No-Doubt No. 1: Red Bank Catholic Overpowers SJV to Win Sectional Title

JACKSON TWP. — With a starter out of the game with an injury, two more saddled with three first-half fouls and an 11-point deficit near the midway points of the third quarter, the Red Bank Catholic girls basketball team was staring at odds that were nearly insurmountable Monday night considering its opponent in the NJSIAA South Jersey Non-Public A final was archrival St. John Vianney.

With the season and perhaps even the legacy of the senior class on the line, RBC got a lift from its senior role players and the bench, but when it was time to break the game open, the Caseys once again jumped on the back of their All-American.

Senior Addy Nyemchek scored 17 of her game-high 22 points during an overwhelming run during the second and third quarters and RBC — the No. 1 team in the section, Shore and state — outlasted No. 2 St. John Vianney, 54-39, to win its second sectional championship in the last three years and 11th overall.

“We didn’t want our last game to be a loss against SJV,” said Nyemchek, a McDonald’s All-American heading to the University of Indiana next season. “We’re such a tight-knit group, so we didn’t want our season and our careers to end, so we knew we were ready to lay it all out on the line tonight.”

St. John Vianney dominated the paint in the first quarter and built up a 19-8 lead with under five minutes to go in the second quarter. The Lancers limited the Caseys to one shot on their trips down the floor, and hammered the offensive glass with senior center Taylor Sofilkanich and senior forward Stella Lockhart.

Nyemchek ended a four-minute RBC scoring drought with a three-pointer from the left wing that kicked off a run that flipped the game on its head. That three was the first strike in a 22-0 run that lasted for nearly eight minutes of the second and third quarters. The final run landed a 29-2, which set the Caseys up with a 37-21 in the final two minutes of the third quarter. SJV never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

“Our defense got really aggressive,” Nyemchek said. “We got big stops, not fouling as much. We zoned in on our defense, started making more plays on that side of the floor and that led to our offense.”

“Tessa Liggio and Addy do it every game, they are just so mentally tough,” Red Bank Catholic coach Joe Montano said. “They are always going to show up. They might not have their best game, but they are always going to show up. I thought Addy did a great job. We did not do a good job trying to get her open in the first half. We did not do a good job of moving the ball in the first half. Addy was the most positive guy at halftime. We made a couple of adjustments and she let the game come to her and she was great.”

Addy Nyemchek with the basket and the foul off a great feed from Lola Giordano for a 35-21 lead with 1:58 left in the 3rd. pic.twitter.com/qt6S9hNv8A

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) March 10, 2026

In addition to scoring 17 of the points during the 29-2 run, Nyemchek nabbed three steals as the Caseys defense picked up their intensity from the second quarter on. Fellow seniors Daniela Maletsky and Lola Giordano also sparked the defense and transition game for RBC, particularly with senior Katie Liggio leaving the game at the end of the first quarter with a knee injury and both Tessa Liggio and Sophie Smith falling into foul trouble early on and picking up three fouls before halftime.

“It was really about keeping our poise, trying to get the ball to Addy and just staying aggressive,” Maletsky said. “Addy is so hard to stop, so it’s really hard for them when she is getting her shot.”

“Our defense in the third quarter changed the game,” Montano said. “Once our defense got going and we could get some stops, we got out and got some easy baskets and we took them out of what they wanted to do.

“We didn’t block out in the first quarter and they just out-hustled us. Give them credit for their effort, but give us no credit for not trying to block them out. Defensively, we did a good job contesting threes and that helped us a lot.”

Katie Liggio did not return to the game after appearing to bang her right knee against Sofilkanich on the final play of the first quarter.

“I think it’s more of a bruise, but I’m no doctor,” Montano said. “She couldn’t bend it. I was going to put her in to shoot free throws (for Nyemchek after she fouled out on a technical foul) and get her back out, but she said, ‘Coach I can’t bend it.'”

“Katie going down hurts, but I know I have trust in every single one on this team,” Nyemchek said. “We we were doing it for Katie with her being hurt. Hopefully, she can play in our next game. We had figure it out, come together and make changes.”

Giordano came off the bench to record nine points, five rebounds and three assists while Maletsky contributed four points, nine rebounds and two assists while also drawing the defensively assignment against St. John Vianney leading scorer and senior University of Pennsylvania commit Madison Kocis. After Kocis scored four points during SJV’s 14-8 first quarter, Maletsky and the RBC defense held her to one the rest of the way. Kocis also grabbed six rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter.

