Boys Basketball – St. Rose Dominates CBA to Reach Its First Ever Shore Conference Tournament Final

LITTLE SILVER -- Everything about the St. Rose boys basketball team's march to the Shore Conference Tournament championship game has seemed inevitable, but that did not make the Purple Roses semifinal win over Christian Brothers Academy Wednesday at Red Bank Regional High School any less sweet.

For a program that has never been to a championship game and a team that felt the heartbreak of losing in the semifinals as the team expected to make it to the final last year, there was nothing inevitable about it. It was earned.

Junior Evan Romano led four St. Rose figures in double-figure scoring with 22 points and the top-seeded Purple Roses doubled up No. 5 CBA, 76-38, to advance to the championship game of the Shore Conference Tournament for the first time in program history.

"It's a huge accomplishment for our program and our school," third-year St. Rose coach Brian Lynch said. "We had talked a lot about the adversity we faced last year. We had no problem accepting failure and growing from it."

St. Rose scored on its second possession of the game and never gave up its lead, sparked by 15 first-half points from Romano. The junior also added four assists and three steals and he helped close out the win with seven points in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, plus a pair of alley-oop lobs to senior teammate Gio Panzini.

"The team has been really focused on defense all year," Romano said. "If you go back and look at my points, almost all of them came on layups in transition after we forced a turnover or got a rebound. After that, I'm just running and guys are getting me the ball and trusting me to do something with it."

"It it's me and Matt Hodge on the block, I think (the defense) is going to go with Matt Hodge on the block," Romano joked, referring to the attention his senior teammate and Villanova commit draws on the court. "I think that's why I end up with so many opportunities."

Panzini capped his evening, which included 19 points and nine rebounds, but throwing down the two lobs from Romano within seconds of one another on near-identical transition sequences. The second of the two dunks by Panzini extended St. Rose's lead to 72-30 and it climbed as high as 74-30 before CBA did some scoreboard upkeep in the final minutes.

Romano has been St. Rose's best alley-oop set-up specialist thanks to his prowess throwing lobs, particularly with Panzini as his target.

"I wasn't always great at throwing lobs and I actually used to be pretty bad," Romano said. "I played a lot in the summer with guys who are able to dunk and everyone is yelling at me 'Throw the lob!' I usually don't, or I didn't back then, so I've just been trying to get better at looking for it and throwing up a pass where those guys like it."

Romano's offense Wednesday came mostly on scores near the basket and most of those opportunities came in transition, but that is not what his game has been limited to during the tournament. The junior guard surpassed 20 points for the second time in three tournament games in in his 25-point performance against Freehold Boro in the round of 16, Romano hit five three-pointers.

"Evan had an incredible offensive game," Lynch said. "He is capable of that. He has other guys on the teams that are really good who he is sharing the ball with, so people don't see it as much, but if he was on one of these other teams, he might be averaging 25 a night."

Senior Matt Hodge added 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists, while sophomore brother Jayden Hodge pitched in 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists for St. Rose.

"We just see how the game goes: what's the flow of the game, what's the situation, are we down or up?," Hodge said. "Then I can kind of make the decision to feed certain teammates or to be more aggressive. Today, I was aggressive when I needed to be, but I also wanted to look for my teammates to get them involved and they did a great job."

The all-around production from the four regulars in the starting five helped offset the absence of junior point guard Bryan Ebeling, who, according to Lynch, was battling the flu and did not travel with the team on Wednesday.

"I was nervous about not having Bryan tonight because he is a guy who really attacks the rim and is a pit bull on defense," Lynch said. "I thought guys stepped up with him out. We controlled the game from the beginning and never let it out of our hands."

St. Rose's defense, meanwhile, clamped down on CBA, which was also short one starter. Sophomore forward Connor Andree missed his second straight game due to an ankle injury.

Junior Justin Fuerbacher led CBA with nine points and classmate Kevin Pikiell added eight in the loss.

CBA was last close when the Colts got a a floater from Pikiell and a three-pointer from senior Peter Noble to cut St. Rose's lead to 27-16 just past the midway point of the second quarter. St. Rose responded with an 8-2 run to close the half, then turned a 39-22 lead into a 49-22 lead with a 10-0 third-quarter run.

St. Rose's win Wednesday exorcised the demons still lingering from last year's SCT semifinal loss to Ranney. The Purple Roses were the No. 2 seed in the tournament and led the 11th-seeded Panthers by 13 points with under two minutes left in the game and squandered the lead before losing in overtime.

"These guys were a lot more locked-in this year," Lynch said. "Even with the lead we had at halftime, knowing what happened last year, it's never over. They had a great third quarter, which I thought was great to come out and push the lead up to around 30. That's the kind of mindset I think they came in with and it's result of going through what we went through last year and growing as a team."

Only two of St. Rose's games this year have come down to the final minute -- one a loss to the Patrick School and another an overtime win over St. Benedict's -- and that is because St. Rose has been particularly adept at closing out teams. Blowout wins over Ramapo and Union Catholic were close early in the fourth quarter and the Purple Roses have not let Shore Conference opponents within shouting distance in the fourth quarter.

One of those one-sided wins over Shore Conference opponents includes a 63-44 win at Manasquan on Jan. 22. The Purple Roses will once again face their Shore Conference Class B Coastal division rival when the two teams clash Sunday at Monmouth University in the championship game, with tipoff scheduled for 2 p.m.

While St. Rose will be playing in its first championship game, Manasquan is in the final for the sixth consecutive season. Despite Manasquan owning a significant advantage on St. Rose in program success in the SCT, St. Rose will be an overwhelming favorite in the championship game.

"After what happened last year, that was one of our main goals this year," Matt Hodge said. "We wanted to make it to the finals at Monmouth and obviously win it too, but getting there is big for us as a team. We're looking forward to competing against a good team and trying to win that championship for the school."