St. Thomas Aquinas with its 2023 GMC Tournament Championship award, and sophomore Leah Crosby in the middle with her second MVP trophy. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
A 12-point night from 6-2 sophomore Leah Crosby earned her MVP honors, and she helped lead top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas (21-6) past stubborn 3rd-seed Colonia 49-42 in the GMC Tournament girls’ championship game Friday night in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio, presented by Dayton Toyota Service and Dayton Collision of South Brunswick.
The win was the Trojans’ fourth straight county title.
Colonia (14-11) held the ball for over a minute on the first possesion of the game, and was content to slow things down in order to have a better chance than they did 15 days ago, when they lost to the Trojans in North Edison by 50.
And they were in this game almost to the final horn. In fact, it was down to a one-possession game on a drive by Taylor Derkack for the Patriots, who trailed 45-41 with under 40 seconds to go. But Colonia couldn’t hit the buckets they needed, and St. Thomas hit the free throws they had to, to finish with a seven point win.
It was also the second straight for head coach Joe Whalen.
Behind Crosby, Gianna Chuffo scored 11, Amarillis Shubick had 8, and Albany Commit Jessica Cooper had nine.
For Colonia, senior Mattison Chiera finished with a game-high 20 points, while junior Taylor Derkack finished with 24.
Click below for postgame reaction presented by SportsPlex at Metuchen!
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