Fouls were a major issue for both teams, with Kocis, Lockhart, Sofilkanich and junior Tatum Sharpe all fouling out for SJV and Nyemchek fouling out for RBC after Smith and Tessa Liggio collected three fouls before halftime. Smith, Liggio and Maletsky each finished the game with four fouls as well.

“I don’t think the officials are used to a girls game like that,” Montano said. “I’m sure it was hard for them to get a feel for what was going on. But you’ve got to play through that stuff. We had fouls, we played through fouls. We had an injury, we played through an injury. That’s seniors at this time of year that don’t want to go home.”

“The whistle is going to go that way in a game like that,” St. John Vianney coach Dawn Karpell said. “It’s going to go one way in the first quarter for us, then it went the other way in the second, third, fourth. We didn’t keep our composure. Credit to their defense. It wasn’t like they were setting it on fire offensively. Their defense force some mistakes and they got some easy baskets and we weren’t able to do that.”

Tessa Liggio, who scored a game-high 21 points in the Shore Conference Tournament championship win for RBC against SJV on Feb. 20, was quieter on the scoring side with seven points, but delivered six rebounds from the point guard spot to help turn around the rebounding effort and also dished out three assists. Smith, meanwhile, scored five points in her limited time on the floor, including a three-pointer that opened the scoring in the first quarter.

Senior Scarlet LeVake also supplied seven points and four rebounds off the bench, while freshman Suhmaiyah Lashley also contributed key minutes for Montano with the entire starting lineup either in foul trouble or injured.

“I’m so proud of her and the growth that she has made,” Nyemchek said of LeVake. “She came to a team that didn’t really expect her to play, worked her butt off and made huge plays when we needed them most.”

“It really showed how tight this team is,” Montano said. “I thought Lola and Scarlet were great coming off the bench and (Lashley) shooting two free throws in that big spot shows how much confidence we have in her. Lola played really well. Scarlett hit some big shots and played D.

“The other guys are keys. Sophie hitting the first shot of the game. That’s huge. We know what we’re going to get out of our main guys.”

Sofilkanich led St. John Vianney with 12 points and 12 rebounds and Lockhart finished with seven points and five rebounds in her final game. Sophomores Gianna Sano and Antonia Jackson also pitched in six points apiece for the Lancers.

“My seniors won 102 games,” Karpell said. “This year, they fulfilled everything they came to St. John Vianney to do and today, we just came up a little short.”

Monday’s win gives RBC a 3-1 season-series win over of SJV, with the two teams meeting the maximum four times this season — twice in Shore Conference Class A North divisional play, once in the Shore Conference Tournament final and again on Monday for a sectional title. RBC won the first meeting, St. John Vianney struck back at RBC in the second divisional matchup and the Caseys won a tight SCT championship game, 53-49.

“We know them so well, they know us in and out,” Nyemchek said of SJV. “We know that they are going to make big runs and that they are well-coached, so we knew made a run in the first quarter at Monmouth and they came back, so it was always going to be a game of runs and we just had to stay composed.”

The last of the four meetings had the reverse start of the SCT championship, when RBC raced out to a 22-6, only for SJV to rally and take its first lead on the first possession of the fourth quarter. On Monday, RBC did not fall behind by as much and its response was even more extreme — so much so that the Caseys went from trailing by 11 points with just over four minutes to go in the first half to leading by 11 with under five minutes to go in the third quarter.

“It’s RBC-St. John’s,” Montano said. “I don’t care how long you have been playing, if you’re a senior or you’re a freshman: it’s a different animal. In the state of New Jersey, I know there are a lot of great rivalries, but there is nothing like this.”

A sectional championship win also helps alleviate the pain from one of the few big-game losses suffered by this senior group over the last three seasons. A year ago, RBC fell to Paul VI, 47-46, in the South Jersey Non-Public A final at Lenape, with Nyemchek missing a potential game-winning shot from close range in the final seconds just days after hitting a miraculous shot in the final seconds to beat St. Rose in the semifinal round.

With a third win in three games over the No. 2 team in the state, Red Bank Catholic will try to wrap up the No. 1 ranking in the state Thursday, when the Caseys take on North Jersey champion Morris Catholic at 1 p.m. at Jersey Mike’s Arena on the campus of Rutgers University. Morris Catholic dominated the North Non-Public A championship, beating Pingry, 64-14.

The Caseys will look to claim their second Non-Public A championship in three years and 10th overall state championship on Thursday afternoon in Piscataway. A win would also make RBC the No. 1 team in New Jersey to end the season for the first time since 1999-2000.

“We talked about (last year) non-stop,” Maletsky said. “That was the worst feeling ever, losing our last game and having the season be over with all our seniors. We just wanted to keep going and we want to finish the season as best we can.”