The SJIBT Final: Cherokee Brings Home A Title

This tournament season in South Jersey has been an absolute joy to watch, specifically The South Jersey Invitational Basketball Tournament. The final was held Sunday afternoon and it lived up to the billing in every sense, though the final score would have said otherwise. It was a defensive battle, a low-scoring affair between two elite programs in Shawnee and Cherokee and the Chiefs came up victorious with a 26-24 win. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="319335" first="Katie" last="Fricker"]: SJIBT MVP</strong> The game literally came down to the final minute of play and Cherokee went to its senior leader on the floor, [player_tooltip player_id="319335" first="Katie" last="Fricker"]. We’ve talked about Fricker before as a fantastic perimeter shooter, but in this moment, Fricker drove into the lane for what turned out to be the game-winning layup. Not only that, but Fricker intercepted Shawnee’s in-bounds pass to seal the victory for the Chiefs. She played great the entire tournament and capped it off with a 14-point performance in the final. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="321572" first="Avery" last="Kessler"] fell victim to Cherokee’s defense</strong> Kessler, one of the main points of attack for this Shawnee team, was silenced on Sunday by one of the best overall defenses in the state. Cherokee has this almost anaconda-like suffocation of offenses as once the tempo is slowed down, the game immediately goes into the hands of the Chiefs. Kessler became the next victim, knocking down just one made three in the game and scoring six points overall. Her three-pointer was her only made field goal of the game. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="321564" first="Nia" last="Scott"] was the glue player for the Renegades</strong> While much of Shawnee seemed to struggle against Cherokee, Scott had another fantastic game and was relied upon late against the Chiefs. Her made free throws down the stretch tied the game at 24 before unfortunately losing in the final seconds of play. Scott had seven points and eight rebounds in the loss while also recording two assists. Those numbers don’t jump off the page, but in a 26-24 game, that was crucial to keeping Shawnee in this game. <strong>Shawnee proved it could hang with the best of the best</strong> No one wants to take moral victories out of anything, especially sporting events. However, in the case of Shawnee, the Renegades have been Cherokee’s little sister the past few seasons and they weren’t that today at all. Shawnee took a 12-9 lead into the half and despite a rough third quarter, still proved they could hang with anyone in South Jersey. This team is full of current and future superstars and while this run didn’t end with a championship win, there are plenty waiting down the road for them. <strong>Ron Powell: 600 career head coaching victories</strong> Powell has split time coaching Cherokee boys and girls basketball, taking over as head coach of the girls team just under a decade ago. He’s helped turn this program into a juggernaut and that SJIBT final win was a special one for Powell as he recorded his 600th career head coaching victory. Powell will be go down as one of the greatest high school coaches in the region for sure and just continues to dominate competition with a top-tier program like the Chiefs. <strong>The Cherokee/Shawnee rivalry just started a new chapter</strong> The long-standing rivalry between the Chiefs and Renegades has had a number of chapters. Right now, we’re entering one of its most intense periods as both Cherokee and Shawnee are top-ranked teams in the region and the state. This was the most closely-contested game between the two schools in their past five head-to-head meetings and for good reason. Cherokee and Paul VI has gotten the recent spotlight as those two have battled out for South Jersey supremacy. Don’t leave Shawnee out of that conversation now, especially after the season the Renegades are currently having. Major congrats goes out to both programs for reaching the final as their roads to the final were incredibly tough. However, Cherokee and Shawnee put on a show in this most recent meeting and it was very entertaining to watch. While their regular season games will be done, the possibility of a postseason matchup is very in the cards.