New Jersey Girls Basketball Weekend in Review: 1/20-22

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Another great week of high school girls basketball in New Jersey has come and gone, giving us some fantastic finishes, great performances and upsets galore. Let's take a closer look to see what happened over the weekend in the Garden State.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Immaculate Heart upsets St. Rose in double-overtime</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There were just two games on Sunday's slate and what a great two games they were, highlighted by a matchup of two top-15 teams according to NJ dot com, Immaculate Heart and St. Rose. Immaculate Heart had three players finish in double-figures in scoring, with [player_tooltip player_id='333354' first='Sofia' last='Valente'] becoming an overtime hero. Her wild game-winning three-pointer gave IHA a 69-67 win over St. Rose, who had two players: Julia Whesper and Taniyah Decker, post 20+ point games. [player_tooltip player_id='321549' first='Isabella' last='Asencio'] led IHA in scoring with 19 points.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Clark, Ocean Township shock Cherokee at buzzer</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A wild, low-scoring game between Ocean Township and Cherokee was one of the highlights of the annual South v Shore Classic at Rancocas Valley. The Chiefs' ability to slow down the pace of the game looked to have this game squared away, but Ocean Township kept chipping and chipping away at the lead. It led to a crazy finish, an inbound pass to [player_tooltip player_id='333322' first='Kayden' last='Clark'], who threw up a last-second three-point attempt from the center court logo and sunk it for a 32-31 win. Clark finished with 10 points for Ocean Township.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Paul VI takes down Westtown School (PA) as Hidalgo scores 48</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>If you don't know that [player_tooltip player_id='134645' first='Hannah' last='Hidalgo'] is one of the best players in the country at this point, allow us to point you toward her performance on Saturday against Westtown. Paul VI needed a boost against a strong, nationally-recognized opponent and Hidalgo was the player to do it, scoring a career-high 48 points in a 72-69 overtime victory. Yes, 48 points for Hidalgo, her third 40-point game this season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Quigley scores 36 of 38 points for Manchester Township</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We don't normally cover losses, especially 22-point losses, but this one has a bit of a different tone to it because there is one player leading the state in scoring and that's Manchester Township's [player_tooltip player_id='325192' first='Devyn' last='Quigley'], who's averaging north of 36 points a game for the Hawks. On Saturday, as Manchester Township fell to Wildwood Catholic, who had a great performance from [player_tooltip player_id='408039' first='Kaci' last='Mikulski'], scoring 19 points, Quigley scored 36 of the Hawks' 38 points in the loss. If that's not sheer dominance on the floor, we don't know what is.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>South Jersey's final unbeaten team goes down</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cinnaminson has been one of the darlings of basketball in the BCIT in recent years and consistently puts up competitive teams that are among the best in South Jersey. This season's start was among the best of them, a 15-0 start as the Pirates took on Jackson Memorial. Senior [player_tooltip player_id='482255' first='Zoie' last='Maffei'] turned out to be too much for Cinnaminson as she put up 18/9 along with two blocks and two steals as the Jaguars won, 43-32.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Late-game heroics prevail for Manasquan in battle against Shawnee</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>One of the best games we saw in this weekend's South v Shore classic was Manasquan, one of the traditional powers of the Shore Conference, against Shawnee, who reached the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV final last season. The Renegades brought it to Squan as well, with [player_tooltip player_id='321572' first='Avery' last='Kessler'] balling out and scoring 20 points. However, [player_tooltip player_id='501852' first='McKenna' last='Karlson'] sent things to overtime with a buzzer-beating three and Manasquan pulled out a thrilling 44-43 victory in the end.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->