Five Takeaways so far about St. John Vianney

While we don’t usually do team-specific articles at Prep Girls Hoops New Jersey during the season, this warranted its own article. St. John Vianney is having one of the best seasons in the history of New Jersey high school girls basketball and that is far from an understatement. The Lady Lancers are a perfect 19-0, far and away the best team in the state, and are riding a 46-game winning streak. ESPN has them ranked No. 5 in the nation as of Feb. 7 and there seems to be no stopping them. Here are five takeaways from watching St. John Vianney this season. <strong>1. [player_tooltip player_id="134626" first="Madison" last="St. Rose"] was robbed of McDonald’s All-American honors</strong> St. Rose is NJ dot com’s two-time reigning NJ Player of the Year and she’s only got better this season. Through 19 games, she’s averaging 22.6 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 2.7 APG, 3.6 SPG and 1.6 made three-pointers a game. St. Rose is the captain of the Lady Lancers and has been the past several seasons. She’s the backbone of the program and has come up clutch in every moment head coach Dawn Karpell has needed her to. New Jersey deserved two All-Americans this season because there might not be another player in the state that’s as complete a player as St. Rose is. <strong>2. The Lady Lancers are running laps around their competition unlike ever before</strong> SJV’s closest win this season was a six-point victory over DME Academy on Dec. 29 and to put that into more context, ESPN has DME currently ranked No. 9 in the country. The Lady Lancers faced two top-15 teams ranked by ESPN in the Tampa Bay Christmas Invitational, DME and No. 13 Lake Highland Prep, and won both convincingly. They took down Lake Highland in a 13-point win two days later. Just four games have been decided by 20 points or less and one by 10 points or less. SJV’s average margin of winning this season is around 37 points a game, which is four points less than their opponent’s scoring average on the season. <strong>3. SJV is crushing ranked competition left and right</strong> We already spoke about the dominance this program put on down in Florida against two top-15 ranked programs. They can not only get the job done on the national stage, but in New Jersey, no team is even close to them. So far in their five games against top-20 in-state opponents ranked by NJ dot com, the Lady Lancers have won each game by at least 17 points. In their most recent top-ranked dual against No. 2 Saddle River Day, SJV won by 25 points. They’re not just beating top-tier teams, but running them out of the gym. <strong>4. [player_tooltip player_id="134644" first="Zoe" last="Brooks"] has taken SJV to another level</strong> Brooks transferred to SJV for her junior season, coming from Trenton Catholic, the consensus No. 2 school in the state in the spring. She’s one of the most exciting junior prospects in the country and her decision to come to SJV has paid dividends. She’s currently averaging 17.7 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 3.4 APG and 3.7 SPG this season and has created a guard duo with St. Rose that might be the best 1-2 punch in the country. For as good as the Lady Lancers were with St. Rose, they’re twice as good with Brooks and St. Rose dominating in the same starting lineup. <strong>5. SJV’s lineup is balanced and can win in a number of ways</strong> While St. Rose and Brooks are the superstars of this team, there’s plenty more playmakers as you look down the roster. Seven different players are averaging 4.0+ PPG, five players are averaging 3.0+ RPG and three players are averaging 2.5+ APG. On top of that, seven players have recorded at least one steal a game. SJV is averaging 78.8 PPG, 31.5 RPG, 17.9 APG, 16.2 SPG, 3.1 BPG and 5.2 made threes a game as a team. That kind of production, ranging from seniors like Ashley O’Connor and [player_tooltip player_id="319319" first="Megan" last="Cahalan"], to younger players like [player_tooltip player_id="325217" first="Julia" last="Karpell"] and [player_tooltip player_id="333323" first="Aleena" last="Dinker"], make the Lady Lancers an all-time powerhouse.