Girls Basketball – Manasquan Bounces Top Seed Red Bank Catholic to Reach Shore Conference Final

LITTLE SILVER -- In its game prior to Thursday's Shore Conference Tournament semifinal, the Manasquan girls basketball team rallied from a double-digit deficit to beat a rival by a razor-thin margin to advance to the SCT semifinals.

On Thursday night at Red Bank Regional High School, the shoe appeared to be on the other foot as Red Bank Catholic mounted a comeback that erased an 11-point second-half deficit and took the lead late in the fourth quarter against the Warriors.

Instead of suffering the same fate that it inflicted upon St. Rose in Saturday's quarterfinal comeback, Manasquan halted the RBC momentum and relied on its team-first approach to close out its biggest win of the season.

Seniors Katie Collins and Hope Masonius led a balanced scoring attack and junior Oliva Shaughnessy hit the two biggest shots of the game for fifth-seeded Manasquan, which pulled through with a 59-56 win over Red Bank Catholic -- the top seed in the 2024 SCT -- Thursday night.

Manasquan advances to the Shore Conference Tournament final for the second time in three years and for the seventh time since 2012. Of the past six SCT finals for Manasquan, 12th-year coach Lisa Kukoda has led the Warriors to the last five of them.

"When you're playing for the group, when you're playing for each other, things come a whole lot easier," Kukoda said. "There is a flow on the floor and we had that today. I think they are playing for each other one hundred percent of the time."

Collins, Masonius, Shaughnessy and senior McKenna Karlson combined for 56 of Manasquan's 59 points, with the three seniors each dishing out at least three assists as well. Collins led the way with 17 points, 12 rebounds and three assists, Masonius put up 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists, Karlson went for 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists and Shaughnessy finished with 10 points.

"Obviously, Hope, Katie and McKenna have been our leaders with senior Carlie (Lapinski) coming off the bench," Shaughnessy said. "Jordyn Hollowell and I can score too and it's really somebody different stepping up for us every game. We have those three seniors who are huge for us every game, but we have a lot of players who can contribute and we all trust each other."

Each of the four Manasquan double-digit scorers had a spurt in the game, starting with seven points from Karlson in the first quarter to help the Warriors run out to a 15-9 lead. Collins scored six in the second and led Manasquan with 20 points at the break, with the Warriors taking a 28-21 lead into the locker room.

"They played off of each other and when you're doing that, any team is hard to guard, this group especially," Kukoda said. "When they are playing off of each other, it's a totally different game."

The second half belonged to Masonius and Shaughnessy, with each scoring 10 after intermission. A drive to the basket by Masonius gave Manasquan a 37-26 lead midway through the third quarter.

RBC responded with seven straight points, including five straight by sophomore Katie Liggio, to cut the Manasquan lead to 37-33 and was within 43-37 heading to the fourth quarter.

"There was a little bit of that feeling from the St. Rose game, but I think it was different," said Masonius, who hit the winning shot with 25 seconds left in Manasquan's 44-43 win over the Purple Roses on Saturday. "Even when were were winning by a lot, I kept saying to our team, 'Let's play like we're down.' Once they tied us and took the lead, we still knew we could execute and win the game."

Caseys sophomore Addy Nyemchek took over in the fourth quarter, during which she scored 13 of her game-high 23 points. Nyemchek also pulled in 13 rebounds, handed out four assists and blocked two shots.

The individual effort of Nyemchek nearly pulled RBC across the finish line. She tied the game at 52 with a three-pointer, then gave the Caseys their first lead since 7-5 when she hit a short jumper with 1:01 left to put RBC on top, 56-55.

Manasquan turned to Shaughnessy for an answer each time. Masonius worked her way into the teeth of the defense and fired a pass to the left corner, where Shaughnessy spotted up an buried a three-pointer to break the 52-52 tie with 1:22 left.

"I had a conversation with coach (Kukoda) and she said 'I don't need you to score or take kids one-on-one," Masonius said. "'I need you to do all the little things. I took that into mind, so when there were three people on me, I kicked it to the corner and (Shaughnessy) hit that shot. It was a great shot and we needed it. I had all the trust in her that she would make it and I'm so proud of her and everyone on the team."

Nyemchek hit two free throws and the go-ahead jumper, but the Warriors again called Shaughnessy's No. 10. Masonius again drove to the basket, began to lose her balance, but first and shoveled a pass to a cutting Shaughnessy who fired a runner up and in for a 57-56 lead with 38 seconds left.

Masonius then stole the ball with 26 seconds left, but a pair of missed free throws left the door open for an RBC win in the final seconds. Junior Tessa Carman got a good look at a three-pointer to potentially take the lead, but it was just off the mark.

On the other end, Masonius hit two free throws with 3.2 seconds left. The referees granted Red Bank Catholic a timeout after the Caseys got the ball to midcourt, but with only 0.3 seconds left. RBC could not cleanly inbound the ball out of the timeout and time expired on the No. 1 seed.

"In this game, we handled the ups and downs of the game," Kukoda said. "We didn't let it impact our next play. We just showed up and played."

Collins, Masonius and Karlson are the three senior leaders of Manasquan and have led Manasquan to Sunday's championship game at Monmouth -- their second SCT title game after losing to St. John Vianney in the 2022 final. This will be the group's first chance to play at OceanFirst Bank Center on the campus of Monmouth University after they played the 2022 championship at the RWJ Barnabas Health Arena in Toms River.

On the other side, RBC's SCT run ends in disappointment, but the Caseys are loaded with juniors and sophomores who have already played in an SCT final at Monmouth. RBC came up six points shy of St. John Vianney in the championship game.

Manasquan will attempt to end St. John Vianney's run of four consecutive SCT championships on Sunday, which would be the second significant streak Manasquan snapped that belonged to St. John Vianney. The Warriors beat the Lancers in Manasquan on Jan. 11, 46-40, to end St. John Vianney's 63-game winning streak against Shore Conference competition -- a streak that began at the beginning of the 2019-20 season after Vianney's 2018-19 campaign ended in the NJSIAA Non-Public A final against St. Rose.

"I could not be more excited," Masonius said. "We have nothing to lose at this point. We are just going to put it all out there on the court like we have been doing."

Despite that big win, Manasquan suffered a pair of slip-ups to Red Bank and St. Rose that landed the Warriors at No. 5 in the SCT seeding. Even in years in which multiple teams in the SCT were among the top five teams in the state rankings, winning the SCT from the No. 5 seed has been a rarity, but it is a challenge the Manasquan players have embraced.

"In all honesty, we felt like we were better than a five seed," Kukoda said. "This group uses it as motivation. We probably had the toughest path to the championship. We had to play a really tough 12 seed in Ranney. We had a battle with St. Rose. We had to beat the one seed. They looking at every single one as an obstacle in their way and they are taking it on as a group."

"We had some tough losses early in the season, but this is when it matters most," Masonius said. "Coming together in this tournament and getting these wins really shows how much we trust each other and how much we care about each other as a team. It's not over yet, but we made it this far."