OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City Red Raiders opened the basketball season with a pair of games that proved to be a big early test before Christmas.
Ocean City split the games 1-1 after a 55-34 loss to Egg Harbor Township High School (3-1) on Sunday evening, Dec. 21. Freshmen duo Camryn Schiemer and Mya Dever led the Raiders with seven points apiece in an overall cold shooting night for the team.
“We got a good spark off the bench with the freshmen, but we needed to play with more confidence,” Ocean City head coach Trish Henry said.
Ocean City fell into a large deficit after scoring only 10 points in the first half. The offense could not get into a rhythm fast enough to keep up with a red-hot EHT Eagles team.
The Eagles, in their fourth game of the season, exploded with 20 points in the second quarter after a tight first quarter of action. Siena Jaworski and Evalyn Brown each scored 14 points to help build a 32-10 halftime lead for Egg Harbor Township. Jaworski hit four three-pointers that all came in response to a good Raider offensive possession.
“We looked like we were playing in quicksand all night and played a little scared,” Henry said. “It did not help that we couldn’t make shots consistently tonight.”
The biggest disparity between Ocean City and EHT came at the foul line, where the Raiders only made four of their 20 free throw attempts. Egg Harbor Township shot over 50 percent from the line and made 13 of 21.
The most consistent offense came at the end of the game when Schiemer and Dever came into the lineup. Along with seniors Allie Hudson and Lily Murphy, the Raiders outscored Egg Harbor Township 19-10 in the fourth quarter and played with confidence, which is what worked for them in the first game of the year.
Ocean City shot much better in the season opener against Vineland High School with junior Marley Ostrander scoring 18 points to lead the team. The Raiders went 8 of 12 from the free throw line and took down Vineland 63-48 on Dec. 18.
Ostrander helped the Raiders pull away with a 20-point third quarter after a slight 28-26 lead at halftime. She was assisted by starters Scarlett Fletcher and Casey Adamson, who both scored in double digits.
The Raiders starting lineup and roster remains mostly intact from last season after only a handful of seniors graduated in the spring. Six Raiders last season eclipsed 100 points with five of them returning to the team including Ostrander, Hudson and Fletcher.
After one last game before Christmas against Millville on Dec. 22, the Raiders will play in the annual Boardwalk Basketball Classic at the Wildwoods Convention Center.
This year the Raiders will play two games against Pennsylvania-based schools Mount St. Joseph and Hatboro-Horsham. The game against Mount St. Joseph will be at 11:30 a.m. Dec. 28, while Ocean City will close the tournament against Hatboro-Horsham at 2:45 p.m. Dec. 30.
Ocean City will resume its regular schedule at home after the new year with a game against Lower Cape May Regional Jan. 6.
– STORY by WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
