Trinity Hall Upsets Spartans 67-52 in Girl’s Basketball Tourney

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

Ocean Township senior Kayden Clark (33) take a deep three-point shot during the SCT quarterfinals.

Saturday, February 10, Middletown South High School hosted the quarterfinals of the 2024 Shore Conference Basketball Tournament. In the first game, third seed Ocean Township was upset 67-52 by sixth seed Trinity Hall.

The Spartans of Ocean Township entered the SCT with a preliminary round bye. In the first round, they crushed 19^th seed Neptune 58-21. Trinity Hall also started the tournament with a bye. Their first round opponent was Howell, who they beat 58-32. That set up the first quarterfinal game of the day.

For the past two seasons, the Spartans have been 42-10, and won back-to-back Shore Conference divisional titles. For the second consecutive year, all five of the starting players have not changed. The team is a cohesive unit. However, Saturday morning, they looked like it was the first time playing together.

The Monarchs of Trinity Hall came out with tremendous energy as they were swarming and smothering the Spartans from the opening tip. Ocean was never able to get into a rhythm, as they committed turnover after turnover. The Monarchs took advantage of that and were scoring quickly and often. At the end of the first quarter, the Spartans were down 16-10.

Driving hard to the Trinity Hall basket for two of her game-high eight points is Sofia Chebookjian (44) of Ocean Township.

It was the second quarter where the Monarchs took control of the game and secured their victory by outscoring Ocean 19-9. Going into the halftime break, Trinity Hall was up 35-19.

Michael Lazur, head coach of the Spartans, said that his team was committing too many turnovers.

The third quarter was an offensive explosion for both teams. Ocean scored more points in the third quarter than they did in the first two combined. The only problem for the Spartans was that after they scored, they couldn’t stop the Monarchs, who outscored Ocean 22-21. Going into the final eight minutes of the game, Trinity Hall had a 57-40 lead.

Having a 17-point deficit against a good team is just too hard to overcome. Trinity Hall slowed the game down in the fourth quarter and held Ocean to 12 points while only scoring eight. But that was enough for them to take the victory and improve to 17-6 on the season. Nina Emmace was high scorer for the Monarchs with 25 points, six steals and six assists.

Ocean dropped to 19-4 on the season. They were led by the Clark sisters with Eli Clark finishing with 14 points, three rebounds, six assists and one steal. Her sister, Kayden, scored 13 points, also had one rebound, four assists and one steal. Jineen Ayyash had nine points, two rebounds, three assists and three steals. Gamila Betton and Sofia Chebookjian each ended the game with eight points.

February 13, the NJSIAA will have a seeding meeting for the 2024 state tournaments. Round one is scheduled for February 21. Both the Spartans and Monarchs will be making the state tournament, but in different brackets.

For additional photos of this game and many others please visit www.Facebook.com/TheLinkSports