranked junior Mia Pauldo made a layup with under a minute left, sophomore Addy Nyemchek was forced to throw up a last second three-pointer under pressure that didn’t go in. Morris Catholic won the game 49-46.
“I think they really got up and got after us in the second half and forced us to do things out of character and we don’t run our offense well in the second half,” said Red Bank Catholic head coach Joe Montano. “But we got shots, we just didn’t make 'em. It’s tough to get in these games against good teams and learn how to win.”
Nyemchek had 11 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 5 steals for RBC (7-2).
6. Manasquan possesses the top defense at the Shore
Last game of the night, Manasquan was able to pull off a win against Gill St. Bernard’s 41-38, despite University of Connecticut commit Gandy Malou-Mamel’s 6-foot-5 presence (15 points, 9 rebounds). Penn commit Katie Collins did a good job causing turnovers in the paint and crashing boards.
When Manasquan (9-1) switched from man-to-man to a 1-3-1 is when they started to see success.
“Coming to the game we were planning on playing man, once we saw how big, how strong and how good of a player (she was), obviously we knew it, but we thought preparing for it our man was going to work so props to all the girls on the team making that switch to zone because that’s not what we were completely planning for,” said Manasquan senior McKenna Karlson, a University of New Hampshire commit who had four points and three rebounds. "Katie, Hope (Masonius), and Carlie (Lapinski) down low did a really good job on Gandy.”
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Shore NJ girls basketball Hoop Group Boardwalk Showcase takeaways
