The 3rd-seeded Rutgers Prep Lady Argonauts fell to top-seeded St. John Vianney, 72-52, as the Lady Lancers won their eighth TOC title, and third under head coach Dawn Karpell.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko call all the action from Rutgers University’s Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway on Sunday, March 20, 2022:
St. John Vianney certainly wasn’t 39 points better than Rutgers Prep. Everyone knew that after the first time the two girls’ basketball teams met in February up at Kean.
In the end, the Lady Lancers were 20 points better.
Third-seed Rutgers Prep fell behind big early, rallied from 15 points down to get to within six late in the first half, but could never get any closer as top-seed St. John Vianney claimed its record eighth Tournament of Champions crown, with a 72-52 win over the Lady Argonauts.
It was the third TOC win for 14th-year head coach Dawn Karpell, who won in her first season (2009) and in her program’s last trip (2016).
It was also the final Tournament of Champions event in basketball, as the NJSIAA has decided to scrap the tourney – which isn’t played in all sports – for the sake of uniformity between seasons, and allowing student-athletes some time off in between seasons.
Short of a brief spell midway through the second quarter when they rallied, Rutgers Prep never really got going, falling behind 8-0 out of the gate before Mary Klinger called a time out to stop the bleeding. But the deficit climbed to 15 beforfe the Argos showed signs off offense.
Trouble was, they couldn’t get a good long-distance look thanks to SJV’s pesky perimeter defense, and every time they were able to get a ball in the paint, the Lady Lancers had two defenders on the ball.
Turnovers – though not as much of an issue as the first meeting on Super Bowl Sunday at Kean University in Union – still plagued Rutgers Prep, which committed 21 to Vianney’s 12. That led to an all-important 25-14 SJV advantage on points off turnovers.
Sophomore Mikayla Blakes led Rutgers Prep with 18, finishing off a solid sophomore year. And she’ll be among a number of key returnees next year, including junior Katie Ledden – who had 8 – and 5′ 8″ sophomore Zahra Alexander, who had some nifty baskets en route to a 12 point game, two shy of a career high she set in a 75-15 sectional semifinal win against Holy Spirit, in nowhere near as big a game with as big an opponent as this one.
Vianney – which finishes the season 32-1 – was led by – who else? – senior Madison St. Rose and junior Zoe Brooks. The Princeton-bound St. Rose had a game-high 21, finishing her career with 1,747 points, while Brooks chipped in 14, and will have 1,260 heading into her senior year.
The Argonauts finish 29-3, with two of the three losses coming to St. John Vianney; the third was at the hands of Westtown (PA).
Click below to hear postgame reaction from Rutgers Prep head coach Mary Klinger:
We’re down to the last two teams, and half of girls’ basketball in New Jersey probably hoped it would come down to this, because the first meeting never lived up to the hype.
That was at Kean University on Super Bowl Sunday, part of a girls’/boys’ doubleheader at their great gym in Union. But the result was anything but super for Rutgers Prep.
The Lady Argonauts played an ok first quarter, but didn’t do much of anything right from then point on, en route to a 39-point loss to the No. 1 team in New Jersey. Rutgers Prep was No. 2 at the time.
Head coach Mary Klinger is OK with people saying that about her team. She knows it. He players know it. They’ve used it as a turning point in their season.
Not that a team with two losses all year, and only one in New Jersey needs a turning point. But Klinger says it brought out “Mean Mary” for a few weeks, and if it brings her Lady Argonauts a championship, then all will be forgiven.
Third seed Rutgers Prep (29-2) meets top-seed and No. 1 state-ranked St. John Vianney (31-1) Sunday at Jersey Mike’s Arena at Rutgers University in the last Tournament of Champions Final at 4 pm. You can hear the game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Mike Pavlichko calling all the action.
Pregame gets underway at 3:40 pm. Click here to listen for free, with no paywall.
Scroll down for a preview of the game with the head coaches of Rutgers Prep and St. John Vianney.
In the meantime, here are some more details on the game:
HOW THEY GOT HERE:
Rutgers Prep (29-2)
St. John Vianney (31-1)
TOC HISTORY:
Rutgers Prep: The Lady Argos have made it twice before to the six-team field. In 2016, there were the 2-seed, earning a bye to the semifinals, where they lost to third-seed Manasquan, 59-50. ‘Squan then lost to top-seed St. John Vianney in the final, 65-58.
