St. Thomas girls basketball completes undefeated season with win over Fall Mountain in D3 final (video)

KEENE – With a two-hour bus trip to Keene State College from Dover on the docket, the St. Thomas Aquinas High School girls basketball team used the time to bond even closer heading into Saturday’s Division III championship game against Fall Mountain.

Once the Saints got off the bus and strolled into Spaulding Gymnasium there was nothing that was going to stop them from perfection

Top-seeded St. Thomas jumped out to a 17-7 lead over No. 2 Fall Mountain and put the game away by outsourcing the Wildcats 17-3 in the third quarter towards a 72-35 victory to complete an undefeated 19-0 season.

“We came out and tried to be as hyped as we could, we had the speaker blasting up the drive and in the locker room,” St. Thomas senior center Emilie Von Der Linden said. “This feels amazing. We’ve been working for it all year to go undefeated, it was our goal and we got there.”

Von Der Linden dominated the paint by grabbing 14 of her 18 rebounds in the first half and also finished with 12 points, three assists and three blocks. She’ll be playing next year at Bridgewater State.

“My goal was to find a body, box them out and it was pretty easy from there,” Von Der Linden.

St. Thomas senior Genevieve Bolduc drained six 3-pointers to finish with a game-high 24 points, while junior Emma Toriello added 15 points and four assists.

“We just got locked in on that bus ride, we listened to music, talked together and it really was like a bonding experience,” Toriello said. “We’ve had a long, hard season and our hard work showing off is very impressive. I love my team and I’m so very proud of them.”

St. Thomas won its second championship in program history, 44 years after the Saints won the Class M crown in 1981. St. Thomas’ only other title game appearance was a Class I loss to Lebanon in 2007.

The 37-point margin of victory tied for second largest in girls championship game history, matching Nashua’s 70-33 Class L victory over Portsmouth in 2000. Nashua set the record of a 43-point win a year prior with a 81-38 win over Manchester West.

St. Thomas was the No.1 seed last year before it lost to eventual-state champion Kearsarge in the semifinals. The Saints cleared that semifinal hurdle with Tuesday’s 63-53 win over No. 5 Monadnock.

“It’s four months of hard work, it’s a lot of work from Day 1 to D-Day,” St. Thomas coach Kevin Gianinno said. “The girls started the summer with this goal. We left it on the floor last year and fell a little short, so since Day 1 we tried to get back and sure enough we got it done.”

Fall Mountain (17-2) closed to within 19-14 midway though the second after back-to-back hoops by Sophia Grillone, but the Saints’ 11-4 run to close out the half was highlighted by a 3-pointer from Toriello that gave St. Thomas a double-digit lead for good.

“(St. Thomas) hit everything they needed to and everything we gambled off of they hit,” Fall Mountain coach Matthew Baird-Torney said. “Once we got out of rhythm offensively, we had trouble getting back.”

Bolduc came out of the locker room on fire for the Saints by draining six 3-pointers in the second half. She opened the third quarter with back to-back 3-pointers and ended it with a trey to give St. Thomas a 47-21 lead entering the fourth.

“We’re such a close-knit group that it’s easy to get excited and feed off each other and not everyone can do that and that’s something that is a big plus for us,” Bolduc said. “Every year we’ve taken a step forward and this year we’ve been able to achieve it. This group deserved it so much.”