Shore Conference 2021 Season Recap Finale

We have finally reached the end of Prep Girls Hoops New Jersey’s Shore Conference 2021 season recap series, a six-part series that concludes with part six in this article. It was truly a season to remember in the Shore Conference, one full of surprises and fantastic competition from top to bottom. With the best teams in Pods 1-4 having been talked about in Part 5 of this series, PGH NJ concludes this multi-part saga by looking at the best teams in Pods 5-8. <strong>St. John Vianney</strong> This was a no-brainer as SJV was the consensus best team in the state in 2021, beating the likes of Trenton Catholic, Paul VI, Manasquan, Saddle River Day and Red Bank Catholic, to name a few, on its way to a perfect 14-0 season and the Pod A Shore Conference Tournament title. It’s fitting that the consensus best player in the state, [player_tooltip player_id="134626" first="Madison" last="St. Rose"], plays for the Lancers. St. Rose is only a junior, which means she could potentially be the player of the year, three years straight, which is just insane to think about. Senior guard [player_tooltip player_id="134610" first="Katie" last="Hill"] finished out her high school career with a flourish and junior forward Megan Calahan is going to be a force next season. SJV is poised to once again run the table for the 2021-22 season, so watch out. <strong>St. Rose</strong> Pod 7 proved to be one of the more exciting races at the top as St. Rose and Manasquan played two closely-competitive and entertaining games this season that are easily among the top games of the year across the state. St. Rose paced opponents on offense, averaging 62.4 PPG and giving up just 44.4 PPG on defense. With two players posting double-figure scoring averages, including Abby Antognoli, who scored 20.0+ points a game, it was a contest just to keep up with them. A staggering 6.2 made threes a game and more than 11 steals a contest put St. Rose in the driver’s seat from the jump and they simply never turned back, leaving their opponents in the dust. <strong>Manasquan</strong> Between St. Rose and Manasquan, it was Manasquan who took home the outright Pod 7 title this season, finishing the season 13-2 overall, 8-1 in conference play and 6-1 in pod play. It was a cast of four juniors who helped Manasquan take off in 2021: guards Mary Elizabeth Donnelly, [player_tooltip player_id="134632" first="Georgia" last="Heine"] and [player_tooltip player_id="155468" first="Brooke" last="Hollawell"], and forward Dorothy Loffredo. There was no stopping these four this season and the quartet will be returning next season to run it all back. For an offense that averaged 63.6 PPG this season, it’s going to be exciting to see how much they will be able to score during the 2021-22 campaign, but don’t expect anything less than 2021. This team is going to be high-flying and high-scoring guaranteed. <strong>Mater Dei</strong> Mater Dei didn’t show off a flashy offense during the 2021 season, but what they did possess was one of the best defenses in the conference, limiting opponents to just 32.1 PPG. This is a team who gave up 20 points or less six times during the season, thriving with senior guards Lara Gritzek and Jhamena Range, accounting for nearly 40 percent of Mater Dei’s offense combined. It was a senior-heavy team this season, but that opens up the door for a number of impact players to come through and develop. Mater Dei is consistently good and they’ll keep that up next season, despite any worries that might arise from how to fill the void left by the departing senior class. <strong>Red Bank Catholic</strong> The Caseys dominated Pod 6 this season, running the table in pod play, a perfect 7-0, along with a 10-2 overall record and 8-1 conference record. Red Bank Catholic out-scored opponents by around 23.0 PPG, an insane number to fathom, but this team, led by a junior tandem of [player_tooltip player_id="134627" first="Justine" last="Pissott"] and [player_tooltip player_id="134631" first="Ally" last="Carman"], were nothing short of dominant. With Carman taking care of the interior and Pissott leading the team at the point, RBC had all facets of the game locked down. The Caseys will need some big contributions from sophomores Emma Carman, Molly Kelly and Casey Prior come next season as they’ll be tasked to be the next superstars once Pissott and Carman graduate after the 2021-22 campaign. Continue to follow Prep Girls Hoops New Jersey for more season recap content for the 2021 high school girls basketball season.