RED BANK CATHOLIC DEFEATS MANASQUAN

For many teams in the Shore Conference, and even across the state, the Red Bank Catholic High School girls basketball team has been a nightmare as seniors Rose Caverly and Katie Rice played the tormentors. But even these Caseys had an albatross wrapped around their necks that they couldn’t escape. That was until Tuesday night. The second half was an intense, back-and-forth affair, but the Caseys, No. 4 in the APP Shore Conference rankings, were able to take the lead for good when Caverly hit two clutch free throws with 54.2 seconds to play, giving the Caseys a 58-57 lead. RBC played stellar defense down the stretch and held on for a 62-57 victory over top-ranked Manasquan, a team that Caseys hadn’t beaten since the 2013-14 season. For seniors like Caverly, Rice and Hayley Moore, the win to end their brutal slide against the Warriors was extra cathartic. “It’s so nice because we’ve never beaten them, this is the only team that we haven’t beaten,” Caverly said. “Tonight we were thinking this may be the last time we play them, so we have to come out and leave everything out on the floor. I think we did that.” The Caseys (11-3) trailed 55-52 with less than three minutes to play but fought their way back as Caverly was fouled and hit the eventual game-winning free throws. The Caseys made a stout defensive stand on the other end of the floor, and freshman Sophia Sabino was fouled as only a handful of seconds remained. The youngster showed the poise of a hardened veteran and sunk the two free throws to extend the Casey lead to 60-57. Ironically for a team full of seniors desperate to inflict some damage on their biggest nemesis, it was the freshman Sabino who may have shined the brightest. Sabino finished with a team-high 20 points. “Yes, I was nervous, but I knew I had to make those shots,” Sabino said of her two late-game free throws. “I couldn’t let my team down. I just had to focus and not worry about anything else.” In fact, anywhere one looks at the Caseys’ box score from Tuesday, there will be a lot of crooked numbers inked in. The Caseys shot the basketball incredibly well, tallying seven three-pointers in the first half. Junior Julia Setaro hit three shots from beyond the arc in the opening half while Caverly and Rice paced the offense in the second half as the Caseys overcame a 47-41 deficit in the third quarter. “It’s funny because in practice, there’s 15 girls who can make threes, and then we come to the game, and they’re younger and have to get their confidence up,” Caverly said. “Tonight, we had Jules (Setaro) who shot the lights out of the basketball, we had Fab (Eggenschwiler) who made threes, we had Soph (Sabino) who stepped up big tonight. It’s nice to have so many people step up, and that just took everybody’s tempo and put it up to here.” The Warriors (11-2), as expected, made it very difficult on the Caseys and didn't relinquish their streak without a fight. After RBC took an 18-10 first quarter lead, the Warriors came roaring back with their dynamic and explosive offense. Senior Dara Mabrey paced the offense with 16 first half points while junior Faith Masonius found her groove after a rough first quarter, scoring seven points in the second quarter. The two dominant players of Manasquan did even more damage later on as Mabrey finished with a game-high 29 points and Masonius chipped in 20 points, but the Caseys did just enough defensively in the fourth quarter. It would be nearly impossible to stop both players completely, but the Caseys limited Mabrey and Masonius to one field goal combined in the final quarter. “I told our kids in the third quarter, ‘great players are making shots, you’re not doing anything wrong,’” Red Bank Catholic coach Joe Montano said. “I thought we did a good job defensively. They’re really, really good, and they’re doing what they do well, they’re making shots. We have to keep defending that away and try to hope that they’re going to start missing some of those shots.” The relieving win against the Warriors come on the heels of the Caseys’ 60-37 blowout loss to Manasquan on Dec. 19 earlier this season. The Caseys also fell behind 17-2 in the first quarter of their Jan. 20 game against St. John Vianney. They rallied, but eventually lost 47-40 to the Lancers. They’ve played well at times against both elite teams, but they haven't been able to complete the picture this season. On Tuesday night, the Caseys painted a complete masterpiece. “I said to the team that you take the first two quarters at Manasquan and at Vianney this year, and the numbers are scary, it was like 50-11,” Montano said. “But then the last three quarters against Vianney and the second half of Manasquan were pretty even, so I said we have to play 32 minutes.”

RED BANK CATHOLIC DEFEATS MANASQUAN

DANIEL LOGIUDICE

App.com | 2/8/2018