They would return the following year, earning the top-seed, and again a bye to the semifinals. But they would lose in the semis to the fourth-seed and eventual champion, Franklin, 66-57. The Warriors beat 2-seed Manasquan in the final, 50-48, for their first of back-to-back TOC titles.
Incidentally, Franklin may have been on its way to winning an unprecedented third straight title in 2020 had COVID-19 not shutdown the state tournament in the Group semifinal stage. Only three teams have won more TOCs than Franklin: Manasquan (3), Shabazz (6) and St. John Vianney (7).
St. John Vianney: The Lady Lancers have a ton of it, although this is their first trip since 2016, so anyone on that team is pretty much through college at this point. But their history in the event goes way back to the second edition of the TOC.
They’ve been to the season-ending tournament eleven times, and won seven of them, more than anyone else in the state on the girls’ side. Their first berth came in 1990, and they won it all the next year, beating Ridgewood. They also won in 1995, 1997 (beating Piscataway in the final), 1999 and 2009. In 2016, they beat Manasquan, one of this year’s final four teams.
In five appearances as the No. 1 seed, SJV is 4-1. Those wins came in ’91, ’95, ’97 and ’16; the lone loss came in the 1992 semifinals to Egg Harbor Township, 50-48 in double overtime.
RUTGERS PREP IN THE NJSIAA: Rutgers Prep was an independent until the 2012-13 school year. Since then, the Lady Argos have had great success under coach Mary Klinger, who is in her 38th year at the school, with a record of 583-234. Prep won three straight South B titles from 2016-2018, beating North champs Saddle River Day in 2016 and Queen of Peace in 2017 for the group title and TOC bids. They lost in 2018 to Saddle River Day.
Overall, Mary Klinger’s squad is 27-8 in NJSIAA Tournament games, over a span of 9 postseasons. (There was none in 2021 due to COVID-19.)
SUPERLATIVES
While Rutgers Prep is led by sophomore Mikayla Blakes and junior guard Katie Ledden, it was Rutgers-bound senior Antonia Bates stepping up in the TOC semifinals Friday night against Manasquan. She had 17 points, including three treys, and it was just the fourth time she has led her team in scoring all season long. Of course, she plays great defense in the post, so her effort doesn’t always show up in the stat sheet, but she’s another example of how it could be anyone else on a given night being the difference-maker. She was that against Manasquan.
That takes pressure of the sophomore Blakes, a 5′ 8″ guard who’s averaging 18.3 points per game, leading the team with 56 treys, and gets to the line when she attacks the basket; she’s hit a team-leading 105 free throws this season. She can also dish it and swipe it, averaging a team-leading 3.6 assists per game, and 3.4 steals.
It also takes pressure off the junior Ledden, who is having a fantastic postseason. She’s a veteran who’s really come into her own, and is leading the team in the state tournament, averaging 17.6 points per game. She had a double-double against Saddle River Day, with 16 points and 14 rebounds, then followed it up in the TOC quarterfinals with 23 points against University, all coming in the first three quarters. Though she “just” had 12 against Manasquan, that’s the point. When Bates can contribute like she did, Ledden and Blakes don’t have to go gangbusters for Prep to win.
And there’s the rest of the supporting cast: Chloe Escanillas had a big seven-point fourth quarter off the bench against Saddle River Day. Zahra Alexander saw key time – even if she didn’t fill the stat column – against gritty University. All that adds up.
For St. John Vianney, look out for Princeton-bound Madison St. Rose, averaging 21.7 points a game the whole season, and 20 in the states. She knows the score, and is uber-reliable for the Lady Lancers. With 1,726 career points, she likely would have reached 2,000 had it not been for the COVID-shortened 2021 season.
Junior Zoe Brooks completes the one-two punch, scoring nearly 21 a game to lead the team in state tournament play. The transfer from Trenton Catholic is a phenomenal passer, and also leads the team in assists (with 118) and steals (with 119), and won’t be far behind St. Rose, already with 1,246 career points in three seasons.
And while they also have a solid supporting cast – with Holy Cross commit Meg Cahalan (a post player who can step out and make shots) ad the coach’s daughter, Julia Karpell, who hits about four of every ten shots from three – it comes down to pressure defense, even moreso than Rutgers Prep likes to do. While the Argonauts are a little more content to play a half-court offense, Vianney will pressure you and try to get in transition. Holding onto the ball will be huge for the Argos’ Sunday.
