The names Evans and Montagne are familiar to Jackson Township girls basketball fans. But, these aren’t Christa and Shannon Evans and Tiffany Montagne, who were the bedrock to Jackson Memorial High School’s girls basketball success the past couple of seasons, including last year’s NJSIAA Group IV championship season.
They are younger sisters Kim Evans and Tia Montagne, who established Carl W. Goetz Middle School as one of the top teams in the Ocean County league last season when the Lady Cougars went 20-4 overall and 7-1 in their conference. They are doing it again this season, as Goetz is off to a 10-2 start and unbeaten over its first six conference games coming into this week.
Evans, like older sisters Christa, a sophomore at Rutgers University, and Shannon, who is at the University of Sciences in Philadelphia, is a tall center at 6 feet 1 inch and averages 14 points a game. Christa has said in the past that Kim is potentially the best of the three girls in the family and many attentive fans around the township have agreed. Yet, another Evans — sixth-grader Dani — is also on the team but she is out with a fractured ankle.
“I’m always talking to my sisters and, when Christa is home, she gets me out [on the court] and goes over things,” Evans said. “She has me work on my defensive game.” Montagne, like her older sister, is the point guard.
“She’s the coach on the court,” said coach Chris Zammit regarding Montagne, who averages five assists a game to go with her six points per game average.
Only midway through a challenging season, Goetz made its mark late last month when the Lady Cougars won the St. Rose Lima Hoop It Up Christmas Tournament championship. They lost in the finals to a team from Wall in the St.
Dominic Tournament in Brick on Jan. 6, where Evans made the All-Tournament team.
“We know when to pass and when not to pass and when to get the ball to a person who is open on a set play,” Evans said. “I’ve played with these girls and they’re great players. No one is selfish.”
Power forward Alyssa Wilson also has been a vital cog to the lineup, averaging a dozen points and six rebounds a game. All three are eighth graders who were on last year’s team along with eighth grade center Marissa Capua and forwards Alexis Casella and Christine Santoriello, who are eighth graders, and Lindsay Bathmann, a seventh grader. Also back from last season are guards Casey Poretti and Chiara Beja, both eighth graders, and Allison Wanzor and Kylee Sullivan, both seventh graders.
Also contributing to the team’s success is seventh grader Annabelle Robinson and sixth graders Nicole Bonilla, Erin Sheeran and Taylor Tallent.