By Mike Whaley

(This is the third in a series on the eight 2025 NHIAA state championship basketball teams.)

We’ll get to the Saint Thomas Aquinas High School girls basketball team’s commanding run to the Division III state championship this past March. First, the back story.

The major motivation for the Saints was tied to the end of last season. Saint Thomas lost its first game of the 2023-24 campaign before rattling off 17 consecutive wins to earn the top seed in the D-III tournament. That earned them a bye to the quarterfinal round at home. There the Saints made short work of No. 8 White Mountains, 56-27. In the semis, semifinals, their season came to a sudden end to No. 4 Kearsarge, 52-44.

“It was a big disappointment,” said 6-foot-3 senior center Emilie von der Linden. “We really wanted to win that game. Since we lost that game last year, it really did fire us up this year.”

“I think we thought no one could beat us,” said six-foot senior guard Genna Bolduc. “We were a little too cocky. I think we weren’t as well prepared. We definitely let things get in our heads.”

The Saints also had a subpar shooting night, according to coach Kevin Giannino. “For some reason the ball would not go through the basket,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many missed shots and layups and opportunities we had. It was really frustrating to see what happened. To watch a team that had scored in a number of games, 58, 63, 65 points, we just could not make a basket.”

That loss motivated Saint Thomas to regroup and get ready for the following season. As Gianinno recalled, the players said to him “‘Coach, let’s practice tomorrow and get back out there. We can’t wait to get back at it.’ That really fueled them.”

Bolduc said that loss changed the team’s mindset. “We went into every game this year thinking we could lose,” she said. “We could lose, so let’s play as hard as we can, no matter who the team is – even the lower-ranked teams. We went out and played our hardest, got an early lead and just worked really hard.”

One could not argue with the end result. When the Saints walked off the court after the Division III championship game at Keene State College on March 1, they had won, strictly by the numbers, the most one-sided game in D-III championship history, 72-35. They set or tied three championship-game records: margin of victory (37 points), most team 3s (10) and most 3s by a player (Bolduc, 6), tied with Fall Mountain’s Sophie Bardis (2020). That completed their season at a perfect 22-0, counting three holiday tournament victories. It was STA’s first state title since winning the old Class M crown in 1981.

Coming into the 2024-25 season, the Saints were laser-focused on their goal to avoid a repeat of the previous season. It was also the final year for a trio of seniors who had been varsity players since they were freshmen – Bolduc, von der Linden and Amelia Anderson, a 5-11 forward. Add in lightning-quick junior guard Emma Toriello and 5-foot senior point guard Lila Anthony, a transfer from Newburyport High School in Massachusetts, and there was definitely a sense of determined urgency in the air.

While the Saints knew they could score points, Giannino said there was also a realization that defense had to become more of a priority. “The call was out to play defense,” he said. “The girls put a big poster together – ‘Tenacious D’. We signed that after every game. We just talked about our defense. That was what we thought would carry us all the way through.”

During the regular season there were two significant stretches that helped define who the Saints were. The first came at the Oyster River holiday tournament where they won three games in convincing fashion over bigger schools. In the first two rounds, STA beat Division I Spaulding, 73-41, and Keene, 42-33. In the championship, they vanquished host Oyster River, 61-48. OR went on to advance to the D-II championship. The Keene win was the only time this season that a team came within single digits of the Saints. The two other closest games were 10-point wins over Prospect Mountain and Monadnock (in the D-III semis). Everything else was by 21 or more points with 14 wins by 30 or more. Saint Thomas scored 50-plus points in 21 of their 22 games, and allowed the opposition to score 40 or more in just six games. In 22 games, the Saints averaged nearly 63 points per game, while allowing 29 points per contest.

Von der Linden recalls being in the locker room after winning the Oyster River tournament. “Our coach said ‘we were able to get this one, let’s go get another one (D-III title) later in the season.’ It was a boost to our confidence.”

