Red Raider senior needed 11, scored 34
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – Red Raider senior Gannon Brady needed 11 points in Thursday night’s game against Lower Cape May Regional to hit the 1,000-point plateau in his basketball career at Ocean City High School.
He accomplished that in the first half before going on to finish the game with 34 points. There was a brief celebration after Brady scored on a jump shot from close range for his 1,000th point, but the Caper Tigers put a damper on the evening.
Tight game with LCMR
Brady wasn’t in much of a mood for celebrating his 1,000th point – or his 1,023rd – because he was disappointed in his team’s loss to LCMR. He did say he had been thinking about his goal since the time he was small.
Asked after the game if he was focused on his career scoring goal, Brady said, “I was just trying to do whatever I could to win the game, but we came up short and it stinks. It’s a great accomplishment I’ve been looking forward to my whole career but it’s a shame it had to end that way.”
“I’ve been coming to Ocean City High School games my whole life, coming in and looking at the banner (of 1,000-point scorers) and it’s always been a cool thing to shoot for. I wasn’t really sure if I would get the opportunity this year with COVID and everything but I’m very thankful I got the shot,” he said. “It’s something I can always come back to and have for the rest of my life.”
The senior credited his coach and teammates with helping him reach 1,000 points.
“Coach (John) Bruno puts us in the best position to succeed and he did that tonight but we just didn’t execute. We all rely on each other,” he said. “We’re a tight-knit team and are close friends so I think we’ll be able to bounce back from this game.”
Tight game against LCMR
After an exciting game that had the Red Raiders constantly chasing and catching up to LCMR, the Caper Tigers acted as a spoiler, beating Ocean City 62-60 in front of empty stands at OCHS, kept clear because of COVID-19 restrictions.
LCMR jumped out to a 16-9 lead after the first quarter with 8 points from Archie Lawler, including a 3-pointer to start the game, 4 more from Jacob Bey and 5 from Jordan Pierce, including another trey.
The Red Raiders narrowed the gap in the second quarter courtesy of 8 points from Brady, 6 from Brady Rauner and 2 from Tom Finnegan to go into halftime down 30-27.
Lawler added another 8 points and Bey and Pierce 3 each to maintain the lead.
The fourth quarter was back and forth with LCMR holding an 11-10 edge behind Pierce’s 6 points and Mack Bonner’s 4. Brady spent the quarter at the foul line connecting with 6 of 9 and a jumper for 8 of Ocean City’s 10 points in the quarter.
Every time Ocean City would close the gap, LCMR would jump ahead, but never by a big margin. Although the Caper Tigers couldn’t stop Brady from being the high scorer, Bey had a number of nice blocks to keep the Red Raider’s tally from going higher.
As the game neared its final 90 seconds, Rauner tied things up at 55-55, but Bonner’s 3-pointer put the Caper Tigers back up. Some 10 seconds later, Brady hits his own trey to tie it again at 58-58, but after LCMR went up by 2 points again, Bey blocked a Brady shot. With the chance to go up by 4 points with 12 seconds left, LCMR missed a pair of foul shots, but Brady’s long outlet pass was intercepted by Pierce and Caper Tigers held on for the 62-60 win.
Lawler led LCMR with 24 points, Pierce had 16, Bey had 8, Bonner 8, Mike Cronin had a 3-pointer and James Jamison contributed 2.
For Ocean City, behind Brady, Finnegan had 10 points, Rauner had 8, Brendan Schlatter had 4 and Joe Repetti and Will Drain had 2 each.
Coming up
The Caper Tigers host Mainland Regional at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and travel to Atlantic City for a game at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
The Ocean City boys are at Middle Township at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and host Wildwood Catholic at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
