LINWOOD – Mustang Jamie Tyson, who punctuated the game with a fourth-quarter slam dunk, and teammate Cohen Cook each scored 14 points in their 58-42 win over rival Ocean City last Wednesday at Mainland Regional High School.
Both teams came into the game with matching 4-4 records, with Ocean City having won the season opener in a tight match-up, 44-39, back in December as the season started.
Timmy Travagline tossed in 12 points and Christian Rodgers added another 11 as the Mustangs outplayed the Red Raiders in three of the four quarters. For good measure, Noah Myers added his own jam to end the game.
The Mustangs followed it up with a 56-49 win over Cedar Creek, coming back from a 25-18 halftime deficit behind Cook’s game-leading 26 points to improve to 6-4 on the season, and Ocean City rebounded with a tight 58-54 road win over Bridgeton. The Red Raiders evened their record at 5-5 after tying Bridgeton 50-50 in regulation, but taking the overtime by an 8-4 margin. Kori Segich led the Red Raiders with 22 points in that game and Dylan Schlatter added 13, with 7 from Sean Sakers and 5 each from Patrick Grimley and Conor Muskett.
The Ocean City-Mainland game was all Mustangs from start to finish, even though some full-court pressure later in the game forced the Mustangs into a series of fouls.
The Mustangs jumped out to a lead in the first quarter and expanded it from there, being up 30-18 at the half and then 42-26 to start the fourth quarter. Ocean City was able to narrow the gap to 10 points in the final stanza, but Mainland was able to overcome the extra pressure and still win by 16 points.
Omero Chevere led the Red Raiders with 14 points, Sakers had 9, Colin Randles added 8, Segich 4, Schlatter 3 and 2 each from Patrick Lonergan and Rocky Wetzell.
Mainland coach Dan Williams and Ocean City coach John Bruno are both working with young squads this season.
Williams said from sophomores to seniors, the team doesn’t have a lot of experience, but the players are “really coachable.”
“They’ve got a lot of growth to do before the season ends and hopefully it’s a long season and not shortened by anything,” he said. “There’s something different this year with the willingness and their receptiveness to be coached. And to learn and really try to implement things we’re talking about in practice. We’ve seen some growth. Hopefully another month from now we see even more.”
Williams said beating a rival is good for a young team.
“The biggest thing from that (first Ocean City) game to this game is we got ourselves a couple of wins and we’re feeling better about ourselves,” he said. That included giving up a lead to Cherokee then getting it back by “handling the ball competently, shooting the ball well from the free-throw line, things we didn’t do in the first Ocean City game. “
They were able to follow that loss with a win over Lower Cape May Regional, building a lead and then handling the ball without turning it over.
“The first time against Ocean City was really too big of a moment for kids who weren’t prepared,” he said, but added the same goes for himself and the other coaches after an extremely short 2020-21 season.
Later in last week’s Ocean City game the boys got themselves into foul trouble after a spate of consecutive fouls, but Williams said that was due to the coaching staff telling them to get aggressive in their defense.
“Young kids, in particular, play on emotion and confidence,” Williams said. Older players understand and don’t get too high or too low. For now, though, his players “are up right now and hopefully we can keep them up for as long as possible. We do have to see some of these beasts in our conference again pretty soon so enjoy it while you can.”
Bruno said the Red Raiders were starting to get a good rhythm going, then lost Schlatter to a close contact to COVID and “Dylan was kind of that glue that kept us together. He’s a point guard and he’s smart.” He said Muskett did a great job stepping up “but they still didn’t have that leader on the court.” Segich also is just coming back from an operation on his finger and then going into the Mainland game they lost Andrew Karayiannis to a sprained ankle in practice.
“The lineup keeps changing and we haven’t had the same lineup for any length of time, but we’re hoping as the year goes along we’ll get better. But we’re young,” Bruno said.
Getting experience takes time.
“We’re learning on the job and it’s a slow process, but at the same time what I did like tonight is that we got down and we could have folded, but they kept fighting. They got it to (a 10-point lead) with about three minutes to go and we thought we had a chance to win, but unfortunately we didn’t finish and we turned it over and a 10-point game turned into an 18-point game,” he said.
Bruno added he’s happy with how hard the team is working. “The toughest part is we just have to be better. It’s hard to get better during the season. That’s what the summer and the offseason are for,” he said.
He said Williams is doing a great job with his team. “They’re young too,” Bruno said of the Mustangs, “so you can’t just say you’re young. If there’s a problem, you have to get better.”
The Red Raiders are at Wildwood Catholic at 6 p.m. Thursday and host Holy Spirit at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The Mustangs host Absegami at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
– STORY AND PHOTOS By DAVID NAHAN, Sentinel staff
