Ocean City wins opening S.J. tournament game, then falls to No. 2 seed
LINWOOD — The South Jersey Group III girls basketball opener Feb. 26 was typical Ocean City-Mainland Regional — neither team in this cross-bay rivalry wanting to cede an inch, emphatic defense, multiple lead changes and the victory hanging in the balance until the end.
Ultimately, the No. 10 Red Raider girls (14-14) upset the No. 7 Mustangs (9-16) by six points, 42-36, courtesy of a raft of clutch free throws by senior Naomi Nnewihe and Gabby Henry. The Mainland Regional High School girls intentionally fouled over the last half-minute of the game.
It was the third time the teams met this season even though they are in different conferences, with Ocean City sporting a 10-2 record in the National Conference and Mainland 3-8 in the American. The Mustangs won the first game 45-40 on Jan. 18 at Ocean City; the Raiders returned the favor 43-38 Feb. 12 in the opening round of the Cape-Atlantic League tournament at Mainland.
And then their respective seeds matched the rivals again in the sectional tournament.
“Some things are out of your control,” Ocean City head coach Trish Henry said. “We probably should have won some games that we lost, they probably did the same. It is what it is. You play who you’re dealt. It’s the tournament. You have to do what’s out there.”
The coach credited the unselfish play of her starters and gave a big shoutout to her bench — “the unsung heroes.”
“This team is super tight. They care way, way more about the front of their jersey than the back of their jersey. And they really don’t care about stats, I can tell you that for sure. They don’t have a clue,” she said. “Not one of them has a clue about what went down today. All they cared about was staying together and winning this as a team.”
Her players concurred.
“We’re totally a pass-first team. We never ball-hog. Whoever is open we’re passing it to them,” Henry said.
Facing MRHS three times in a season is “a lot because they’re not even in our conference this year,” Henry added. “It took a lot of heart and hustle for this game. The third time is always the hardest, especially since we lost the first time and beat them here the second time.”
“We just all played as a team,” Marley Ostrander said. “We always choose to pass first. That’s what I do, try to find the open girl all the time.”
“Our bench is amazing,” she said. “They were screaming and we just played defense. That’s what won us the game.”
The coach talked about the importance of the players who did not see much, if any, time on the court against Mainland.
“I have an unbelievable staff. They have these kids ready for any moment. I’ll tell you what, our kids that sit on that bench work hard,” Henry said. “They push them to be better so they come to the game and are prepared. That’s hard to do because they’re the unsung heroes of the team, the kids who are your practice players and work hard and push them each and every day. It’s a grind. I give them all the credit in the world because everything this team did today, my bench kids did it in practice to get them ready.”
The Mustangs got out to an early lead in a foul-filled first quarter before Raider Allie Hudson hit a three to put Ocean City on top 5-4 in the beginning of the see-saw battle. Mustang Jade O’Neill returned the favor with a three of her own.
After Reilly Nagle drove in for a basket to give Mainland a 9-6 lead, Henry hit a three to tie things up. The quarter ended with the Raiders up 12-11.
Trailing Ocean City, Mainland’s Callie Smith hit a three to give her team a 16-14 lead in the second quarter, but Ostrander tied it back up 16-16. The low-scoring half ended with the teams tied 18-18.
Ostrander hit first in the second half to give the Raiders the lead again, but Brielle Smith, who led the Mustangs with 13 points, drove to the basket to tie it at 20-20.
After Ostrander scored again, Nnewihe stole the ball and ran the length of the court for an easy layup to give Ocean City a 24-21 lead.
A mistake on the Mainland inbounds pass gave the ball back to Ocean City. Nnewihe, the Raiders’ leading scorer with 14 points, hit a short shot to give her team the biggest lead of the game, 26-21.
It wouldn’t last.
Callie Smith started bringing her team back with a pair of foul shots and sister Brielle drove again to the basket to get Mainland within one, 26-25.
Kaia Chew halted the Mustang progress with a two-point shot, but Mainland again came within a point, 28-27.
Cue Callie Smith from the free-throw line. She hit both to put Mainland back on top, 29-28, which is where the teams ended the quarter.
In the final stanza, the Smith sisters scored the first four points to give the Mustangs their biggest lead of the game — five points — 33-28 with 4:25 left, but they would get only one more basket and one more free throw the rest of the way.
Chew finally connected from three-point range and after both teams traded a couple missed opportunities, it was Ostrander’s time for her own trey.
The combination gave the Raiders the 34-33 lead and Nnewihe scored with about a minute remaining for a 36-33 margin. A free throw by Brielle Smith turned it back into a two-point game, 36-34, with 44 seconds left.
The Mustangs intentionally fouled Nnewihe, but she calmly made both free throws for a 38-34 lead. Brielle Smith got Mainland’s final score to cut into the lead again to 38-36, but Nnewihe was intentionally fouled again and again hit both for the 40-36 lead with 11 seconds on the clock.
Asked about her composure under pressure with the game on the line, Nnewihe related it to her soccer experience. (She will play soccer for Brown University after graduation.)
“I’ve been there before in soccer with PKs (penalty kicks), so I know you just have to tune everything out and focus. You hit a hundred of them in practice. You know you can make them. You just have to focus on that moment, doing what you’ve been doing all season,” she said.
After their last-ditch shot was blocked, the Mustangs fouled Henry with less than a second left. She made her two free throws for the final 42-36 margin, arousing a celebration on the Raider bench.
Henry and Ostrander finished with nine points each, and Hudson and Chew five each. For Mainland, Callie Smith had 11 points, Nagle and Sammy Funk four each and O’Neill three.
It is a .500 season for the Red Raider girls, but coach Henry acknowledged they started with a deficit — the loss of senior Madelyn Adamson to a knee injury that is forcing her to miss the fall, winter and spring sports seasons.
“Any time you start a season without your best player who is your senior captain and leader and has basically given everything to the program, it’s tough,” Henry said.
But, she added, “These kids battle, they fight, they work hard in practice. They’re never going to quit. It doesn’t matter what the score is, they’ll never back down.”
Nnewihe missed Adamson on the court but appreciated her presence on the sidelines.
“We started out rough, obviously,” Nnewihe said. “We didn’t have our best scorer (Adamson).”
“I wanted to play with her again, but she’s a leader, no matter what. She always knows what to say, how to pump us up, how to calm us down in a tight game when we need our composure. It’s great to have her voice on the sideline and someone I can rely on as a teammate and as a person,” she said.
Moorestown 40,
OCHS 22
The Raiders were no match for No. 2 seed Moorestown (22-7) Friday evening. They fell 40-22 to end their season.
Ocean City trailed 16-7 after the first quarter and 25-12 at the half. They couldn’t get out of the single digits in any quarter. They trailed the Quakers 8-4 in the third quarter and 7-6 in the fourth.
Nnewihe was the high scorer for Ocean City with seven points. Chew had five, Ostrander three and Henry two.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
