St. Columbanus 5th Grade Girls Win CYO County Championship

St. Mary’s (Katonah) and St. Columbanus (Cortlandt) squared off at Iona Prep last Sunday for the 5th grade girls A division CYO championship and the energy in the gym was cranked all the way up from the opening tip.

It’s always that way when these two teams meet. Both have gone undefeated in the A division of CYO three years running, except when they play each other. St. Columbanus was 12-0 coming in, averaging 29 points a game and allowing 13 points a game. St. Mary’s came in 10-2, averaging 27 points a game and allowing 17 points a game. They literally have no serious competition in CYO besides each other.

The teams met twice during the regular season and Columbanus won both times, once in a 29-9 blow-out, when every shot seemed destined for the bottom of the net, and a second time in a 20-15 battle that was more of the sea-saw affair these teams are used to. But two victories during the regular season would mean nothing without the championship.

And truth be told, St. Mary’s had come out victorious in the 3rd grade and 4th grade CYO championship (and gone on to win the New York State CYO title) and also in the 2017 Brewster Summer League. So while St. Columbanus had won some regular season games over the years against their chief nemesis, they were 0 and 3 in championship titles, and really needed to get the monkey off their back and dispose of their arch-rival once and for all.

The gym was packed and fans on both sides were revved, voices ricocheting off the ceiling of the small gym. Thirty seconds into the match and girls were already diving to the floor and wrestling for a loose ball. Both teams played at full tilt. Another helter skelter slug fest typical of these match-ups. If you closed your eyes and just listened to the howling of the parents, you might think you were at a Section One high school play-off game.

The Columbanus full court press wreaked havoc on the offensive ambitions of St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s has a star player who is tall and strong and can dribble and pass and shoot and play defense and has remarkable court awareness, but Columbanus’ coach Anthony Cinquina had his team pumped up and prepared. Their 2-2-1 press was very effective, clogging passing lanes, and when they dropped back into a 1-2-2 zone, they were constantly trapping and pressuring St. Mary’s star player into giving up the ball.

The swarming Columbanus defense kept forcing turnovers, but they were not converting the turnovers into baskets early-on at their typical clip. St. Mary’s plays pretty tough defense, anchored by a center who is probably 5’6”—very tall for fifth grade. Kaitlyn Ragusso grabbed an offensive rebound on the right block and banked in a putback. Sofia Tavarez, a ferocious on-ball defender, swished a jumper from the right wing. A number of St. Columbanus shots rolled around on the rim and fell out, before Cadence Nicholas swished a long, high arcing jumper from the left baseline.

St. Mary’s didn’t have as many offensive opportunities, but they did break the press on several occasions and generate open shots from close range that they could not capitalize on.

At the half it felt like Columbanus had the advantage because they’d gotten more steals and taken more shots, yet the scoreboard read 6 to 6. There were 12 minutes left to be played and the game could either way. Was the 12-0 season going to vanish before their eyes at the hands of their ultimate adversary, or would they rise up and rip the giant monkey from Katonah off their back?

In the third quarter, when they needed it most, St. Columbanus played their best basketball of the day. Cadence, a luminous talent on the boards and the fast break, exploded for seven more points. Raguso, a ball hawk of a defender and gracefully fierce on the fast break, added another bucket. Defensive dynamo Kiara Williams, grabbed a rebound and banked it off the glass. And just like that, Columbanus was up 17-6. They continued to play excellent defense, with contributions from forwards Rayanna Taylor and Carmen Marino and guards Brie Gaccino and Katie Hofmann. When the chips were down, the Lady Knights went on a 11-0 run. St. Mary’s got an easy basket to close the third, making it 17-8.

St. Mary’s turned up the defensive pressure in the fourth quarter, creating some steals and baskets, but St. Columbanus got just enough offensively to seal the deal. Jill Cinquina, an all-around solid player with a nice outside shot, got a pass from Raguso on an offensive rebound and hit a short jumper. And with two and half minutes left, Cadence broke the press and went coast-to-coast for a driving contested lay-up to make the score 21-11. St. Mary’s scored five more points in the last couple minutes to make the final score 21-16.

St. Mary’s is probably wishing the game was two minutes longer and thinking about some of the lay-ups they missed, shots they might typically make, but that happens under pressure, facing a frenetic defense: you start to hear footsteps. And for St. Columbanus, their girls got to go up and get the championship trophies. Coach Cinquina and Coach Nicholas can be proud of what they have achieved. Now it’s onto the State Tournament.

What makes this Columbanus team so good? A combination of speed and athleticism and aggressiveness and experience and reaction-time. Let’s look closer at the play in the third quarter. Raguso was dribbling through the St. Mary’s press on the right side of the backcourt. At full speed, as she crosses halfcourt, she looks up and launches an on-target long pass to Hoffman open on the left block. Hoffman catches the long pass and immediately goes up with the shot. It’s a little long, but Raguso is there and snatches the rebound in traffic, and without hesitation, fires a pass to Cinquina, just inside the left elbow, who catches and without hesitation deposits a short jumper in the basket. The reaction time is key. Girls this age often catch the ball and it take a second to survey the surroundings. The Columbanus girls react quicker than any team this age I’ve seen.

It was actually a double victory for the parish because the St. Columbanus 5th grade girls in the C division (led by Coach Rob McCarthy) also won their championship an hour earlier. It was truly a special day for all the 5th grade girls, their parents and coaches as they walked out of Iona Prep with their first place trophies held high.

(written by Jeffrey McDaniel)