Irish fall to powerful Manasquan 54-45

• The Irish went 9-of-19, a season worst, from the charity stripe
• Camden Catholic had strong effort from senior guard duo of Taiah Thornton and Julia Braungart

VOORHEES — Well, it certainly came as advertised.

Reigning Tournament of Champions winner Manasquan went to battle with Camden Catholic, ranked No. 2 in the Mean 15, in a South Jersey Basketball Tournament Showcase game. Though the Warriors came out on top with a 54-45 victory, Saturday’s game showed why the two girls’ basketball programs are considered some of the best New Jersey has to offer.

Like it does a lot of times when teams like this square off, it didn’t come down to one squad having better talent, it came down to the core fundamentals of the game. The difference maker in this one? Foul shots.

“You’re not going to win big games when you’re not hitting from the foul line,” Camden Catholic coach Chris Palladino said. “We needed to nail some of those and some of the and ones, and we missed some layups. That’s the bottom line.”

The Irish went 9-of-19, a season worst, from the charity stripe and could not finish on some of their prime opportunities. Camden Catholic (16-1) had numerous chances to narrow the margin late, but the shots wouldn’t fall.

Though nobody was making excuses once the game concluded, the Irish couldn’t quite figure out why they suddenly went cold.

“We know they’re the TOC champs, and at the end of the day, we know they’re not better than us,” Sierra Taylor said. “We knew we had that game.

“It was just the rhythm, it wasn’t there. The atmosphere and all of it combining together, it just wasn’t hitting. If we would’ve hit maybe one more, that would have been it.”

For much of the first quarter, the Irish and Warriors traded punches. Both teams moved the ball around with ease and were finding open opportunities down low.

Manasquan scored some early blows, but with about two minutes left in the quarter, Camden Catholic made it a one-point game and forced Manasquan to call a timeout and regroup.

That’s as close the Irish would get as Manasquan failed to relinquish its lead the rest of the afternoon. Despite a strong third quarter from the senior guard duo of Taiah Thornton and Julia Braungart — four and five third quarter points, respectively — the Irish could not close the gap. Thornton finished with 12 points while Braungart finished with 10.

The Warriors extended their lead to a game-high 11 close to the end of the third and it felt like the game had fully swayed into their favor. But in the fourth quarter, the Irish began to dictate the tempo.

“It is important,” Palladino said. “It goes and gets us out and going in transition. We get some layups, but we couldn’t do that the whole time. We couldn’t dictate. In order to do that a lot, you need to get clean rebounds and we weren’t getting clean rebounds to get out and run it.”

It started with a transition three from Taylor with a little more than four minutes left. Then freshman center Eliana Santana found her stride and suddenly Manasquan’s lead dwindled to two with 3:25 left.

But those fundamental mistakes reared their ugly head once more. The Irish went cold for the final few minutes and the Warriors were able to run down the clock.

The loss is the first of the season for the Irish. Though they weren’t entirely satisfied with their performance, they know the game was a great learning experience and a chance to prove their abilities.

“Everybody thinks Camden Catholic is ranked under [Gloucester Catholic], we’re ranked under [St. John Vianney],” Taylor said. “No. We can play with them. We can play with these teams, and this is what we want to show to you guys. We are here to stay and we are here to play.”