Click below to hear previews of the game with both head coaches:
The 3rd-seeded Rutgers Prep Lady Argonauts beat the 2nd-seeded Manasquan Warriors 64-48, behind 17 points Rutgers-bound senior Antonia Bates, and nine team treys. Rutgers Prep moves on to the TOC Finals for the first time ever, and will face top-seed St. John Vianney, which beat 4-seeed Sparta in the other semifinal Friday night, 75-54.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko call all the action from Toms River North’s RWJBarnabas Health Arena on Friday, March 18, 2022:
Rutgers Prep came into its Tournament of Champions semifinal game with Manasquan as the lower seed, the Warriors also ranked above them in the statewide Top 20.
The Argonauts had something to say about that.
With only one tie, at 2-2, the third-seeded Lady Argonauts led virtually wire-to-wire, coming strong out of the gates, and beat 2nd-seed Manasquan 64-48 in the Tournament of Champions semifinals, to give them their first-ever birth in the TOC title game, in the event’s last season.
They will play top-seed St. John Vianney at 4 pm Sunday at Rutgers for the Tournament of Champions title. The Lady Lancers were 87-48 winners over the Argonauts back on Super Bowl Sunday as part of a girls’/boys’ doubleheader at Kean University in Union.
While the whole team came up big offensively, finding open threes and hitting them to the tune of seven in the first half – and nine in the game – Rutgers-bound senior Antonia Bates hit three of them and led all scorers in the game with 17 points. It was her fourth time leading the team in scoring this season, her second time in the postseason, also scoring 17 to lead the Argos’ in a Somerset County Tournament semifinal win over Bound Brook.
Now, Bates will get to play her last scholastic game on the same court she’ll call home in college, at Rutgers University’s Jersey Mike’s Arena. Central Jersey Sports Radio will have the game at 4:00, with pregame set for approximately 3:40 pm.
Rutgers Prep (29-2) never put together a huge, blitzing run as they have often done. Instead, they slowly, steadily built a lead: as big as eight in the first quarter, 12 in the second quarter and at intermission, and 17 in the third quarter before winning it by 16.
Prep’s scoring also was nearly perfectly balanced.
After Bates’ 17, fellow senior Leyla Castro had 13 (including two treys), Katie Ledden had 12, Mikayla Blakes had 12 (including a triple) and Morgan Ryan had nine, all from downtown.
Click below to hear postgame reaction from Rutgers Prep’s TOC semifinal win over Manasquan:
When Rutgers Prep coach Mary Klinger looks at her team, then looks at Manasquan, she sees a lot of similarities.
Both play good defense, can score, and can rebound.
And neither has any players who’ve ever been one of the last four teams standing in the State of New Jersey.
But that’s the case when third-seed Rutgers Prep (28-2) and second-seed Manasquan (30-4) meet up tonight at Toms River North High School’s RWJBarnabas Health Arena for the opening semifinal game of the last-ever Tournament of Champions in the Garden State.
Central Jersey Sports Radio will have LIVE play-by-play beginning with the pregame show at 4:45 and tip-off at 5:00. Mike Pavlichko will call all the action; click here to listen for free, with no paywall.
HOW THEY GOT HERE:
Rutgers Prep
Manasquan
SUPERLATIVES
Rutgers Prep is led by sophomore Mikayla Blakes. The 5′ 8″ guard is averaging nearly 18.5 points per game, and leads the team with 55 treys, and gets to the line when she attacks the basket; she’s hit a team-leading 100 free throws this season. She can also dish it and swipe it, averaging a team-leading 3.6 assists per game, and 3.4 steals.
Junior guard Katie Ledden has had a great postseason. She’s a veteran who’s really come into her own, and is leading the team in the state tournament, averaging 17.6 points per game. She had a double-double against Saddle River Day, with 16 points and 14 rebounds, then followed it up in the TOC quarterfinals with 23 points against Unversity, all coming in the first three quarters.
For the Argonauts, though, as big as Blakes and Ledden have been, it’s about the supporting cast, too. Chloe Escanillas had a big seven-point fourth quarter off the bench against Saddle River Day. Zahra Alexander saw key time – even if she didn’t fill the stat column – against gritty University. All that adds up. And the defense has clamped down since that 39-point loss to St. John Vianney back on Super Bowl Sunday.
For Manasquan, Brooke Hollawell leads a balanced attack, as she has all season long. She’s averaging 10.4 points a game over the season, but has upped that in the state tournament to a team-best 14 ppg. She injured her ACL in the final week of last season; despite that, the fourth-year varsity player has racked up 1,039 points in her career, the most of anyone on the current team.
