RBC girls overachieve, defend their sectional title

When the postseason began, the Red Bank Catholic girls’ basketball team was facing the unfamiliar role of being an underdog.

After winning 59 of 61 games the previous two seasons, the Caseys came back to the pack this year, mostly due to the graduation of All-Shore players Jessica DePalo and Brooke Tomovich, and Kelli Talbot and Jeanne Cappadona.

However, by maintaining the excellent team play characterized by recent RBC teams, the Caseys got hot at the right time, and defended their Parochial A South championship for the second year in a row, knocking off a pair of higher-seeded teams along the way.

RBC proved their mettle by first knocking off top seed Notre Dame, and then shocking everyone (except themselves) by beating top-ranked St. John Vianney, 42-39 in the sectional final. The Caseys, who had lost to the Lancers twice during the regular season, played their finest game of the season, using a ferocious defense to slow down the SJV offense, and hold on to an early lead.

On the offensive end, the Caseys were led by junior Alisa Kresge (10 points, six rebounds), but used balanced scoring to score just enough to stay in front. And in the end, they were celebrating their third sectional title in a row.

"We felt we had a good opportunity to win, because we felt we were competitive with Vianney the first two times we played them this year," RBC coach Joe Montano said. "They are a great team that executes its offense flawlessly, but we believed we had a good opportunity to beat them the third time around."

That belief became reality, as the Caseys