By Rich Chrampanis
HOLMDEL – Just a few minutes after the buzzer sounded on Saint John Vianney’s 61-34 win over Red Bank Catholic, the lights were turned off in the SJV gym to get parents to clear out. There was no team picture with a trophy and banner and, just like every season in the pandemic era, the season came to an abrupt end. History may look at a shortened 14-0 season as one that does not compare to the normal 30-game slate for a state champion and Tournament of Champions contender. But anyone who saw the Lancers play in 2021 will tell you they will be in the conversation as one of the best teams to ever play in the Shore Conference.
The top eight teams in one of the country’s best girls basketball leagues provided the level of competition the SCT is used to. The only thing missing was playing in front of a few thousand fans at Monmouth University, but that didn’t change Saint John Vianney’s dominance against a field that featured five state-ranked teams.
The final test of the 2021 season was a rematch between the top two teams in the Shore. RBC’s lone loss was a 63-32 rout at the hands of SJV on Feb. 20 but the Caseys did not have Justine Pissott, the University of Tennessee commit, in the lineup then. Pissott came out strong in the opening quarter, scoring six points and helping the Caseys to a 13-12 lead at the end of one quarter. But Saint John Vianney had University of Richmond signee Katie Hill face guard her for most of the game and Pissott was held to just two more points the rest of the way.
The Lancers commitment to defense is the calling card of one of the nation’s best teams. RBC was held without a field goal for the second and third quarters and SJV was able to utilize its depth to pull away.
Leading 22-16 in the final seconds of the half, sophomore Janie Bachmann was fouled on a desperation shot beyond half court. Bachmann dropped all three free throws to make a six-point deficit turn into nine for Red Bank Catholic. Seniors Hill and Emma Bruen are seasoned veterans who know how to play in a big game. Junior Meg Cahalan is an imposing presence in the paint and fellow junior Ashley O’Connor is highly underrated as a guard who does so many things well. If that wasn’t enough, their ringleader is Madison St. Rose who is one of the best players in the country. St. Rose scored 20 points despite being hounded by RBC defenders throughout the game. When it’s all added up, Saint John Vianney outscored RBC 35-7 in quarters two and three to score a convincing win.
The Caseys started three Division I players and is without question one of the best teams in New Jersey; SJV is simply in another stratosphere.
“They’re just such a special group just knowing their role and being a true team,” Lancers head coach Dawn Karpell said. “In the offseason they had to do things that no else has ever done before them. It allowed them to be a close-knit group because they had to be forced inside their bubble for the last nine or 10 months.”
Eight of Vianney’s 14 wins in 2021 came against ranked opponents. With no state playoffs Karpell was able to create the closest thing to the T of C by scheduling games against nearly every elite program in New Jersey and beating them all.
“It was a great season, a positive way to end it,” senior Katie Hill said. “We got to play the best teams in the state, won the Shore Conference Tournament against RBC. It’s just a great way to end my senior year.”
The 2021 SCT championship is “unofficial” but there are still plenty of official accolades for the Lancers. They currently are ranked No. 13 nationally in both the ESPN and MaxPreps national polls.
Karpell mirrors college basketball programs in assigning specific roles beyond scoring and the result is a team that was able to handle nearly every obstacle in their way for two turbulent seasons.
“Because we had the same team for the last two years, I’m just going to remember the way we came together and how we met our challenges and how we played as a team every time,” senior Emma Bruen said. “This is one of the best teams I’ve ever been in and it means a lot that we could come together and finish strong.”
Saint John Vianney still has 16 state titles and 14 Shore Conference championships because the history books will ultimately be unkind to this group. Between the 2020 and 2021 seasons, those numbers really should have risen to 18 and 15 (this current group of SJV players did manage to tally the school’s 14th SCT before COVID last year). But there are still some numbers that can’t be denied, even during this dark time in high school sports. SJV went 42-1 over the last two seasons and for the first time in school history will finish ranked No. 1 in the state in back-to-back seasons. You can’t put an asterisk on that and there will be enough video highlights and articles that can preserve how special this team was during the most difficult of times.
The article originally appeared in the March 11 – 17, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
