Normally, Montano might draw up a play to get Katie Liggio the ball with the game on the line, but on Saturday, he sent her into the game the day after finding out she suffered a torn ACL in her right knee to give her a chance to stand on the floor with her teammates on one of the most significant days in the history of the Caseys storied girls basketball program.
Liggio’s moment was a footnote in Red Bank Catholic’s 62-45 statement win over defending Non-Public A champion Morris Catholic Saturday, during which Montano became the first Shore Conference basketball coach to record his 800th career victory, senior Addy Nyemchek became the school’s all-time leading scorer and RBC locked up the No. 1 ranking in the state for the first time since 2000.
Those final seconds, however, underscored how this group of RBC seniors got to celebrate all those accomplishments on Thursday afternoon at Jersey Mike’s Arena on the campus of Rutgers University. Six of the seven seniors began their journey as freshmen and over the last two seasons, the group of seven has built up one of the more impressive resumes in the history of the RBC program and all seven are set up to play in college next year.
“Our accomplishments come with our team getting wins,” Nyemchek said. “I don’t think we realized that and I didn’t really know about all that, so that’s great. But again, the win is what matters. Being part of this team is what matters and all the accomplishments just come with that.”
Thursday marked RBC’s second state title in the last three years to go with back-to-back Shore Conference Tournament championships in 2025 and 2026. This is the first season in which RBC (30-2) has won both the SCT and the Non-Public A title since 2013 and with just one loss in New Jersey this season — to a St. John Vianney team that RBC beat three times in four games during the — the Caseys will finish No. 1 in the state for the first time since the 1999-2000 team won the Tournament of Champions.
“It’s sad in a way, because we won’t get to play together anymore,” Nyemchek said. “But I think we left our high school career in a great way.”
“These are tears of joy,” said senior Sophie Smith, who finished with nine points and four rebounds. “I’m so happy with what we have been able to accomplish these last four years, especially this last season. I’m sad that I’m not going to get to play with them anymore. I’m just excited to see what everyone accomplishes in college.”
Montano broke the news of Liggio’s injury by calling the seven seniors into his office during the Wednesday school day. Liggio sustained the injury at the end of the first quarter of Monday’s win over St. John Vianney in the South Jersey final, after which Montano was hopeful the injury was not as severe. A University of Rhode Island commit and a 1,000-point scorer for her career, Liggio finished her senior season averaging 11.1 points per game — second on the No. 1 team in the state behind Nyemchek.
“They came to my office (on Wednesday) and we all got a cry in,” said Montano, who called his seven seniors into his office during the school day. “We said look, Katie is just going to have a different role for one game. She is going to help coach her position. She is going to be a cheerleader and the goal is to be up by enough to get her in the game at the end.”
“I had just finished English class and I already knew what it was about,” Smith said. “It was an emotional day. We were so sad for her, but we all knew we needed to come together to get her into the game for that last time. We wanted to be up by double-digits so we could get her that chance so she could end her season in the game. It was really important that we did that.”
Nyemchek led the Caseys with 22 points, eight rebounds, eight steals and two blocked shots and her and-one finish in the fourth quarter tied the school’s all-time scoring record, previously held by 2008 graduate Kristina Danella. With 1,780 points to her name, Nyemchek prefers to see herself as part of a record-breaking senior class.
“I give all the credit to my teammates,” Nyemchek said. “I cannot thank them enough. I wouldn’t want to play with any other group of girls. Just because I have the most points doesn’t mean anything. They get me the ball when they needed to, got big stops, big rebounds, so they really do a lot of things that don’t get noticed as much.”
With a chance to play in the McDonald’s All-American game, the all-time leading scoring record at RBC and team accomplishments that include two state titles, two Shore Conference Tournament titles and a No. 1 finish, Nyemchek made a strong case as the best player through Montano’s program before she heads to Indiana University.
“I try not to compare guys,” Montano said. “Who is the best? Who scores the most points? The thing that is so impressive about Addy is she will do what the team needs for her to win. If it’s a day that she needs to pass the ball, she is going to pass the ball. If it’s a day she needs to score the ball, she is going to score the ball. If it’s a day we need her defense, she is going to play great defense. She’s got such a great understanding of the game that she always understands what we need from her.”
After a quiet scoring first half, Nyemchek scored 17 of her 22 points in the second half, including 13 in the fourth quarter to help RBC close out what was a close game. The Caseys took a 25-24 lead on Morris Catholic (25-6) into halftime on a jumper by senior Scarlet LeVake, who finished with nine points and seven rebounds off the bench in helping to fill the void left in Liggio’s absence. Senior Daniela Maletsky ignited the Caseys in the first half with nine of her 10 points on the game while also adding four rebounds and five assists — all in the first half as well, as RBC scored the first eight points of the game.
“Dani played really great,” Montano said. “She drove the ball to the basket. We joked with her, we said, ‘When you were a sophomore in this gym, you scored twelve points (in the Non-Public A final). We need twelve today. We got ten, which is pretty good.”
Starting in Liggio’s place, senior Lola Giordano added six points, four rebounds and five assists and nailed a three-pointer early in the fourth quarter that capped an 8-0 run and gave RBC its first double-digit lead of the game, 46-34.
“We didn’t have Katie, but they are great players and they are very capable of hitting shots and getting easy layups like they did,” Nyemchek said. “Lola had some great passes and she was very disciplined under pressure as a point guard.”
Smith came alive in the third quarter, hitting all three of her three-point shots in the quarter to give RBC a 40-34 lead heading to the fourth. The three threes were RBC’s first hits from beyond the arc in the game.
“Sophie was huge in the third quarter,” Montano said. “I told her at halftime, ‘You’re really, really good and we need you. You’ve got to go out there and just play,’ and she did.”
“The third quarter was pretty fast-paced, so it was just a matter of finding out where I was open,” Smith said. “We ran a lot of five-out stuff, so it was easy to draw the defense in and get some good looks. My teammates always find me, so it’s really on them.”
Senior guard Tessa Liggio — Katie’s sister — chipped in four points and three assists and freshman Sumaiyah Lashley scored on a putback at the first-quarter buzzer to give Red Bank Catholic 11 bench points between LeVake and Lashley.
Nyemchek’s and-one that tied Danella at 1,773 points gave RBC a 50-39 lead and after missing the ensuing free throw that would have set the new record, Nyemchek passed Danella with a pair of free throws on the next trip down the floor to extend the Caseys’ lead to 52-39.
The rest of the way, RBC piled up its lead, with the ultimate goal of closing out a second state title in three years and ending it with Liggio on the floor. LeVake and Nyemchek each hit a pair of free throws and Tessa Liggio found Nyemchek for a breakaway layup to make the score, 62-43.
“We wanted to leave no doubt that we were the number one team,” Smith said. “We wanted to really close it out. This was our last game ever so we really wanted to make sure we finished out strong.”
That was enough for Montano, who sent Katie Liggio into the game with 35 seconds left and after the other four Caseys chewed up most of the clock, Nyemchek flipped the ball to Liggio for the final five seconds. After the final buzzer sounded, her teammates mobbed her, starting with he sister.
No other coach in Shore Conference boys or girls history has reached 800 wins and any coach who gets there in the future will have a hard time topping Montano’s 800th, which clinched the program its 10th state championship — all under his watch.
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