The CHS girls’ basketball team has reached new heights, as they claimed the program’s first-ever sectional title on Friday, March 6th, against Middle Township. With Cinnaminson (2) and Middle Township (1) both coming into the tournament as the #1 and #2 seeds, respectively, they were both heavily favored to make it to the championship game. Both teams boasted impressive winning percentages, with Middle winning just over 86% of their match-ups and Cinnaminson winning all but one of their 30 games so far. 

The Lady Pirates’ long-standing rivalry with Middle Township fueled the girls’ drive to finally capture the sectional title over the Panthers, considering that they’d lost to them in the final to end both the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons. Junior Mia Pacetti, who has been on varsity since her freshman year, shared what this match-up meant to her.

“The passion, the drive to want to win this entire year, because coming off of what happened last year, we didn’t want that to happen again, so we were really motivated to work hard this season, going into these games,” Pacetti said. “Having lost two times in the championship to Middle Township also gave us good motivation and fire to want to beat them for once, and knowing it would make history by being the first to win sectionals.”

Coach Bret Jenkins, who has coached the team to a 136-33 record (.800 winning percentage) since the start of the 2020 season, appreciates the mentality and the mindset the girls had going into this game. They stayed focused, and nothing distracted them from what they wanted to go out there to compete for and earn.

“There were obviously mistakes and adversity that we felt during the game, but they always seemed to turn it into a positive and stayed in the right mindset, and they really seemed to be locked in the whole time,” Jenkins said.

In terms of team strategy Coach Jenkins noted that if his girls are always playing harder than the other team and showing a strong defensive effort, then they’ll always have a chance to win. 

In addition to the play on the court, fan support is also crucial. Junior starting guard Gabby Harvey, who leads the team in three-point shots with 68 in total on the season so far, explained how fan support and community is important to her and the rest of the team.

“The support from all the fans on the fans’ bus and stuff was just amazing. It shows how we are as a community and the support we have behind us. We all wanted to win this as a community,” Harvey said.

Junior Ben Smith traveled to Friday’s game on the fan bus to cheer on the team. He described the experience.

“The energy was absolutely unmatched. We stood up the whole game and didn’t stop chanting,” Smith said. 

Another contributing factor in Friday night’s win was how well the team was playing defense. 

Senior captain and team leader in rebounds Norah Quinn said, “We were really strong on defense. We stayed positive the whole game. If we made a mistake, everyone made sure to hype each other up, get back on D, make up for it. We were just positive the whole game.”

Ultimately, the girls triumphed over Middle Township, and by quite a larger margin than to be expected. Cinnaminson led the score for the entire game and ended up winning by a score of 48-35. Harvey led the scoring with 17 points, and team captains Norah Quinn and Shiloh Moore led in rebounds and steals. Senior forward Sarah Farrow of Middle Township led their team in all three of those same categories.

With this latest victory, CHS girls’ basketball improves their record to a staggering 30-1 and Middle Township ends their season 25-5.  With the hopes of keeping this momentum going, the girls will be going for win #31 at the Group 2 Statewide Tournament semifinals on Tuesday, March 10th, at 7:00 pm at Monroe High School versus the champions of Central Jersey Group 2, the Manasquan Warriors (24-5), who are currently ranked #7 in the state. The team plans to just play their game, staying confident and positive in what they have done this season.  

“We are just gonna treat it as a regular basketball game, and we’re gonna play how we usually do, and hopefully we get a good outcome,” all-time Cinnaminson steals leader Shiloh Moore said. 

Smith said he knows the team will do well on Tuesday night as they’ll have the entire Cinnaminson community rooting for them.

“They aren’t done yet, it’s an amazing accomplishment, and the community is so proud of the way they took it home,” Smith said.