Saint John Vianney Remains Undefeated After Getting By RBC

Photos by Tom Smith: #22 Madison Doring, #42 Brelynn Bellamy, #23 Sajada Bonner and #13 Sarah Karpell

HOLMDEL – Perhaps Saint John Vianney was on a mission to avenge their loss to Red Bank Catholic in last year’s Non-Public, South Jersey A state tournament semifinals.

Or maybe it was the atmosphere in their jam-packed sold-out gym Saturday, but whatever the reason was the Lancers would not let this game slip away even after giving away almost all of their 15-point first-quarter lead.

Saint John Vianney (12-0, 7-0) eventually held off a furious Red Bank Catholic fourth-quarter comeback attempt and pulled out a 47-40 victory over the Caseys to remain undefeated even though they’ll admit the game wasn’t one of their prettiest wins of the season.

“It wasn’t our best game, it wasn’t our prettiest game,” said senior guard Madison Doring, who led the Lancers in scoring with 14 points along with six rebounds. “But I’d rather take a sloppy win then a pretty loss any day.”

The Lancers charged out of the locker room to take what seemed like at the time an insurmountable 15-0 lead with a minute left in the first quarter.

Freshman Katie Hill came off the bench to sink two three-pointers to ignite the run and junior forward Brelynn Bellamy dominated the quarter with seven points – including a bucket at the first-quarter buzzer to make it a 17-2 game - three rebounds, two steals, an assist and a blocked shot - all in the first quarter.

However, in the second quarter the Lancers went almost six minutes without a basket after Doring’s three-pointer at the 6:50 mark while the Caseys hit back-to-back three’s to open the quarter and went on to outscore the Lancers 11-4 to pull within 21-13 at the half.

“Sometimes we do have focusing lulls,” said Doring referring to letting the Caseys back in the game. “We came out kind of stepped on their toes then we let them get back in it. We’re still working on putting four quarters together.”

SJV regained control of the game after the half taking a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter with an 11-point third quarter for a 32-22 advantage but allowed the Caseys to scratch and claw their way back into it in the fourth.

Doring scored off an assist from junior point guard Sarah Karpell to push the lead to 12 at the start of the fourth but from there the Caseys went on an 8-0 run to cut the SJV lead to four, 34-30, with 5:52 left in the game.

Senior Katie Rice fueled the run with four quick points and a steal by freshman Sophia Sabino led to another two points and handed the Caseys all the momentum at that moment.

With SJV now on the ropes and holding onto a precarious four-point lead junior guard Sajada Bonner found senior Sarah Furch underneath and Furch converted and was fouled before completing the huge three-point play to put the Lancers up by seven, 37-30.

Rose Caverly hit one of two free throws to pull the Caseys within six then Karpell and Caseys guard Hayley Moore traded free throws to keep it a six-point game, 39-33. Karpell then found Bonner open for a three and she knocked it down for the biggest shot of game and a nine point lead with under two minutes to play.

Furch and Karpell then hit five straight free throws down the stretch to put the game away and the Lancers escaped with a 47-40 victory.

“I think that RBC started to execute better and we had to stop fouling,” Lancers head coach Dawn Karpel said after the game. “They chipped away, and offensively we lost a little of what we were doing, and credit them for that. I think at the end, we hit the foul shots and did the things that junior and senior teams should do, and that allowed us to keep the game and put it away at the end.”

The game was a classic Shore Conference girls basketball matchup with both teams ranked in the top 5 in the state and the two teams didn’t disappoint in front of the huge crowd that included Ranney stars Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine among other high profile Shore Conference athletes and coaches in attendance.

“This is why we come here, we love this atmosphere,” said Doring about playing in front of a sellout crowd. “It just fuels our energy and it was awesome. It was fun but we’re going to see RBC again and we’ll see how that goes.”

Once again the scoring was spread out for the Lancers with Bellamy, Furch and Karpell hitting for seven points and Bonner and Hill adding six. Caverly had 13 and Rice 11 for the Caseys (10-3, 7-1).

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