St. Rose Fends Off Late RBC Charge To Secure Sectional Title

Above photos by Tom Smith: #10 Makayla Markham, #25 Lucy Thomas, #12 Lovin Marsicano, #13 Ariana Dalia and #4 Sam Mikos

LONG BRANCH – Fifth-seeded St. Rose let a 17-point halftime lead over third-seeded Red Bank Catholic evaporate to five points less than a minute into the fourth quarter. However, they then put together an 11-0 run to take back control of the game and eventually win behind a tenacious defense and some clutch shooting down the stretch.

Their 73-59 win over the Caseys gave them the Non-Public, South A championship for their first sectional title since 2015 when they won the Non-Public, South B championship. St. Rose moved up this season from Non-Public B making Thursday’s win their first Non-Public South A title since 2012 when they beat Saint John Vianney by one point, 34-33.

That team went on to win the Non-Public A championship before falling to Manasquan in the Tournament of Champions semifinals.

“We didn’t want to take our foot off the gas,” said St. Rose assistant coach Raheem Carter. “We wanted to be aggressive but smart. We didn’t want to just start jacking up three’s. We wanted to pound the ball inside and get our shots. We’ve lost leads being too passive and that’s not how we play. That’s not how we want them to play.”

Senior Forward Lucy Thomas’ free throw at the start of the third quarter gave the Purple Roses their largest lead of the game, 38-20, but the Caseys barrage of third quater three-pointers got them right back in the game.

Red Bank Catholic’s Haley Moore drilled the first of five third quarter three-pointers before Amanda Hart, Rose Caverly, Julia Setaro and Hart again followed with three’s and RBC closed out the third quarter on a 13-5 run that pulled them to within seven points, 50-43, after outscoring St. Rose 23-13 in the quarter.

Caverly’s defensive rebound and coast-to-coast drive with six seconds left in the third had narrowed the gap to seven points and her bucket off a feed from Hart to start the fourth quarter got the Caseys to within five points, 50-45, at the 7:27 mark of the fourth. However, that would be as close as they would get the rest of the game.

“That’s something we’ve had an issue with and struggled with - keeping teams behind us,” said junior guard Lauren Lithgow, who had a huge first half coming off the bench hitting four three’s including three in the second quarter. “A couple of games we let slip away, and we definitely learned from that and made sure that never happened again.”

In St. Rose’s Non-Public South A semifinal win against Saint John Vianney just a few days ago, the Purple Rose’s held a 12-point lead, 38-26, late in the third quarter before having to fight off the Lancers late to procure a 47-43 victory.

After Caverly scored to make it a 50-45 game, she had a steal on St. Rose’s ensuing possession and had a chance to pull the Caseys to within two points, but her three-point attempt was blocked by 5-foot-8 guard Mikayla Markham. Markham then ignited an 11-0 St. Rose run with a pair of free throws and huge three-pointer to help St. Rose push their lead back to 16 points, 61-45, with 2:15 remaining in the game.

But a three by Rice and five points by Caverly, who singlehandedly kept the Caseys (23-6) in the hunt with 20-second half points, trimmed the margin to nine, 64-55, with 1:07 left. St. Rose then finished out the game on a 9-4 run to put the finishing touches on the 73-59 win.

St. Rose sank 7-of-9 nine foul shots in the last minute to ice the game and Markham went 8-for-10 from the line in the fourth quarter finishing with 11 fourth-quarter points and 14 for the game. In the fourth quarter alone she added two rebounds, two blocked shots and two assists while finishing with five assists and three boards in a typical Markham-like performance.

“As a senior point guard, your field general, that’s what you’d expect,” Carter said of Markham’s gutsy play. “When we start getting sped up, we need her to be calm. That block was huge in the corner. They started spreading us out and we had to make adjustments and go back to man. We put the clamps on them after that. Makayla made some great plays for us at the end.”

“That’s Makayla at her best,” added St. Rose interim coach Janine Ross. “That’s who we want the ball in the hands of.”

St Rose shot 23-for-40 from the field and 19-of-23 from the free-throw line for the game.

A quick start led St. Rose to a dominant first half when they bolted out to a 10-0 lead to open the game. Thomas had six of those 10 points before a Markham trey gave them a 13-3 lead with 2:05 left in the first quarter.

Rice then sank a three that was matched by Lithgow - her first of four three’s – before Caverly’s three-point play at the buzzer got RBC back to within nine, 18-9 after one quarter.

St. Rose then outscored RBC 19-11 in the second quarter behind Lithgow’s three, three-pointers to offset three three’s by the Caseys to take a 37-20 lead at intermission.

“Sitting on the bench makes me hyped up,” said Lithgow, who finished with 14 points. “I want to go in and make a difference for my team making shots, playing defense and making passes. A lot of it is due to Makayla. She’s our point guard and we run through her. When she drives I have to be ready to shoot.”

Thomas was again dominant in the paint for St. Rose on both ends of the floor scoring a team-high 22 points along with six rebounds and two blocked shots.

“We all have different factors, we have the inside, we have the outside, everyone can do a good amount of everything,” said Thomas. “We trust each other’s instincts, find the open person and feed them.”

Senior Ariana Dalia – the unsung hero of this group of seniors – had a fantastic game finishing with 10 points, six rebounds, two assists and three steals while Sam Mikos added four points and six rebounds. Lovin Marsicano chipped in with four rebounds, four assists and two points and Maggie Stapleton contributed five points.

Caverly finished with 24 points in a spectacular finish to her high school career while Hart added 15 and Rice 11 points.

St. Rose (27-3) – ranked second in the state - will now play the winner of Immaculate Heart and Paramus Catholic in the Non-Public A final at 5 p.m. Saturday at the RWJ Barnabas Health Arena with a trip to the Tournament of Champions on the line.

“We beat a really tough and scrappy team and they didn’t want to go away,” Carter said. “They’re well coached, they ran their stuff and at the end of the day, they have players that made plays and hit shots but in our hearts, we know that we’re the best team in New Jersey. That’s how we work and that’s the mindset you have to have. At this point, every team thinks they’re the best and that’s how we think and prepare.”

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