BY VIN RAPOLLA
Staff Writer
JEFF GRANIT staff RBC’s Kristine Coppolino and Morris Catholic’s Hollianne Eckerd collide during the Caseys’ Non-Public A championship game win on Saturday in Toms River. Both the Red Bank Catholic and Rumson-Fair Haven girls basketball teams thought they might meet each other once again down the road this season.
They were just hoping it was a little further down the road.
With both squads capturing group titles over the weekend, the NJSIAA awarded RBC and RFH the fourth and fifth seeds, respectively, in this week’s Tournament of Champions, setting up a first-round match-up Tuesday night in Toms River, with the winner getting top-seeded Trenton Central tonight, also in Toms River.
While both teams were ecstatic to be making their returns to the TOC, their head coaches admitted that they were hoping for different opponents in the first round, for a couple of reasons.
“Any time you play a team four times in a season I think it wears on everybody,” said RBC head coach Joe Montano. “They are always such emotional, well-played games, and at this point of the year there’s only so much juice left in the tank.
“This is not a slight against anyone, because we’re all fortunate to be here, but I think it’s fair to say we’d rather play someone else. We’ve made it to the final six, and it would be nice to see how we can do against everyone else.”
Rumson head coach George Sourlis hoped to avoid RBC early on for another reason.
“They’re the one team we didn’t want to play again,” he said. “We have so much respect for their program, we’d prefer to play anyone but them.
“For both teams to get this far and have to play and knock each other out (was) something I wasn’t really looking forward to.”
Montano added that he felt both Shore Conference teams deserved better seeds in the TOC this year, based on the strengths of their schedules and the success they’ve had against them.
“I was certainly surprised, and a little bit disappointed,” he said.
Sourlis, conversely, wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, despite his team’s dominant run through the Group II bracket this postseason.
“I’m not overly surprised with our seed,” he said. “We knew we’d be between the 2-6 seed, and we have to take what they give us. This time of year you just have to win, so your seed doesn’t really matter. Every team has strengths and weaknesses, we just have to take it one game at a time.”
Both teams entered Tuesday night’s affair coming off emotional victories in their group finals.
Rumson was downright dominant throughout the Group II tournament, and punctuated their performance with a 44-23 dismantling of River Dell in the final, held Sunday in Toms River.
In what was a rematch of last year’s Group II finals (won by Rumson, 49-42), sophomore Kate Miller continued to prove she’s among the state’s best all-around players, leading all scorers with 16 points, while also playing brilliant defense against River Dell’s top player, Holy Cross-bound Alyssa May. May, a prolific scorer who dropped 22 on the Bulldogs in last year’s game, was held to just 10 points on Sunday, thanks in large part to Miller’s harassing defense.
“She’s been great all year,” Sourlis said of Miller. “They’ve all been great all year. They’ve just peaked at the right time.”
They certainly peaked early on Sunday. After the two teams traded 6-0 runs to start the game, Rumson went on an 18-0 run, led by three straight treys from Marissa LeCardi. Rumson used a 13-2 second-quarter edge to run away from River Dell (26-5).
Now 27-4 on the year, Rumson heads back to the TOC for the second consecutive year playing its best basketball of the season.
“I’m not surprised in the team’s success, but in the fashion at which they’ve done it,” said Sourlis. “They’ve done it with such dominance. It’s surprising how easy this team has made it look. They have been sound, thorough and consistent all season. I knew we could win games, but not with this conviction.
“Game in and game out this team’s approach to the game should be commended,” he added. “I’ve never had to question their work ethic.”
RBC had a much different experience in its group championship game, overcoming a rough start against Morris Catholic in the Non-Public A final before eventually securing a 43-40 win.
Kristen Danella and Jenna Strich were the heroes down the stretch, as they put the Caseys on their backs in crunch time to capture the team’s sixth group title, and fourth in Non-Public A.
With the team trailing 29-22 entering the fourth, and the Caseys struggling to find any offense against the Crusaders’ defense, Danella began to assert herself.
“When you get down to seven minutes left in your season, down 10, a sense of immediacy begins to set in,” Montano said. “These are not the type of kids that are going to go out hoping to win in that situation.”
The junior scored eight of her 14 points in the final period to help spur a comeback effort that got the Caseys within 39-36 late in the fourth. That’s when senior Jenna Strich, who had been struggling with her shooting all game, took a pass from Kim Talbot and buried a three to tie the score.
Talbot then hit the first of two free throws to give RBC its first lead since early in the game, 40-39, with just 29 seconds to play. After the Crusaders tied the game at 40-40, it was Strich who stepped up again. The Fairleigh Dickinson-bound guard missed a jumper with nine seconds left, but Kristine Coppolino grabb-ed the biggest of her game-high 12 rebounds, and fed it back to Strich, who calmly drained a three from the top of the key.
Once the Crusaders missed their final shot at the buzzer, the Caseys were group champions once again, and on their way back to the TOC.
“It seems like we’ve been coming from behind all year,” said Montano. “It’s just a testament to the character of this team.”
Entering Tuesday night’s game, Montano was hoping for a better all-around effort, early on, against RFH.
“I don’t know that we’re playing our best. I think we still probably have our best game in us,” he said. “Everybody’s a little tired at this point in the year, but hopefully we can play our best over the next couple of games, starting with [Tuesday].”
As for how he hoped to contain Rumson’s Miller, “We hope she doesn’t show up,” he said.
“But you don’t get this far by changing things, you just continue to do what you do well.”
Beyond Tuesday’s game, both coaches agreed that this tournament is anyone’s to win.
“Things are pretty even,” Montano said. “Any team can beat any other team. You look at Willingboro, and they have nine losses, but they’re playing their best basketball of the year, and I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen from them down the stretch.
“I think this is one of the most wide-open Tournament of Champions in years. There’s no Shabazz, or Red Bank Catholic of 2000-2001 this year. There’s not a team that everybody is pointing to saying, ‘That’s the team to beat.’”
“There’s just a lot of great teams in the tournament,” the Rumson coach added. “Any team is really capable of beating any team. Hopefully, we can keep the ride rolling. This team is a championship team; they play like it and have played like it all season.”