Tiana Thompson's 25 points and eight rebounds lead St. Mary's to second straight title
St. Mary’s Tiana Thompson heads to the basket to score against St. Anthony during the CHSAA girls basketball Class AA championship held at St. Joseph's University on Monday. Credit: Kathy M Helgeson
It says something about a team when its third option is a Division I commit.
Tiana Thompson racked up 25 points, eight rebounds, four assists and a steal to lead top-seeded St. Mary’s past second-seeded St. Anthony’s, 68-57, in the final of the Nassau-Suffolk CHSAA Class AA girls basketball tournament on Monday night.
Thompson helped St. Mary’s (20-3) secure its second consecutive league title and its seventh in the last eight years.
Thompson, who is committed to La Salle University, is no ordinary third scoring option. She entered Monday’s game averaging more than 15 points and nine rebounds.
Teammates Kayla Solomon and Destiny Robinson were slowed down for much of the first three quarters. Solomon entered Monday 30 points shy of 2,000 career varsity points. Robinson was averaging more than 19 points and 16 rebounds coming in. They were held to 16 and 13 points, respectively, and totaled only 17 points through the first three quarters.
“I’m not just a regular third option,” Thompson said. “I could do as good as anybody else. I’m just that confident. Obviously, having them on my team makes it easier, but I just had to step up tonight to help my team win. I have confidence in myself, and I’m not afraid of pressure, so when it’s time for me to step up, I do.”
Thompson was named the game’s most valuable player.
“It shows that our team is well-rounded,” Solomon said. “Everybody can go out there and drop however many points we need to win. We don’t say No. 1, No. 2 scorer. Whoever’s hitting shots, that’s who we get the ball to.”
The win sent St. Mary’s to the CHSAA Class AA tournament, where it will face St. Mary’s of Lancaster in the semifinals at Christ the King in Queens on Friday.
Isabella Turner scored 17 points and Julia Anderson totaled 11 points and 17 rebounds for St. Anthony’s (16-6).
Earlier in the evening, top-seeded St. Dominic defeated third-seeded Sacred Heart, 52-26, behind 12 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals from Mia Padula in the NSCHSAA Class A championship game. It was St. Dominic’s first league title since 2008.
“All the work we put in was worth it,” Padula said. “This is what we looked forward to all season . . . It’s so great that we were able to finish this off, and now we go into states hoping to be state champions.”
St. Dominic (18-1) advanced to the CHSAA Class A tournament and will face Moore Catholic of Staten Island in the semifinals at the College of Staten Island at 7 p.m. on Friday. Sacred Heart finished 7-10.
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
