Girls Basketball: St. Thomas Aquinas captures fourth straight GMCT title
MONROE – The St. Thomas Aquinas High School girls basketball team got the best of both worlds Friday night.
The Trojans won their fourth straight Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament title with a 49-42 win over Colonia. The top-seeded Trojans also got a rare severe test as it prepares for next week’s South Jersey Non-Public A tournament.
St. Thomas beat Colonia 58-29 on Jan. 12 and 83-33 two weeks ago. But the third meeting was a contrast. The Patriots were pretty much in it from start to finish and led 30-29 after three periods.
A 20-12 St. Thomas fourth quarter was the difference.
“I think it was a good thing for us to have great competition,” said senior Jessica Cooper. “We assumed they’d be better.”
Senior Mattison Chiera – coach Sandra Chiera’s daughter had 20 points. Junior Taylor Derkack had 14 points and eight rebounds.
“We had played them twice and they knew how we played and adjusted to us,” said Cooper, who’ll play at Albany. “They slowed it down and they adjusted. We had to speed it up.”
Colonia (14-11) was in its first county final.
“We knew that we were going to have to make some moves defensively. We were going to have to make some adjustments and just figure out how to stop what they did, and I think we did a phenomenal job,” Colonia coach Sandra Chiera said. “I can’t ask for better defense than what my girls showed tonight. I’m beaming with pride, it doesn’t feel well to lose, but that’s a great defensive effort from our team tonight.”
Sophomore Leah Crosby was the game’s MVP for the second-straight season with 12 points and 16 rebounds. Junior Amarilis Shubick hit several free throws down the stretch to keep momentum.
“Obviously it was a big game and they came to play, but all the way through we knew we’d win,” said Shubick, a three -year starter “This was one of the closest games we’ve been in all year.”
KEY SEQUENCE
A 7-2 run gave the Trojans a 36-32 lead with 5:08 remaining. The Patriots were able to cut it to 45-42 on a basket by Derkack with 35 seconds to play, but St. Thomas Aquinas went to the line three times in the final 25.7 seconds and sank four free throws for the 49-42 final.
THEY SAID IT
ST. Thomas Aquinas coach Joe Whalen on repeating, “The great sports expression is that winning takes talent and repeating takes character and I think the girls showed a lot of character.”
Crosby said, “We had to slow the game down, believe in ourselves and have each other’s backs. We couldn’t get down on each other, we can’t yell each other, we have to encourage each other.”
WHAT’S NEXT
St. Thomas will play host to Union Catholic Wednesday in a Non-Public A South game. Colonia opens the North 2 Group 3 playoffs at home against Nutley on Monday at 2 p.m.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Girls Basketball: St. Thomas Aquinas wins fourth straight GMCT title
