TCA cruises back to sectional final

HAMILTON >> Trenton Catholic Academy seniors Naomi Shorts and Habiba Elgizawy wanted to make the most of their final game at the Iron Palace.

As always, that meant plenty of defense, but also plenty of offense to make sure that the top-seeded Mikes would get past fourth-seeded Wildwood Catholic, 84-43, and send TCA back to the NJSIAA Non-Public B South final.

With Shorts’ and Elgizawy’s help, plus a big boost from junior Leianya Massenat, head coach Bob Fusik’s 24-3 Mikes will get a return trip to the sectional final at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Jackson Liberty High, where it will face secondseeded Gloucester Catholic. The 24-3 Rams defeated sixth-seeded Rutgers Prep, 54-47, in overtime, to earn a shot at the title. A year ago, Rutgers Prep kept TCA from the sectional crown with a 58-54 overtime win at Jackson Liberty.

“I knew this was my last game here, so I wanted to go out with a bang,” Delaware State Universitybound Shorts said. “Like always, we played good defense, but tonight we made a lot of shots, too.”

Shorts got her team started by driving in for a layup right off the opening tip. As the Crusaders brought the ball up the floor, Shorts came up with a steal, which led to Elgizawy hitting a 3-point field goal in the corner.

When Massenat stole the ball and scored on the next possession, Wildwood Catholic was forced to call timeout, trailing, 7-0, 1:05 into the contest.

The visitors from the Cape Atlantic League were never able to even out play, and when TCA held for the last shot of the first quarter, this time it was Shorts draining a trey to put the Crusaders in a 22-5 hole.

Any thoughts of closing the gap in the second quarter were squashed by Massenat, who scored nine of her 23 points in that stanza to help the home team extend its lead to 42-18 at the break.

“We wanted to insure the win,” Massenat said. “We were there mentally today.”

“We just try to worry about us,” Shorts said. “We’ve grown a lot as the season’s gone on. Our bench has gotten very strong. We can rely on them if any of us have trouble.”

The Mikes never scored under 20 points in a quarter against Wildwood Catholic. Massenat added 10 more points in the fourth quarter to finish with 23, which tied her for the game-high with Crusaders’ super sophomore Marianna Papazoglou, who already has 1,039 career points.

“We’ve gotten back to where we were last year, but to go farther, we have to play even harder than we did today,” Massenat said.

WILDWOOD CATHOLIC (43)

AlGray-Rivera 2-1-6, Casiello 0-3-3, Turco 3-0-6, Papazoglou 7-7-23, McCallon 2-0-4, Walker 0-0-0, SMann 0-0-0, Macrina 0-0-0, RMann 0-0-0, AdGray-Rivera 0-0-0, Jacquelin 0-0-0, Belansen 0-0-0, Andress 0-0-0, Beaulieu 0-1-1.

Totals — 14-12-43.

TCA (84)

Elgizawy 3-0-7, Shorts 4-0-10, Boulden 7-0-14, Massenat 10-0-23, Saunders 1-0-3, Maddox 4-0-8, MAromando 1-0-2, Custis 5-1-11, Bailey 2-1-5, Boyd 0-1-1. Totals — 37-3-84.

Wildwood (23-6) 5 13 9 16 — 43

TCA (24-3) 22202022—84 3-point goals: AlGray-Rivera, Papazoglou 2 (WC), Elgizawy, Shorts 2, Massenat 3, Saunders (TCA).