St. Thomas girls basketball holds off Monadnock to reach D3 final

KINGSTON – It had been a year since the St. Thomas Aquinas High School girls basketball team marched into the Division III semifinals as the No. 1 seeded only to see its run end at the hands of eventual-champion Kearsarge.

That loss was still fresh on the minds when the Saints came into this year’s semifinals as the top seed against Monadnock, but this time St. Thomas wasn’t going to be denied.

After fifth-seeded Monadnock grabbed a one-point lead in the third quarter, St. Thomas responded with an 11-0 run on its way toward a 63-53 victory Tuesday night at Sanborn High School.

“I definitely didn’t want to have that feeling again; it was a terrible feeling. Nobody wants to lose this close to being able to win.,” St. Thomas junior guard Emma Toriello said. “Once you get somewhere you want to go farther and push yourself and that’s what this was showing we could get to another game.”

Toriello netted a game-high 20 points while senior center Emilie Von Der Linden dominated the boards and finished with 18 points.

“We prepared, we didn’t only want to come here, we wanted to win here and our goal was to blow through this game and get to the championship,” Von Der Linden said.

St. Thomas (18-0) looks to wrap up an undefeated season at 1 p.m. on Saturday when it plays No. 2 Fall Mountain (17-1) in the Division III championship game at Keene State College’s Spaulding Gymnasium. Fall Mountain advanced with a 61-24 win over No. 14 Stevens (8-11) in earlier action.

The Saints will be looking to end a 44-year championship drought for the program that dates back to an overtime win over Plymouth for the 1981 Class M crown. St. Thomas lost to Lebanon in the 2007 Class I championship game.

“That was a good game (Tuesday) and I knew it was a matter of time that we were going to lock horns with Monadnock, and I knew they weren’t going to give up and keep coming back,” St. Thomas coach Kevin Giannino said. “It was just nice to get past the semifinals. This was a step we needed to get over. We’re going to have a good week of practice and the girls are going to come out fired up.”

St. Thomas had barely been challenged entering Tuesday after beating its previous competition by an average of 37.5 points, but Monadnock (15-5) took a 27-26 lead on a 3-pointer by Shaylee Baron (15 points) early in the third quarter.

That’s when Vander Der Linden took control by bulldozing her way to a pair of buckets and seemingly grabbed every rebound in her reach. Genevieve Boulduc put back a Vander Der Linden miss and Amelia Anderson followed with a 3-pointer that gave St. Thomas a 38-27 lead midway through the third quarter.

“Our plan was to swing it around as much as we could, break down the defense passing and for me to get the looks down low,” Vander Der Linden said.

Toriello added a jumper and found Vander Der Linden to help give St. Thomas a 46-37 lead entering the fourth quarter. Monadnock closed to within 46-42, but a Vander Der Linden hoop was followed by a converted steal from Charlotte De Tolla and a bucket by Toriello to give the Saints a 52-43 lead midway through the fourth.

“We found Emilie in the post and we knew that no one was her size,” Toriello said. “Once we got the ball to her that was going to give us kickouts, backdoor cuts and layups. When she plays like that we’re unbeatable because no one can guard her with her size.”

Monadnock coach Eric Fazio was pleased with his team’s effort, but St. Thomas was too tough to overcome. Bailee Soucia led Monadnock with 18 points.

“We tried to contain their shooters and do our best with their center; she’s a talented kid and I was really impressed with her,” Fazio said. “I thought we played well under pressure, but they’re a very talented team.”