Lancers hold off Caseys after honoring fallen hero
By doug mckenzie
Staff Writer

FARRAH MAFFAI St. John Vianney senior Cheri Wittlieb shoots over RBC’s Danielle Storz during the Lancers’ 45-42 home win on Friday night in Holmdel.

What better way to pay tribute to the late, great Audrey Gomez than to beat Red Bank Catholic in a battle of the Shore’s two most prolific girls’ basketball programs?

That was the task at hand for the St. John Vianney girls basketball team on Friday night as it played host to the Caseys, following an emotional tribute to the Shore Conference’s greatest girls basketball player.

At 6 p.m. on Friday, the Lancers’ gymnasium in Holmdel was filled to capacity with high school basketball fans gathered to pay homage to a legend. When footage of Gomez, who was murdered in August, was shown on a big screen, it provided a somber reminder of what she accomplished while at St. John Vianney. She was the cornerstone of what has become the state’s elite girls basketball program.

As more and more friends, teammates and fans have come forward in the last few months to share their memories of Gomez, it has become clear that her accomplishments on the court were never as breathtaking as her influence off it. She has been called the Shore’s Michael Jordan of girls basketball, a player whose talents were simply limitless and whose impact on the local hoops scene is still being felt nearly a decade since she left New Jersey to play at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and later at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

But it was the 28-year-old Audrey Gomez the person who was memorialized on Friday, and for everyone in attendance, the respectful ceremony should help to cement the many memories she provided over the course of both her brilliant career at SJV, and her brilliant life as a loving daughter, sister, teammate, friend and, for many of the current players, idol.

When the ceremony had ended, it was up to the current Vianney players and their RBC counterparts to do their part to preserve what Gomez had helped create, namely one of the state’s greatest basketball rivalries.

The Caseys came out firing, scoring the game’s first five points on baskets from Erin Cusmano and Alisa Kresge. RBC (7-2), who entered the game with a rare five-game winning streak over Vianney, showed early that it was there to win.

Vianney answered back, and at the end of the first quarter the Lancers had jumped out to a 16-10 lead. By halftime that lead had jumped to 26-18, although Vianney was not playing with the crispness that head coach Nick Russo has seen from his team so far this year.

In the third quarter, RBC closed the gap a bit with its aggressive play, although it didn’t reflect in the score, with Vianney outscoring RBC 13-12 to put the game at 39-30 entering the final quarter.

The fourth quarter marked a return to the type of game we’ve come to expect from these teams. Some untimely problems at the free-throw stripe for Vianney allowed RBC to stick around, and when Kresge and Heather Westrol hit a pair of three-pointers in the game’s closing minutes, RBC found itself within striking distance, and was poised to steal the game from the 6-1 Lancers.

On a night when Vianney’s scoring leader, Cheri Wittlieb, was struggling with her shot, a freshman point guard introduced herself to this storied rivalry with style, consistently making her way to the foul line where her four successful free throws helped ice the game. Shantel Brown’s flashy all-around play seemed fitting on this night, when the greatest of all St. John Vianney players had been memorialized.

When it was over, the Lancers held on for a 45-42 win, and gave the home team fans something to cheer about.

A night that began with tears in Holmdel ended in celebration. And St. John Vianney proved once again that it is among the state’s best teams — which is exactly where it’s been since the very first day Audrey Gomez stepped on the court in a Lancer uniform.