The second significant span came in late January after they had played a stretch of games against some of the weaker teams in D-III – all blowout wins. Then came a five-game run against quality tournament teams. The first was Hopkinton at home, a team that had lost one game to that point. “I didn’t have to say one word to get the team ready for the Hopkinton game,” coach Giannino said. “They came out of the locker room and they were just flying. That was their opportunity to just make a statement. There was a big crowd at home. New Hampshire Sports Page was there. We’re a good team, but that night was special.” The Saints rolled over Hopkinton, 69-28, led by Toriello’s 20 points and 14 and 12, respectively, from von der Linden and Bolduc.

STA followed that up with quality wins over Prospect, 58-30; Berlin, 61-29, and Gilford, 60-27, in which they scored the first 21 points of the game. “I was just beside myself,” said Giannino. “I just couldn’t believe how well we had played; just answering any challenge that was put before us.”

The biggest test, however, was just around the corner. After winning those four games, the Saints had a rare six-day layoff leading into a Monday night game at Prospect, a trap game if ever there was one. “I thought that would be a good test for us,” Giannino said. “Sure enough, we went up to Prospect. They were ready for us.”

Despite being a little rusty, the Saints jumped out to a 17-point lead early, but the Timberwolves forged back into the game. Prospect got as close as six points in the fourth quarter before STA was able to get some breathing room and win, 50-40. “It was the first time we had seen any type of a challenge,” the coach said. “We got into foul trouble. It was the first time we had to use our bench. We probably didn’t react as well as we probably could have.”

Von der Linden recalled it as “just a rusty Monday night game.” Bolduc remembered there was some sickness going through the team, so they weren’t at their sharpest. “Going into that gym is always hard,” she said. “Their student section is really chirpy. It’s good for them. We had some mistakes on defense and then we couldn’t get our shots to fall.”

All season long, the Saints rode their outstanding starting five of Bolduc, Von Der Linden, Anthony, Anderson and Toriello. In fact, the trio of Bolduc, von der Linden and Toriello gave Saint Thomas one of the best scoring trios in the state regardless of division. Clearly, the Saints could have challenged for the D-II title and even been a top-tier playoff team in D-I. During that five-game span that threesome scored in double figures in every game. Versus Prospect, Bolduc and Toriello led the way with 15 points apiece, while Von Der Linden added 13. The season scoring balance was quite striking. Bolduc (8.7 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 2.6 assists per game) and Toriello led the way, each averaging 15 points per game, while von der Linden put up a double-double – 14 ppg and 12.3 rpg. Von der Linden said some reporters referred to the scoring trio as a “three-headed monster.” She said the team had their own term for it: “‘Pick your poison.’ If I’m getting shut down, Genna and Emma will go light it up from the 3-point line and vice versa. You really couldn’t pick the right option. We have trust in one another that if one of us is hot we will keep feeding them the ball. I think it goes back to playing team ball this year.”

Anderson was a tremendous complementary player, noted Giannino. “Amelia was our glue guy,”
he said. “She’s an extremely smart player. She gave up some offense to do the things we needed her to do. She was a good rebounder, great defender. She’d help break the press. She’d hit the open person with one more pass; just a solid, all-around player.” Case and point was the championship game where Anderson’s contribution impacted the game in a variety of ways. She scored six points with 11 rebounds, three blocks, three assists and three steals. In addition, she limited Fall Mountain’s All-State forward Clara Stewart to one field goal and 10 points. “What a way to cap off an excellent career with her best game on the biggest stage,” Giannino said.

Toriello was “tough as nails,” according to Giannino. “She spends half her time on the floor. She’s all out all the time. I can’t believe how fast she is. She’s the fastest guard in our league. She would just blow by people. She was a devil in transition. She’d kill you one way or another.” In addition to her impressive scoring numbers, Toriello had 3.9 steals and 3.7 assists per game.

Anthony (4.8 ppg, 3.5 apg, 2.5 spg) transferred to STA as a junior. Giannino said she came with excellent ball skills and was a top-notch on-ball defender. “She is a very knowledgeable player,” he said. “Her dad was a big-time coach in Connecticut. You can tell she was coached by her dad. She developed a good chemistry with Toriello. They had backdoor and highlight passes. We put her on the other team’s best player, often a point guard. She really stepped up.”

The unsung bench could have started on most other teams. It included junior forward Charlotte De Tolla, who was on championship teams in three different sports (basketball, soccer, lacrosse); and sophomore guards Mallory Baker and Julianne Stowell.

Bolduc and Von Der Linden came in as freshmen with Anderson, but did not play a lot on the varsity. Von Der Linden was still pretty raw as a post player and needed to get more aggressive. Bolduc was a player in transition. She had some size that had kept her role around the basket. That changed when she was moved away from the basket so as not to clog up the paint with Von Der Linden and, more to the point, to take advantage of her exceptional 3-point shooting skill. Both girls started taking basketball seriously. They joined AAU teams and began working harder on their games. By the time they were juniors, they were legitimate players in Division III. The Saints went from being just a mid-pack playoff team to a bonafide contender.

Saint Thomas ended the regular season with convincing wins over two of the division’s lesser teams to improve to 16-0 and earn the top seed for the tournament. That was another challenge for them, playing nine games against six teams at the bottom of the standings with a combined record of 20-80. It would have been easy to lose focus.

“I think we definitely had the discipline,” said Bolduc. “We were making sure that no matter what the score, we were still playing our best basketball. We played as if it was a close game, no matter what.”

The top seed meant a first-round bye to the quarterfinals, which in this case meant another game against a strong Hopkinton squad, led by all-state guard Shaylee Murdough. Leading up to that game, Saint Thomas had spent the week recovering from sickness. “If we had played in the first round, I don’t know if we could have fielded a team,” Giannino said. “It would have been Toriello and four JVs at that point.”

Although the Saints ended up beating Hopkinton, 70-44, it was a game in the fourth quarter. STA led 22-18 in the second quarter, but ended the frame on a 22-0 run to widen the gap to 44-18 at the break. The lead stayed pretty much the same after three, 50-25. Even so, Giannino had a feeling Hopkinton wasn’t done. “We were waiting for them to make a run,” he said.

Sure enough, the Hawks started the fourth quarter with a 10-0 spurt to close the gap to 50-35. “At that point, I looked at my girls. We were just barely hanging on,” Giannino said. “We were drained. We were sick all week.” Despite a big quarter by Murdough (she scored 16 of her game-high 30 in the fourth), the Saints regrouped and ended the quarter on a 20-9 run to win going away. Toriello led the offense with 18 points, Bolduc added 13 and Von Der Linden hit for 12. Again, despite adversity, STA was able to find another gear to win and move on.

The big moment was now at hand – the semifinals. Here was the round that had been their 2024 Waterloo. Their opponent at Sanborn Regional High School was a potentially difficult fifth seed in Monadnock, who had just blown past No. 4 Gilford in the quarters, 65-27. “This was the game we’ve been pointing to,” Giannino said. “This is the game we lost last year. At the beginning of the year, we sort of pinpointed Monadnock. We thought they were going to be a really good test for us. Sure enough they were.”

Monadnock’s defense made the Saints work. They did a good job of denying the post pass into Von Der Linden. “They put tremendous ball pressure on Lila Anthony – the point guard – and denied Bolduc and Toriello on the wings,” the coach said. “It was just outstanding defensive play.”

It was a tight game into the second quarter. With the Huskies up 27-26, STA went on a quarter-ending 14-0 run to get some breathing room at the break, 40-27. Monadnock cut the margin to 46-37 after three quarters, and then scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to slice the margin to 46-42. They could draw no closer. Saint Thomas was still up 54-48 with several minutes to play, but was able to hold off the Huskies to win, 63-53. Toriello and Von Der Linden paced the attack with 20 and 18 points, respectively. Bolduc was held to eight, but it was not enough to pull off the upset. Bailee Soucia led Monadnock with 18 points, while Shaylee Branon chipped in with 15.

“My mentality going into that game was I’m definitely not losing again here,” said Bolduc. “Losing in the semifinals and the championship (which Bolduc has experienced in both basketball and soccer) is one of the worst feelings because you were so close. You were just a little bit short. I definitely did not want to lose again when I’m this close to achieving something I’ve wanted.” Bolduc was also an all-state goalie for the Saint Thomas girls soccer team that won two D-III state championships in 2023 and 2024.

After the season, Giannino coached a senior all-star team. He recalls Keene HS boys coach Ray Boulay coming up to him and congratulating him on a fine season. Giannino did the same as Keene had come within a point of winning the D-I title.
“I thought we had you,” Boulay said, catching the STA coach off guard.
“What are you saying?” Giannino responded.
Boulay laughed. “Well, I’m best friends with (Monadnock coach Eric) Fazio. We were game-planning for you all week.”
“If I knew that was the case,” Giannino said, “I wouldn’t have been rooting for you guys.”

In any case, the Saints were off to the finals for the first time in 18 years (34-23 loss to Lebanon in 2007 Class I final). Their opponent? No. 2 Fall Mountain, who easily dispatched tournament dark horse, No. 14 Stevens, 61-24. Giannino was impressed with the Wildcats. “They can put five girls on the floor who can hit from 3-point land,” he said. “I thought it was going to be a big test.”

At the same time, Giannino knew the Saints had yet to play their best game. “The entire year, I saw the potential in this team,” he said. “I just thought we could play a little bit better. I told the girls ‘you played a great game tonight. But do you think we could play a little bit better?’ They all said ‘absolutely, we can play better than this.’ I challenged them to play better. I was really pushing them to play their best game.”

When the championship game rolled around at Keene State, Giannino’s high expectations were finally met. “I probably couldn’t say ‘could we play better?’” he said. “Because that was the best game we played all year. I know people think maybe it was a lopsided game and they weren’t a quality opponent. They were a very, very good team. We just played out of our minds.”

Von Der Linden admitted to being nervous. Part of that, of course, was playing in the state championship. She also had additional emotions churning around inside since this was the same court where her dad, Eric Von Der Linden, had played his college ball back in the 1990s. “It’s a long bus ride to Keene,” she said. “We were all singing and dancing to our music up until we got into the locker room. We all had a shared understanding. This is our last game. Let’s make it our best. That’s what really made it click.”

Saint Thomas jumped out to a 17-7 lead after the first quarter and headed into the locker room at the half up 30-18. With Fall Mountain still within striking distance, Bolduc sparked a huge third-quarter outburst that put the game away. She made three of her six record-tying 3-pointers as STA widened its lead to 47-21, eventually winning, 72-35. Bolduc led all scorers with 24 points (18 in the second half), while Toriello had 15 and Von Der Linden tossed in 12 with 19 rebounds. Here are more examples of STA’s dominance: Advantage in rebounding (40-18), points in paint (30-6) and second-chance points (28-2). The numbers told the story.

Fired up after a discouraging loss in the 2024 semifinals, the Saints regrouped, refocused and made a point of coming back with a mission to have a definitively positive season. The championship win was the culmination of that mission. When the postseason awards were handed out, STA was at the top of the list. Bolduc was named the D-III Player of the Year and joined Von Der Linden on the All-State First Team. Toriello was named to the Second Team. Von Der Linden was also selected to the All-Defensive Team. In addition, Bolduc received the D-III Jack Ford Award, which honors a player for equal parts basketball performance, academics and citizenship/community service.

“Coming in as a freshman, I knew we would improve,” said Bolduc, who will attend and play basketball next year at Plymouth State University. Von Der Linden will follow the same path at Bridgewater State in Massachusetts. “I didn’t know it would result in a championship. Especially the past few years, our division has been so good. There have always been teams that have been exceptional. I never thought we’d be the exceptional team. I always thought we’d be good, that we’d get better. Winning it was a dream. You come so close with the girls on the team. This year was one of the closest teams I’ve ever been on. It was just nice to do it with a group of girls I care so much about and I love so much.” Perfect, you might say.

Whaley can be reached at whaleym25@gmail.com