Manasquan Cruises Past High Point For Fourth Straight State Championship

Photos above: 2017 NJSIAA Group II champions, Clark with trophy

TOMS RIVER – With 6:47 left in Sunday’s NJSIAA Group II final at the Pine Belt Arena in Toms River, Manasquan senior point guard Stella Clark was subbed out with the Warriors up by 30 points, 58-28, against an overmatched High Point team.

Clark, the heart and soul of this team and a four-year starter, is the ringmaster of a group of seniors including Addie Masonius, Victoria Galvan, Nikki Stevens and Annie Hennan that has brought home four consecutive state group championships and who will be making their fourth appearance in the Tournament of Champions with a shot at a second title.

“It hits me pretty hard now, but it’s truly going to hit me when (the season) ends,” Clark said of their incredible run. “It doesn’t end now. This is just the start of it all getting to the T.O.C. We’re not ready to stop here.”

This group of seniors has been part 21 wins at the Pine Belt Arena covering holiday tournaments, the Shore Conference Tournament and state tournament games with one still to play. Their lone blemish here came in this year’s Shore Conference Tournament semifinals when they lost to St. Rose in overtime.

Seeded No.2 in this year’s T.O.C. and receiving a first-round bye, the Manasquan seniors get to play one more game at the Pine Belt Arena when they take on the winner of No. 3 seed Red Bank Catholic versus No. 6 seed Bound Brook in Thursday’s semifinal.

Sunday, the Warriors stepped up the intensity early and never let up going to a full-court press right from the tip that left the Wildcats struggling for answers where none could be found.

“They’re (High Point) a very solid, fundamental, patient team,” Kukoda said. “Our game plan going in was to turn up the pressure and pick up the pace of the game. So we wanted to try to play with that a little bit to see if we could get something right off the bat out of our defense. We wanted to get our offense out of our defense from the start. Our girls did a great job of that and we were able to keep that going and capitalize on that.”

“Getting in that rhythm is what our defense is all about,” said Clark. “When we’re out and we’re fiery, that’s when we’re at our best and that’s when we’re unstoppable. We really came out today and our motto was to put our foot on the gas pedal and don’t’ let up. I think we did a good job of keeping out foot on the gas pedal sand not letting up to day.”

Sophomore forward Faith Masonius was sizzling in the first quarter scoring all of her 11 points and forcing two of the Warriors six- forced turnovers in the quarter.

That led to a 10 point lead, 20-10, after one quarter before the Warriors pushed the lead to 39-18 at the half behind Clark’s seven points and Mabrey’s five points in the quarter.

“When people start hitting shots, it completely opens up other players,” Masonius said. “I think hitting those open shots early definitely created some opportunities for other players and once everyone is getting involved, it’s just really hard to guard.”

Manasquan extended the lead to 24 points, 45-21, on a Mabrey 3-pointer at 6:26 of the third quarter before High Point showed its only life of the game. The Wildcats reeled off seven straight points to cut Manasquan’s lead to 45-28 before a Mabrey steal and full-court drive to the basket put an end to it and ignited an 11-0 Manasquan run to close out the third quarter and give the Warriors its largest lead of the game, 56-28.

The Warriors then pushed that run to 18-0 by scoring the first seven points of the fourth quarter and forced turnovers on five consecutive Wildcat possessions at the end of the run when a Lola Mullaney steal and feed to Mabrey for a three-point play gave them a 63-28 lead, the largest of game.

“I think we used our speed against them and, more importantly, used it in the right way,” said Mabrey. “Taking a steal on defense and going down and scoring quickly, that was key. We knew we could push the ball on them and really pressure them. We just had to capitalize on it.”

The bench players finished up for the Warriors with sophomore guard Anne Mako sinking 3-of-4 from the line for the Warriors final points.

Mabrey finished with a team-high 19 points with three rebounds, two assists and two steals while her backcourt partner, Clark, finished with 13 points, a game-high four assists, two rebounds and three steals. Faith Masonius added a team-high four steals with three assists while her sister, Addie, ended with five points, a team-high five rebounds, three assists and a steal. Junior guard Carley Geissler added eight points and two steals while playing relentless defense and Mullaney chipped in with eight points, two assists and a steal.

For High Point, 1000-point scorer Margo Peterson hit for her average, 19 points, and had a team-high five rebounds and two steals.

“It was awesome and so much fun out there today,” Clark said. “Everyone smiling, laughing just clapping. At the end we were all scoring and I was so happy for everyone. Even that little bit of us being happy for each other brings so much energy to our team. All of this energy makes us unstoppable, which is awesome. Sometimes when everything’s clicking and we’re on the same page it clicks even more, I don’t know how to even explain it. It’s just so much fun to play with them.”

“That’s a huge, huge thing,” Kukoda said referring to her senior’s fourth straight title. “I don’t know how many people can say they went four-for-four on that. They’re a great group, they’re a motivated group and that say’s a lot about their leadership and work ethic. The four titles kind of say it all.”

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