Mary Elizabeth Donnelly has had a great state tournament, too, averaging 9.5 points per contest, and scoring in double figures in three of her last four games. Going back to the Central Jersey Group 2 semis against Holmdel, she’s scoring at an 11.5 clip. What makes that all the more impressive is she’s drawn the top defensive assignment in many games this year, and she’ll no doubt also be challenged to go up against either Mikayla Blakes or Katie Ledden – or both – depending on what defensive looks the Warriors show.
INEXPEREINCE?
Rutgers Prep is a bit on the young side, even if Blakes and Ledden are veterans. So are Morgan Ryan and Layla Castro, both seniors, as well as Antonia Bates, who’s headed to Rutgers next year. But none have been in the Tournament of Champions before, with the Lady Argos’ last berth coming in 2017.
The same, though, can surprisingly be said for Manasquan. Though this is their seventh trip to the TOC, all under current head coach Lisa Kukoda, they haven’t been since 2018. Granted, there was no Tournament of Champions in 2020 or 2021. But the point is, while Kokoda has been at this stage before – and they’ve won the TOC three of the six years they’ve been in it – no one playing tonight, for either team, has ever been among the state’s final four.
Click below to hear an audio preview with both head coaches of tonight’s Tournament of Champions Semifinal game between Rutgers Prep and Manasquan:
The 3rd-seeded Rutgers Prep Lady Argonauts beat the 6th-seeded University Phoeniz 68-56, behind 23 points from Katie Ledden, and another 18 from Mikayla Blakes, winning their first ever TOC game in three tries. Rutgers Prep moves on to the semifinals against 2nd-seed Manasquan Friday night.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko call all the action from Toms River North’s RWJBarnabas Health Arena on Wednesday, March 16, 2022:
NOTE: The time of Rutgers Prep’s TOC semifinal game has been corrected below to 5:00 pm.
Rutgers Prep surely wanted to be here, but after the first 24 minutes of play, they could be forgiven if they just wanted to get out of the damn building
Against a pesky 6th-seeded University team out of Newark, the third-seeded Lady Argonauts built a 20-point fourth quarter lead, but saw it shrink to 12 after Destiny Johnson bombed up trey after trey – and made them.
With the season on the line, why not? She hit them from everywhere, even banked them high off the window outside the box, hitting four fourth-quarter treys.
But they were still not enough to counter Rutgers Prep’s high scorer, Katie Ledden, who – despite not scoring at all in the final stanza – tied Johnson for game-high honors with 23.
It was a monster night for Ledden until Prep got out of its offensive game, something head coach Mary Klinger said after that game she’d have to figure out why, in hopes of avoiding a repeat Friday night.
She knows Rutgers Prep (28-2) will need a much better effort in the semifinals here at Toms River North’s RWJBarnabas Health Arena, when they play second-seed Manasquan (30-4) at 5 pm. That game will be followed by the other semifinal at 7:00, featuring top-seed St. John Vianney (30-1) and 4th-seed Sparta, which beat 5th-seed Westfield Wednesday night, 55-47, in the early quarterfinal.
Click below for postgame reaction from the Rutgers Prep TOC quarterfinal game against University:
In 2014, St. Joseph of Metuchen became the first boys’ basketball team from Middlesex County to win the Tournament of Champions, beating East Side out of Newark in the finals down in Trenton.
Only two other county teams had done it in basketball, on the girls’ side: Hoffman (now South Amboy) in 1989 – the very first such event – and St. Peter’s in New Brunswick in 1992.
But after this season, there may never be that opportunity.
The NJSIAA’s Executive Committee has passed on first reading a proposal to eliminate the T of C in the six sports which currently use it: basketball, lacrosse, tennis, bowling, softball and field hockey.
A final vote is set to take place in December. Should the measure pass, the current school year would be the last to feature a Tournament of Champions.
Proponents of eliminating the event say it would typically benefits the same teams every year, and generally is won by parochial schools – Camden was the last public school to win the boys’ basketball TOC, 21 years ago. They also say getting rid of the Tournament would allow for extra weeks in the regular season that would benefit hundreds of teams, not just the six that make the TOC.
But some think the unique event – no other state does anything similar – should be kept, and is a unique opportunity.
Click below to hear Colleen Maguire talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko about the future of the Tournament of Champions: