LINCROFT, NJ -- Chatham girls basketball coach Joe Gaba tests his team against top competition so that his players will be ready for the big county and state games down the road. That worked last season when the Cougars won an NJSIAA Group 3 state sectional championship.

Gaba got an up-close look at how teams are going to be defending Chatham from now on as St. Rose pulled away early and closed out a 62-42 win in the HoopGroup Boardwalk Showcase played Sunday at Brookdale Community College.

St. Rose face-guarded Chatham's sharpshooting senior, Riley Allen, and played a tight man-to-man defense that didn't allow the Cougars any open looks at the basket. Allen was held to two foul shots in this one and a week ago on Jan. 1, she was held to four points and zero 3-pointers in a 55-30 loss to Immaculate Heart Academy.

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The St. Rose and IHA games represented Allen's lowest point totals of the season and are also the two lowest-scoring games for Chatham this season.

"That's on me for not getting Riley better looks," Gaba said. "They just pushed us back toward the halfcourt line. All day during practice yesterday, we worked on getting the ball downhill to the foul line because we knew Riley would be tightly guarded. We thought with Riley as a screener, when they switched on it, Riley would be able to get to the basket or slip out for a three. We just weren't playing downhill toward the baseline."

Ella Kreuzer and Addison Barrett led Chatham (8-3) with 13 points apiece and each scored a basket early when the game was 4-4. But St. Rose (8-1) closed the first quarter with a 14-1 run, capped by Rosie Scognomiglio's 3-pointer for an 18-5 advantage.

The Purple Roses scored the first six points of the second quarter to expand their lead to 24-5.

"We're working on spreading our scoring out so that if Riley is being face-guarded, we can still score," Barrett said. "We're still adjusting to that change in our offense."

Allen's only points came in the final minute of the first half when she sank both ends of a one-and-one.

The Cougars started to drive to the basket more in the second half, led by Barrett, who scored eight of her points in the third quarter, two on an offensive rebound and put-back (see below) and two more when she received a pass from McKenna Hogan as she cut the basket (see below).

But St. Rose countered by connecting for six 3-pointers in the game, four in the second half. The Purple Roses held a 50-29 lead heading in the final quarter. Hogan hit Chatham's only 3-pointer in the fourth quarter.

The frustrating part for Gaba is that his team played like it was "intimidated" or "nervous" the last two Sundays in games they were not under pressure to win against state-ranked teams.

"It's counter intuitive," Gaba said. "In games like this that don't mean anything, we play nervous and very tentative. Yet, we go against teams like Montville, Morristown or Sparta and we're not tentative. And those are games that mean more than these games, so it just doesn't make sense."

Last season, Chatham held a 17-point lead in the second half of its game vs. St. Rose in a showcase held in Spotswood and wound up losing that game, 39-36.

COUGAR NOTES: St. Rose's 5-11 freshman Jada Lynch led all scorers with 24 points. Her mother, Kim Clijsters was ranked No. 1 in the world in tennis in both singles and doubles in 2003. Her father, Brian Lynch, who played basketball at CBA and Villanova, is the coach of the 9-0 St. Rose boys basketball team ... Ella Kreuzer and Riley Allen both have scored 157 points to date this season to lead Chatham in points ... Kreuzer received recognition as the MVP for Chatham in the game, Lynch was the St. Rose MVP ... Allen was held without a 3-point basket for only the sixth time in her 53-game career at Chatham, where she has made 144 3-pointers.... St. Rose hit six 3-pointers in the game compared to one made by Chatham's McKenna Hogan ... Chatham made 13 of 19 foul shots with Kreuzer sinking 5 of 6 while St. Rose made 8 of 12 fouls ... the Cougars will play again without a break in their schedule with a 5:30 p.m. Monday tip-off vs. Pope John (10-1) at CHS.