Manasquan Blitzes Rumson-Fair Haven For Third Straight CJGII Title

Photo above: Central Jersey Group II champions Manasquan pose with trophy

MANASQUAN – Exactly three days after the Manasquan boys hammered Rumson-Fair Haven in the Central Jersey Group II final, the Manasquan girls repeated the feat by completely overwhelming the Bulldogs in the second half on the way to a 56-30 win Tuesday night at Manasquan.

It was the third consecutive year that the second-seeded Warriors (24-6, 9-3) have eliminated the fourth-seeded Bulldogs (22-7, 9-3) in the sectional playoffs including the CJGII semifinals in 2014 and the finals last year, 2015.

Rumson took their last lead of the game, 10-9, on a Tori Hyduke bucket at 2:25 of the first quarter before Manasquan's Nikki Stevens came off the bench for a much needed boast. The junior forward - in her first post-season sectional final- scored six straight points off passes from Adie Masonius in the final 1:27 of the first quarter to put the Warriors up 15-10 as the quarter ended.

“I was very nervous in the beginning but once I got that one basket down I knew I could shoot with confidence, “Stevens said. “My teammates have my back and they’re passing me the ball when I’m open, so I feel like they have such confidence in me to shoot it I’m not going to take away that shot.”

“Nikki’s a perfect example of a girl who worked hard all offseason, all throughout the season and it’s paying off for her,” said Manasquan head coach Lisa Kukoda. “She gives everything that she has. The girls absolutely love her. She’s the one who makes everyone smile. It’s nice to see she’s able to step on the court and get a little bit of recognition for all the hard work she’s put in.”

Rumson edged to within 17-15 a minute into the second quarter on five straight points by Hyduke including a long-range three-pointer but the Warriors freshman sensation Faith Masonius answered with a three of her own 20 seconds later to make it a five-point game, 20-15.

Following the three-pointer by Masonius, neither team scored again for over four minutes until Rumson’s Megan Volker hit for two at 3:02 to make it 20-17. That’s as close as the Bulldogs would get the rest of the way as the Warriors rattled off the last four points of the second quarter for a 24-17 lead at the half.

“What Morris (Nicole) and Hyduke due very well is attack the basket and we recognized that they were hurting us at the start of the game,” Kukoda said. “So we adjusted and went to our zone to try to collapse a little bit more knowing we were taking a risk leaving some three point shots open but at that point we felt like we needed to make that adjustment and I think that it worked for us.”

It was a genius move by Kukoda, as the Bulldogs were held scoreless over the final 3:02 of the second quarter and were never the same team once the switch to zone was made. Hyduke, who had eight first quarter points and finished with 13 in the first half, was held to two points the rest of the way while Morris had two points in the third quarter and four meaningless points in the fourth.

Stevens grabbed four rebounds in the second quarter and got the final two points of the quarter to give her eight points and five boards in the first half while Faith Masonius added seven points, three rebounds and a steal in the half.

“Our design was to try to attack, go to the basket and get to rim and we were able to that early,” long-time Rumson head George Sourlis said. “Lisa did a good job and changed to a zone and a little bit of a look like that and we got a little bit stagnant, undisciplined and shot the ball to quick. We really didn’t get the ball inside to Hannah (Scanlan) at all and we settled. So I just think it steamrolled form there.

“Where early on we were getting to the rim and we’re rolling and everything’s good, she goes to the zone and we start shooting on one pass and shooting 25 footers and we didn’t make any, I don’t think we made a three the whole game (one). The disappointing thing about it is we practiced our zone offense, we were ready for it. We knew what it looked like and where people would be coming up the floor. It didn’t matter. When you play on someone else’s floor and they play as well as they did tonight, nobody’s beating them.”

Junior guard Addie Masonius opened the third quarter with her second three-pointer of the game and Warriors lead grew to 20 points at the end of three as senior point guard Stella Clark’s three pointer with 45 seconds left and sophomore guard Dara Mabrey’s bucket and foul with four seconds remaining made it 46-26 heading into the fourth.

Stevens was instrumental in Manasquan’s third quarter push adding three offensive rebounds in the third quarter that led directly to six points including her putback off a rebound to end the third.

“Rebounding is one of my favorite things to do,” Stevens said. “Coach really stresses that we need to rebound. I know if I run to the boards and box out I can get the rebound. Even when they come over my back I have such confidence I can get the ball. “

Manasquan out-rebounded Rumson 35-20 as Stevens (8), Addie Masonius (8), Mabrey (6), Clark (6) and Faith Masonius (6) all had big nights on the glass.

The 5-foot-5 Clark, who is the only player on the team to start on each of the last three sectional championship teams, seized control of the floor in the second half handing out four assists in the third quarter and adding two more in the fourth to finish with a game-high nine assists along with six points, six rebounds and a steal for the game.

“I think today we were very unstoppable on defense,” Clark said. “We were just all on the same page. We’ve been really drilling down on our 1-3-1 defense and I think we’ve gotten it and it showed today.”

Mabrey opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer and Addie Masonius closed out the game with a three to complete the romp.

“Nikki coming off the bench was huge – like a giant game for her,” Mabrey said. “She was the spark for us. She made people have to guard her and when we drove she was open. Addie was also huge today and she’s coming off an injury right now, so it’s all coming together right now, which is great for us.”

Faith Maonius finished with a game-high 15 points with three assists as the Warriors had four players score in double-digits including Adie Masonius (13), Stevens (12) and Mabrey (10).

Manasquan, to their credit, lost two starters before the season began, were preparing to start an unproven freshman at center (Faith Masonius) and lost the services of last year’s New Jersey Gatorade Player of the Year Marina Mabrey to graduation, and in most basketball circles were an afterthought coming into the season.

“A lot of people, not wrote us off, but thought we were going to be down,” Kukoda said. “I think the girls really took that and ran with it and wanted to prove that we’re still the same Manasquan that stepped on the court last year.”

Manasquan moves on to face Sterling (26-4) in the NJSIAA Group II semifinals Thursday at Williamstown High School.

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