CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — The Red Raiders boys basketball team has had a tough schedule this season, battling some league-leaders and pulling some upsets on their way to a 9-11 record.
Saturday wasn’t that rough.
The Ocean City boys had an easy go of it, traveling to Cape May Tech (0-17) and coming away with a 63-27 win.
Senior Omero Chevere led the Red Raiders with 17 points, including four 3-pointers.
Charlie LaBarre had 12 points and Kori Segich had 11. Pat Grimley contributed 6 points, Dylan Schlatter added 5 and Andrew Karayiannis, Colin Thompson and Dino Chrisi had 4 each.
The Red Raiders had two big quarters and two off quarters.
They jumped out to a 30-8 lead in the first quarter and outscored Tech 20-7 in the third quarter. The two teams were even at 7-7 in the second quarter with Ocean City holding a 6-5 edge in the fourth as coach John Bruno was able to rotate in a lot of his players in the afternoon game.
Colin Gery led the Hawks with 9 points, Ben Lynch had 6, Ronnie Neenhold had 4, Tyler Dille 3 and Alec Dooley 2.
“It’s a good win. We played a lot of good team basketball and made our shots,” Chevere said.
Looking ahead to the Cape-Atlantic League and South Jersey sectional tournaments, he added, “we have to keep our heads up and follow the coach’s plan.”
“It’s just been a fun experience,” Chevere said about the season so far. “It’s a great group of guys and we’ve got a good coach, the senior from Ocean City said. He hopes the team has a good run in the playoffs.
Bruno seldom has Schlatter, a junior from Absecon, leave the court.
“It’s definitely tiring,” he said with a smile. “I do rarely come off the court but I try to play as hard as I can whenever I’m out there.”
“I enjoy playing the tough teams,” he added. “We’re in a pretty tough division, so playing all the really good teams and really good players is fun.”
Schlatter said he doesn’t mind the pressure.
“Starting every game last year helped a lot with my confidence and now it just comes second nature,” he said.
Right now his priority “is to try to win every game for the rest of the season.”
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
