Both teams struggle offensively, but Mainland pulls away late in the game
OCEAN CITY – In a game dominated by defense on Saturday night, two made 3-point shots in the fourth quarter by Mainland Regional and one that just missed by Ocean City proved to be the difference in the game.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Ava Mazur and Sydney Stokes early in the fourth quarter gave the Mustangs the breathing room it needed in a 31-19 victory over the Red Raiders in a key Cape-Atlantic League National Division matchup and the nightcap of the Prime Events Shoot Out Weekend at Ocean City Intermediate School.
The victory improved Mainland’s record to 16-2 on the season, marking its second straight victory over cross-bay rival Ocean City while the Red Raiders fell to 15-4. The Mustangs improved to 9-1 in the National Division while Ocean City fell to 7-4 in division play.
It marked the 10th straight win for the Mustangs, the defending South Jersey Group III champions. Ocean City, which had its 14-game winning streak snapped the night before, lost two in a row for the first time this season.
“Yeah, it was an ugly game,” said Mainland coach Scott Betson, who had led the Mustangs to the Group III state finals two times in the last four years. “Both sides struggled offensively tonight, so it’s kind of strange to have two 3s be the difference in the game.”
The Red Raiders, looking for revenge from an opening season loss to the Mustangs, appeared up to the task, keeping Mainland within one possession throughout the game and trailing 15-14 nearly two minutes in the fourth quarter.
Mainland scoring guard Ava Mazur, who had been bottled up most of the night because of Ocean City’s tough defense, drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key to boost the Mustangs lead to four points at the 6:02 mark.
Mazur led all scorer with 14 points and Stokes finished with 7. Jackson and Madelyn Adamson scored 5 points each for Ocean City.
“I’m a shooter and my dad always tells me that I have to keep shooting if they don’t fall,” said Mazur, who plays alongside her twin sister Bella. “So I just keep shooting. I knew my team needed me to shoot well, so that’s what I did. I knocked down that one in the fourth quarter and Sydney did as well, which turned out to be a big boost.”
After Ocean City failed to convert on two misses on their next possession, Stokes stepped up and connected on an unlikely 3-pointer at the top of the key to make it a three-possession game for the first time.
“Unlike Ava, I’m not a shooter,” said the forward Stokes, who scored 17 points the night before against Wildwood Catholic. “It didn’t come naturally to me but I knew [my defender] was playing off of me. Ava started the momentum with her shot so I just went for it.
“We really needed that because we were up by one, but then we got those six points in a row that helped us get closer to the win,” Stokes said.
But the game might have been different if Ocean City got a little bit of a luck on an Avery Jackson shot in the third quarter. With both teams struggling to score, Jackson, the Red Raiders’ best 3-point shooter, got an open look outside the arch.
Her shot with 2:30 left in the third period rolled around the rim before popping out, leading to a Mainland rebound. Neither team scored after that going into the fourth quarter. The shot had the potential of giving Ocean City the lead for the first time in the game.
“That’s exactly what we were talking about after the game. We were just that close,” Ocean City coach Stephanie Gaitley said. “Shots don’t fall some games and you start to get frustrated. But you know what, we shot about 10 percent for the game and we still had a chance to win it in the fourth quarter.
“I tell the kids all the time if you play defense, you’ll be in every game. If you don’t shoot well, you will still have a chance to steal a game but it all starts on the defensive end.”
Neither team shot well against the opposing defense. Mainland shot 25 percent in the first half and 36 percent in the game. Ocean City struggled all night, shooting just 14 percent for the game. What kept the Red Raiders in the game was rebounding.
In the first half, Ocean City outrebounded Mainland 22-13, including a 9-2 edge on the offensive boards. The Mustangs, though, turned that around in the second half, winning the board battle 18-8.
“When the shots aren’t falling, you have to box out and get rebounds,” Stokes said. “That’s a huge deal for us as a team. I know in the first half personally, I was jumping for the ball before I was boxing out my girl. In the second half, we switched that around and went for the girl first and that helped a lot.”
Mazur said the changing the rebounding situation allowed the Mustangs to intensify its defensive pressure as they prevented the Red Raiders from getting any second-chance points in the second half.
“[Betson] always tells us that our defense leads into our offense,” Mazur said. “When we do good on our defense and we get steals, that gets us into transition. Early, we were rushing shots and that was Benson’s main thing to us to not rush shots and to play defense.”
Gaitley said she was proud of Ocean City’s effort and believes it will bode well for the Red Raiders once tournament play comes around.
“I was happy because I felt like last night and the first part of the week we weren’t playing our best basketball but we played hard tonight,” Gaitley said. “We played hard but just didn’t have the ball bounce our way. I think this will be a good springboard toward the end of the season.”
It proved to be a long weekend for both teams. On Friday, Mainland defeated Wildwood Catholic 47-33 while Ocean City fell to Middle Township, No. 2 in the CAL National Division 39-23, the Panthers getting revenge for an earlier loss to the Red Raiders.
The seeding meeting for the CAL tournament will happen this week with tournament play to start the following week with the league as loaded as ever with many of the best teams in South Jersey.
From there, the NJSIAA tournament starts with Mainland hoping to make a repeat trip to the Group III state finals.
By CLYDE HUGHES/Special to the Sentinel
