Trenton Catholic wins Stuart Invitational

PRINCETON >> Naomi Shorts clung tightly to the championship trophy of the Stuart Invitational after her Trenton Catholic Academy girls basketball team defeated the host school, 76-55, Saturday.

Shorts and her teammates are hoping it will be the first of many this season, but still she was not letting it go, taking time to get photographed with it along with family and friends.

In a way, it exemplified how Shorts feels about her new teammates — their closeness, their belief in each other.

That showed Saturday when the Mikes needed it most.

Going against a very resilient Stuart Country Day School team, which had already taken Pennington to overtime this season and knocked off Notre Dame, TCA met a new dilemma when Shorts and Giana Boulden picked up their fourth fouls in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter.

The Tartans were threatening to get the lead down to single digits again, yet with Shorts’ fellow Paul VI transfer Maniya Custis at the controls, the Mikes seemed safe.

“It seemed like every time we scored, they scored,” Shorts said. “I was begging (head coach Bob Fusik) to put me back in. I told him I would not foul.”

When Shorts get back on the floor with just under three minutes remaining, she came up with two plays which put the game away. First, she inbounded a ball off a timeout to Leianya Massenat (eight points) for an easy layup. Then at the other end, Shorts came up with a steal and raced in for the layup to boost TCA’s lead to 73-51 with 2:15 to go.

“Not really, I don’t worry,” Shorts said when asked about the foul trouble. “We go eight or nine players deep regularly. I know the intensity’s not going to down when someone goes out. Somebody else will come off the bench and pick us up.”

That solid depth was the biggest difference between these two eight-win teams.

Shorts scored 11 points to finish in double digits with junior Boyd, who scored 13 off the bench, and Custis, who led the visitors with 18 points.

Custis and Shorts combined to score 13 points in the first quarter to help the Mikes set the tone for the game by opening a 24-12 lead.

“They’re deep,” said Stuart senior forward Bey-Shana Clark, who scored 14 of her 18 points in the first half. “It was an intense pace, back and forth the whole time. I thought we played the same way as them. We just had some hiccups.”

Custis and junior forward Giana Boulden (nine points) were named to the All-Tournament team, along with Clark and sophomore Nia Melvin, who topped all scorers with 20 points.

But after the Tartans used an 8-0 run to get TCA’s lead down to a basket in the second quarter, then twice trimmed the lead to six points in the first two minutes of the third quarter, Custis came up big with a steal and a pull-up 3-point field goal, then a breakaway layup to push the margin back to 49-36 with 5:30 left in the third.

“I’m very happy here. This is a fantastic team,” said Shorts, who signed to play at Delaware State University before the season.

Now Shorts and Co. have at least one trophy by which to remember this season. TCA (76)

Elgizawy 2-0-4, Shorts 5-1-11, Boulden 4-0-9, Massenat 4-0-8, Saunders 0-0-0, Maddox 3-1-7, Custis 7-0-18, Bailey 3-0-6, Boyd 3-6-13.

Totals — 31-8-76.

STUART (55)

Clark 7-3-18, Hansford 0-0-0, Melvin 7-2-20, AJames 2-1-5, Martin 2-0-4, JLewis 0-0-0, Fair 1-6-8, Velazquez-Gonzalez 0-0-0, Klein 0-0-0.

Totals — 19-12-55.

TCA (8-0) 24 16 12 24 — 76 Stuart(8-3) 14 14 10 17 — 55

3-point goals: Boulden, Custis 4, Boyd (TCA), Clark, Melvin 4 (SCD).

TRINITY HALL 41, WW-P NORTH 26 PRINCETON >> Jordan Brown led all scorers with 16 points, but could not get the Northern Knights a win against the Monarchs in the seventhplace game.

Brown was named to the Stuart Invitational All-Tournament Team, along with Trinity Hall’s Colleen Cusat, who scored 11. Caitlin Wingertzahn was the Monarchs’ high scorer with 12 points. TRINITY HALL (41)

Dora 3-0-8, Cusat 5-0-11, Ward 1-0-3, CKelly 1-1-3, Wingertzahn 3-5-12, Keane 1-0-2, Kenney 0-0-0, Bradley 1-0-2, Gana 0-0-0, CPeters 0-0-0.

Totals — 15-6-41.

WW-P NORTH (26)

JBrown 7-1-16, MRussell 0-2-2, Elhossieni 0-0-0, Kanitkar 0-0-0, St. Amour 0-0-0, KMurphy 2-0-4, Babu 1-0-2, Holmes 1-0-2.

Totals — 11-3-26.

TrinityHall (2-4) 5 10 17 9 — 41 WW-PNorth(2-4) 4 4 6 12 — 26 3-point goals: Dora 2, Cusat, Ward, Wingertzahn (TH), JBrown (WWN).