Manchester Girls Shooting For 3rd Sectional Basketball Title

MANCHESTER, NJ — The Manchester Township girls basketball team is looking to add another laurel to its stellar season on Tuesday night: the NJSIAA South Jersey Group II championship.

The Hawks (28-2) , who won the Shore Conference Tournament championship 10 days ago with a 58-42 victory over St. John Vianney, have advanced easily through the first three rounds of the state tournament. They defeated Pemberton, 71-37, Oakcrest, 78-61, and Haddonfield, 77-57.

They host a fifth-seeded Middle Township team that upended top-seeded Sterling, 42-40, on Friday. Middle Township (24-5) is led by junior Kira Sides, the team's leading scorer, and sophomore Kate Herlihy. Sides, who averages about 18 points per game, is a threat from 3-point range; 50 percent of her baskets have come from beyond the arc. Herlihy averages 12 points per game.

Manchester, the No. 2 seed in the section, has multiple threats, as the Hawks showed against St. John Vianney in the SCT final. Leilani Correa is the team's leading scorer, averaging 16.4 points per game, but she's far from the only threat; Destiny Adams is averaging 14.1 points per game, and Kemari Reynolds and Dakota Adams each add 10 points per game.

Reynolds scored her 1,000th career point in the win over Pemberton.

This is the third straight state section final for Manchester. The Hawks won their first state sectional title two years ago, beating Middle Township, 34-33, on a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Dejah Adams. Manchester beat Haddonfield, 54-18, last year to win the South Jersey Group II title.

The game starts at 5:30 p.m. at Manchester Township High School but tickets may not be available at the door. The gym has a capacity of 850 people and Manchester officials said they will not oversell the gym.