Raider Nation loses hoops great Laverty
OCEAN CITY — Before their game against St. Augustine Preparatory School, Ocean City High School held a 21-second moment of silence in honor of former Red Raider basketball player Connor Laverty.
Laverty, 25, died recently after a battle with cancer. He played basketball for Ocean City, where he eclipsed 1,000 points as a Raider before graduating and moving on to Widener University.
From 2016-20, he scored more than 1,000 points for Widener, where he served the next two years as an assistant basketball coach.
“Last couple of games makes basketball seem insignificant and today was probably the toughest I’ve had in a long time,” Ocean City head coach John Bruno said. “You saw so many young people having to deal with grief of a young person, and that’s what kept driving me.”
Bruno coached Laverty at Ocean City and drew comparisons between Laverty’s style of play with how his team performed against St. Augustine.
“You can call that Connor’s style. We shared the ball and didn’t get down on ourselves after mistakes,” Bruno said. “I can’t get over how well we played as a team. They all handled the ball well. I know they kind of rely on Kori (Segich) sometimes, but it was nice to see three other guys in double figures.”
“I know how much respect coach had for Connor and I’m just really proud to bring it home,” senior Patrick Grimley said.
The Raiders defeated the Hermits 61-51 on Jan. 18. Segich led all scorers with 20 points as they took control in the second half and maintained a lead of seven or more the rest of the way.
Four Raiders ended the game with 10 or more points in a smooth game offensively. Most possessions would not end until at least three different Raiders received a pass.
“That’s just our game. We pass so much that everyone is heads-up and we are always looking for the one more to find the open guy,” said Grimley, who had 14 points in the contest.
Ocean City ended its week with a 52-45 win Jan. 20 at home over Lower Cape May Regional High School. They dominated offensively near the basket and won despite making only one three-point shot. Segich led the game with 24 points while Grimley and Charlie LaBarre added another 10 points each.
The Raiders moved to 13-1 on the season. Their next game will be a rematch on the road against 14-2 Middle Township. In their first meeting of the season, Middle Township handed Ocean City its only loss, a close 50-44 game Jan. 3. Game time is 7 p.m.
A visit to Egg Harbor Township on Jan. 26 is sandwiched between two big games for Ocean City. After that game, the Raiders will travel for their only scheduled game against rival Mainland Regional High School on Jan. 29. Mainland, 12-4 so far this season, beat Ocean City in both matchups last season. Both games start at 5:30 p.m.
Schlatter sent a message early with a three pointer in the first five seconds of the game versus St. Augustine. He and Segich had two more long shots to put the Raiders up 9-0 in a flash. The Hermits fought back to end the quarter down just 17-14.
A quick three tied the game at 17 all for St. Augustine, which started a chain reaction of lead changes. Four different times the lead changed in the quarter with senior LaBarre scoring four points to keep the shootout alive.
Segich ended the scoring frenzy with a contested three-point shot to put the Raiders up 26-22. Schlatter pulled up well beyond the arc and drained another one to enter halftime up 29-23.
The highlight play of the game was when St. Augustine went for a layup at the end of the half but was denied by Ben McGonigle on a forceful block. He slapped the ball out of the opposing player’s hands midair. The gym went into an uproar as both teams headed for the locker room.
Ocean City was efficient the whole game but was not able to fully pull away in the second half. The score never got to within seven points after Segich made two free throws to start the third quarter. However, the Hermits did not quit and hovered around a 7- to 10-point deficit the rest of the game.
McGonigle found Grimley and other teammates wide open under the basket multiple times to add onto the Raider lead. He served his role as the primary ball-hander well as he had more than seven assists on the day.
The third quarter ended with LaBarre draining a jump-shot to put the Raiders up 47-37.
Both teams played an even fourth quarter as each scored 14 points to end the game. Thanks to the Raiders prohibiting the Hermits from going on scoring runs, Ocean City pulled out the victory 61-51.
Ocean City entered the bonus early in the quarter and went eight for ten from the free throw line. Their free throw efficiently helped them ward off a stout Hermit team.
“We tend to always pull away in the second half,” Grimley said. “We don’t play many guys, but our stamina is up there, so we like to push it and that fast style of play catches up to some teams.”
“St. Augustine may not have the players they’ve had in the past, but they still have good players, and you can’t just show up expecting to beat them,” Bruno said. “To our credit, Dylan came out shooting the ball well and helped us early and Kori got into a flow. Who do you guard? Pat hit a couple of jumpers and Ben hit layups. Charlie is out there with double digits.”
An emotional week for Bruno and the Raiders ended with two solid wins in which everyone got involved.
“I took that card out of my pocket with about a minute to go and thanked him (Laverty) for all he did,” Bruno said.
By WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
