LINWOOD — The Mainland Mustangs’ Cape-Atlantic League Tournament run was cut short after their massive comeback attempt against the Hammonton Blue Devils ran out of steam.
Mainland Regional High School took the lead late after trailing by as many as 16 points but eventually fell to Hammonton High School 47-41 on Feb. 13. Jenna Vivadelli scored 20 points for the Blue Devils, including a huge three-pointer to regain the lead in the final minutes of the game.
The Blue Devils built the big lead entirely in the second quarter, during which they outscored the Mustangs 18-2 behind four three-pointers. Vivadelli dropped 10 points in the quarter alone and took advantage of Mainland’s struggles on offense.
Mainland had a strong start to the game, getting to the rim for layups, but in the second quarter the shots stopped falling. The Mustangs took a 26-15 deficit into halftime but were not ready to throw in the towel after a season full of come-from-behind victories.
“It was a frustrating game where we dug ourselves a huge hole in the second quarter and had to battle back,” Mainland head coach Bobby Edmunds said. “We have battled back so many times this year and have had a lot of great comeback wins, but there is going to come a point in time where you play a good team and it is going to be a lot tougher to come back.”
Junior Reilly Nagle got the Mustangs off and running in the third quarter with her great hustle on defense, knocking the ball free. She also stepped up as the primary scorer and rattled off nine straight points for Mainland. Jade O’Neil helped feed her the ball on offense and was just as pivotal forcing turnovers on defense.
Mainland needed a couple of three-pointers of its own to match Hammonton’s output and finally made a couple to end the third quarter. Callie Smith caught fire near the end and made two massive threes to put the Mustangs within striking distance to start the fourth quarter.
Edmunds attributed the Mustangs’ ability to make big comebacks this season to their defense.
“The energy and effort we get from our trapping defense is the key. The girls do a really good job getting steals in that formation. Along with that comes some wide-open layups the other way, but you must take those gambles down double digits. They understand the positioning in that trap well and are good at turning it into points,” he said.
Mainland finally regained its first lead since the first quarter when O’Neil forced a turnover and made an easy layup with 4:40 remaining in the game. Mainland had a three-way tie for leading scorer in the game with O’Neil, Smith and Nagle finishing with 11 points each in a full team effort.
Hammonton scored 23 unanswered points at one point and looked to coast toward the win but had suddenly surrendered the lead to the resilient Mustangs.
O’Neil found Sammy Funk under the basket to maintain the small 41-39 lead, but it was short-lived.
Hammonton’s star of the game Vivadelli immediately answered with her third and final trey for the lead. The Blue Devil defense got back on track when the team needed it most and contained the Mustangs for the rest of the game. Alivia Ellis sealed the game in the final minute with her third three-pointer to send Mainland out of the tournament.
“Hammonton did a great job of responding to the run,” Edmunds said. “They stayed poised and great job to Ryan Staiger and his group. They did a great job closing out the game.”
With the loss, the 16-8 Mustangs will have over a week to prepare before the state playoffs begin.
“We have a make-up game against Absegami next week, so that can be a little tune-up game for the state tournament,” Edmunds said. “I was really hoping to go to Middle Township and advance to the Cape-Atlantic League semis, but we are just going to have to practice hard and get ready for whoever our opponent is in the first round.”
Mainland’s game against Absegami will be at home Feb. 19 with a 5:15 p.m. start. Afterward, the Mustangs will prepare for their first game of the Group III playoffs that start Feb. 25.
The Mainland girls were sitting in third place in Power Points in South Jersey Group III. Cherry Hill West (16-5) was at the top with Moorestown (15-8) second.
Ocean City falls
Ocean City (11-10), the No. 9 seed, lost in the first round to No. 8 Atlantic City, 46-36. It was the biggest deficit the Red Raider girls had against Atlantic City in their three meetings this season. The Vikings won all three, but the others were much closer, 55-52 and 57-54.
It was an odd game, with Ocean City outscoring the Vikings 12-4 in the first quarter but managing only 2 points in the second while Atlantic City poured in 18 to lead 22-14 at the half. The teams played even in the third quarter 9-9, but the Vikings held off Ocean City with a 15-13 fourth quarter.
Kaia Chew led the Red Raiders with 8 points, Marley Ostrander and Mya Dever had 6 each, Allie Hudson and Casey Adamson 5 each, Scarlett Fletcher with 4 and Gabby Henry with 2.
Ocean City is sitting in 13th place in Power Points, meaning the girls will be on the road in the first round of the South Jersey Group III tournament.
– By WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel