Glue Girls: Lola Giordano, Daniela Maletsky Rise to the Occasion in RBC’s Sectional Title Win

*Shore Sports Insider’s Doug Brustman contributed to this report*

JACKSON – The fouls were piling up, St. John Vianney was decisively winning the rebounding battle, starting guard Katie Liggio was out with a knee injury and Red Bank Catholic was facing a double-digit deficit against the Lancers in the second quarter of Monday night’s NJSIAA Non-Public South A championship game. 

Other than that, everything was going great for the Caseys. 

It was clear that it was going to take more than McDonald’s All-American Addy Nyemchek to get the No. 1 team in New Jersey back into the game against their longtime rival. The only way to beat an opponent the caliber of the Lancers, who are the state’s second-ranked team, was going to be with help from the bench and players whose names aren’t always in lights. 

Senior guards Daniela Maletsky and Lola Giordano were up for the challenge. 

“We had a starter out, and we were in a lot of trouble,” Giordano said. “Me and Daniela had to step up.” 

The senior duo was right in the middle of a game-changing, 22-0 run that spanned the second and third quarters and all but put away the Caseys’ 54-39 win over the Lancers to give them the sectional title at Jackson Township High School. It marked the third time this season RBC beat its archrival out of four tries, and it added another trophy to the case in the wake of the Caseys’ Shore Conference Tournament crown. 

Giordano, an East Stroudsburg commit, came off the bench and finished with 9 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, while Maletsky, who has signed with Army, had 4 points, 9 rebounds and two assists. They helped compensate for the loss of starting senior guard Katie Liggio, a Rhode Island recruit who smacked her right knee against the knee of St. John Vianney’s Taylor Sofilkanich early in the second quarter and did not return. 

“We all know our roles, and we all know that we have to go out of our comfort zones sometimes,” Giordano said. 

They did just that, as Maletsky entered averaging 3.9 rebounds per game and snatched a season-high nine, while Giordano exceeded her averages of 3 points and 2.2 rebounds per game when the Caseys desperately needed it in a matchup of two of the top 10 teams in the country. 

On top of that, Maletsky limited St. John Vianney star Madison Kocis, a University of Pennsylvania recruit who averages 13.2 points per game, to only five points. Kocis poured in 27 points in the Lancers’ lone win over the Caseys this season. 

“The other guys are the keys,” RBC head coach Joe Montano said about his supporting cast. “We know what we’re going to get out of our main guys. I told Danny at halftime, everyone in this room has so much confidence in you, go out, drive the ball to the basket, take your shots, make plays. She held Kocis to five points, and she’s a hell of a player.” 

The Caseys turned a 19-8, second-quarter deficit into a 30-19 lead in the third quarter by winning the rebounding battle, contesting threes and using their defense to get out in transition and jumpstart a sluggish offense. Giordano and Maletsky were right in the middle of it all. 

“We know with our defense, if we get steals and rebounds we can push it in transition, and that’s where we get our points,” Maletsky said. “That’s one of our main goals.” 

Giordano scored on a backdoor layup off a pass from Maletsky in the final seconds of the first half to give RBC a 21-19 lead at the break after things were looking bleak at the start. The Caseys never trailed again. 

 

Daniella Maletsky finds Lola Giordano for the and-1 and the lead. RBC closes the half on a 13-0 run and leads SJV 21-19. pic.twitter.com/Hjk1gfYAeb

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) March 9, 2026

Giordano’s chemistry with Nyemchek was then on full display in the third quarter when she twice found the Indiana recruit with slick backdoor passes for layups that helped the Caseys push the lead to 35-21.

 

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

“She’s an amazing cutter, and she’s super quick,” Giordano said about Nyemchek. “I know where she’s going to go every time. We’ve been playing together for four years now, so I know where to find her.” 

“They were overplaying me, so I knew I had to get backdoor, keep moving without the ball, and get myself and my team going,” said Nyemchek, who finished with a game-high 22 points. 

Once the Caseys seized control, Maletsky and Giordano also shared a bulk of the ballhandling duties against St. John Vianney’s full-court press and played a clean fourth quarter to help seal the win. 

An RBC senior class that has stamped itself as one of the best in Shore Conference history played with the urgency of one that doesn’t want the season to end. The tight-knit group wanted one more game with each other as much as they wanted to play for the Non-Public A title, which will come on Thursday when they face North Jersey champion Morris Catholic. 

“We persevered because we knew we had to do it for each other,” Giordano said. “It could’ve been my last game, so there was only one thing to do – lay it all on the line.” 

With Katie Liggio’s status for the Non-Public A State Championship against Morris Catholic uncertain, there is a ton of confidence in Giordano’s ability to step up particularly from Liggio herself.

“I am so proud of Lola,” said Katie Liggio. “She really went in there and stepped up. We have always known Lola was a good player and she can come into the game and do just as good as me. That is why she is the first off of the bench every night.  I am just so proud of her and proud of the team as a whole.”