Mainland girls beat rival Ocean City, 47-25, with start-to-finish pressure
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
LINWOOD – The Mainland Regional High School girls basketball team pressed Ocean City throughout Friday night’s game, but the Red Raiders didn’t match the intensity.
Games between the cross-bay rivals are usually decided in the final minutes or seconds, but this one was over early as the Mustangs literally ran away with the contest, 47-25.
The game wasn’t as close as the lopsided score would indicate.
Ocean City managed only one basket in the second quarter and three free throws in the third quarter. The girls’ cold shooting did not help matters.
The Red Raiders kept the first quarter close, trailing 12-8 by the end, but outside of some scattered play, it looked like there was no fire motivating the team for most of the game. Both teams are known for their relentlessness, but it was absent for most of the visiting team on the Mustangs’ home court.
Ocean City narrowly outscored Mainland in the fourth quarter, but the game had been decided long before then as the teams entered the final stanza with the Mustangs up 36-13.
Kaitlyn Boggs was the high scorer for Mainland with 13 points. Camryn Dirkes added 11 points, Kasey Bretones had 7 and Lila Schoen had 6 – a pair of three-pointers in the second quarter. Cadence Fitzgerald had a basket, Kareema Rex and Ava Mazur each scored 2 points on free throws and Bella Mazur had 1.
Hannah Cappelletti led Ocean City with 9 points, 7 of them in the fourth quarter, including 5 on free throws. A’yanna Morton and Stephanie Carey each had 4 points, Maddy Monteleone and Frankie Ritzel had 3 each and Tori Vliet had 2. Starters Marin Panico, Marlee Brestle and Avery Jackson were held scoreless.
Both teams substituted liberally throughout the game, Ocean City to try to find a combination that worked because of early foul trouble and Mainland to put in fresh legs as it pressed the entire game.
“We were asking them to expend a lot of effort, we pretty much pressured the whole game,” Mainland coach Scott Betson said about his liberal substitutions. “It was more about rotating legs through. … One of the things I like about our depth is that we can sub and continue to exert pressure defensively. That’s what we were trying to do.”
Betson was happy about his team’s play, but concerned about it coming and going depending on the night.
“I thought we didn’t put our best performance out on the floor on Wednesday so I challenged them to play up to the standard we expect of them,” Betson said. The Mustangs (5-2) lost 55-39 to Wildwood Catholic (6-1) Wednesday.
“Their energy, especially on the defensive end, was much better today,” he said. “We just have to get more consistent. We can’t play games like Wednesday and games like this. We have to have more even-keeled approach. We don’t want to be riding this roller-coaster.”
“It was bad. We were just listless,” Ocean City coach Paul Baruffi said. “Put it on me. If we play like that it’s got to go on the coach.”
His substitutions, he said, were because of early foul trouble.
“The changes came because we did the same thing the last time we played them. We got two fouls almost immediately with every starter,” Baruffi said. “I can’t keep them in at that point. That’s a rule I have and I’m not going to break. Maybe at some point I have to put some of the more experienced girls back in, but at that point I had to go with people who were available.”
The team has missed some practices and needs that time in the gym to work out problems, Baruffi said.
The team missed practice the day before the game (as did Mainland, he noted), which isn’t an excuse, but the team also missed some practices before playing Middle Township.
“Every day that goes by that we’re not in there (the gym), it’s not good for us. I feel if I don’t break something down, we just don’t do it,” Baruffi said. “Tonight it was the defense. I’ve honestly never coached a team that played defense the way we did tonight.”
Part of that, Baruffi said, was because of what Mainland was doing with its pressure, but “we just were in bad position. If you’ve watched us for years, I don’t think you’ve ever seen that. I got to talk to them, see where their heart is in all this, and move forward.”
Ocean City is 3-4 after losing to Mainland 39-35 to open the season, losing to unbeaten Middle Township 46-41 and Wildwood Catholic 40-33. The Red Raiders soundly defeated Lower Cape May Regional and Cape May Tech this season and edged Atlantic City 39-37 to start last week.
The Ocean City girls were at Wildwood Catholic Monday evening and host Atlantic City at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
The Mainland girls were hosting Cape May Tech Monday morning and travel to Lower Cape May at 6 p.m. Wednesday. They host Atlantic City at 4 p.m. Friday.
