ON THE MOVE: Stuart Country Day School basketball player Aleah James races past a Trenton Catholic Academy defender last Friday evening in the Mercer County Tournament final at the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton. Junior guard James scored a team-high 12 points in a losing cause as second-seeded Stuart fell 60-43 to top-seeded and defending champion TCA in the program’s first-ever appearance in the county title game. The defeat left the Tartans with a final record of 21-7. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

For the Stuart Country Day School basketball team, facing nationally-ranked Trenton Catholic Academy in the Mercer County Tournament final at the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton was exactly where it wanted to end the season.

Heading out to Phoenix in December to play in the Nike Tournament of Champions and then going through a gauntlet of tough foes such as Blair, Immaculate Conception Lodi, Saddle River Day, Moorestown Friends, and Markham Prep (Can.), Stuart was ready for the challenge presented by TCA.

“We came in laser focused and set on showing everybody exactly who we are because sometimes I think people take the Stuart name for granted,” said Stuart junior guard Aleah James.

“We are a small Catholic school and four years ago, nobody would have known our name. Personally I was focused on proving something on the court especially because of my height I feel like people always doubt me. I was here today to show everybody what I can do and what we can do as a team and how powerful we are now.”

The Tartans didn’t do their best in the early going as they found themselves trailing the Iron Mikes 27-14 by halftime.

“We are used to seeing their pressure,” said James. “It was just playing a game 50/94 feet and playing the entire game was a lot. They are deeper than we are; they have a solid eight and we have a solid five and our other guard [Lauren Klein] tore her ACL.”

In the the third quarter, James showed her game, scoring six straight points to key a 15-9 run by Stuart as it narrowed the gap to 36-29.

“I was honestly tired and I was thinking I have got to forget that with everybody in the stands,” said James.

“I was just playing for something bigger, playing for God and playing for my mom and everybody in the stands and all of the little kids. It wasn’t about me, I had to push through no matter what.”

TCA, though, responded to the push by the Tartans with an 11-0 run and never looked back on the way to a 60-43 triumph.

While the loss stung, James was proud of how the team has come together this winter.

“Our chemistry is what makes us great because we may bicker and stuff on the court but at the end of the day we are still a team,” said James, who ended up with a team-high 12 points in the loss which snapped Stuart’s 17-game winning streak and left the Tartans with a final record of 21-7.

“We love each other, we play for each other; just to be able to tell your teammates to snap out of it without them taking it personally is a big thing for us. Sometimes we get stuck in our own heads but for us to pull it together really helps.”

Stuart head coach Justin Leith acknowledged that it took a while for his team to snap out of its early funk against TCA.

“With our schedule because of the county tournament and the Preps coming at the end, the level of play went down after Saddle River Day,” said Leith, referring to his team’s 58-49 win over the Rebels on February 4.

“It is hard to manufacture or duplicate that in practice so it took a quarter or two to get back to the level that we are used to playing.”

Leith liked what he saw from the Tartans in their third quarter run. “That just shows that we can easily play at that level but we have to do more of it later in the season,” said Leith.

The play of James exemplified how Stuart has taken things to a higher level.

“Aleah came out in the third quarter and led that; she took it upon herself to step up,” said Leith, who got 10 points in the loss from Nia Melvin with Ariel Jenkins chipping in nine points and Laila Fair adding eight.

“She has been great all year; she has improved along with our team. If you look going back to her freshman all the way to right now, she is transformed as a player and she is only going to continue.”

In Leith’s view, it was a great winter on and off the court for the Tartans.

“First and foremost, they are wonderful kids to be around and they are great to each other,” said Leith.

“We won 17 games in a row, this is the first game in 2020 that we lost and that is not playing against weak opponents. We won out January, that was one of the goals. We did it and we continued it all the way to the end of the season. I think this is the most wins in school history. It is the first time that we made it to the Mercer County final and we won our third Prep B.”

Building on this year’s accomplishments, Stuart is poised to make more history next season.

“It is like I just said to them, it is tough to play your county tournament final against the No. 15 team in the country but we love that, we relish playing the top opponents,” said Leith.

“Now we know where we stand if we work hard in the off-season, we come back next year a little bit better. Like last year, we lost to Pennington in the MCT semifinal and then we got one step further this year. The goal next year will be to win and to come in here, not as the underdog but as the team to beat. Everybody knows that we are unequivocally one of the top teams in the state. You have Saddle River Day, who is No. 3 in the state, and we beat them so where does that put us? TCA is one of the top 15 teams in the nation and they showed it today. We will be there sooner rather than later.”

James, for her part, believes that the Tartans will use the defeat to TCA as motivation to continue their rise to the top of the state.

“We are definitely going to come back with a chip next year, a loss like this is something we will definitely learn from,” said James.

“We know exactly what we have to do to beat teams like this; it is all about putting it into action.”