Red Raiders upset top seed and rival Mainland 39-27 after falling to Mustangs twice earlier in the season
LINWOOD – In a game that matched the intensity, ups and downs, and surprises of its rivalry, the Ocean City girls basketball team used a stout defensive effort and timely shooting to upset top-seeded Mainland 39-27 in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III title game at Mainland Tuesday, Feb. 28.
The Red Raiders (23-6), who lost to Mainland twice by double-digits during the regular season, will now take their new South Jersey crown into the Group III state semifinals in Deptford at 5 p.m. Thursday against state-power Ewing (28-3).
Ocean City is playing its best basketball of the season, winning five of their last six games while avenging losses of 51-36 (on Dec. 15) and 31-19 (Jan. 28) to Mainland.
“It’s like a dream,” said first-year coach Stephanie Gaitley, who said as a high school basketball player at Ocean City High School, her team lost in three group sectional finals. She was able to share this one with her old high school coach and relatives.
It was a heartbreaking loss for the Mustangs, which had won 20 consecutive games and had not been on the losing end since its 44-34 loss to Middle Township, which just won the South Jersey Group II title this week, back on Jan. 3.
“We really didn’t finish well tonight,” Mainland coach Scott Betson said about its offensive performance. “They did a really nice job on us defensively.”
In the Jan. 28 contest between both teams, Mainland hounded Ocean City’s leading scorers Avery Jackson and Tori Vliet in limiting the Red Raiders to 19 points. In Tuesday’s contest, Ocean City sophomore guard Madelyn Adamson upset that strategy, going for a game-high 17 points, including two key 3-point shots.
“I couldn’t have done this without my teammates,” said Adamson, who emerged as Ocean City’s main scoring threat to spark the Red Raiders’ offense. “We’ve been battling since November. We’ve overcome so much.
“We were hungry and really wanted this. We worked our butts off all season for this. I knew I had to be more aggressive and I’ve learned that I need to take my shots when it’s open,” she said. “In past games, I was just being too passive. Tonight, we just ran our sets, reversed the ball and played under control like coach taught us.”
Defensively, Ocean City choked off passing lanes down low that prevented Mainland to penetrating and dishing off. The Red Raiders essentially dared the Mustangs to convert from the outside with the scheme, and it worked with Mainland making only one 3-point shot in the game.
In all, the Red Raiders held the Mustangs to 17 points over the final three quarters after giving up 10 points in the first period.
Clinging to a 16-15 lead at halftime, Ocean City went on a 19-5 run in the third quarter to essentially put the game out of reach. The Red Raiders opened the period by scoring the first seven points, five of those by Adamson on a driving shot in the paint and a 3-pointer.
“I just think she remembers the last time we played them here,” Gaitley said. “She wasn’t happy with herself. I’ve been trying to tell her all the time to be aggressive. She took it to heart this time and she led us to the South Jersey championship.”
Mainland could simply not find itself offensively against Ocean City’s hounding defenses, which often switched from man to man to zone to keep the Mustangs off-balance. Throughout the season, Mainland found success with its intense, pressuring defense.
“[Ocean City] hit some big shots and the banked 3 by Jackson was a really big point in the game for them in the third quarter,” Betson said. “I think we left a couple of chippy ones right around the rim that we just couldn’t quite finish.”
Mainland could only manage a Kasey Bretones field goal and three free throws in the quarter as Ocean City moved out to a 35-20 lead after three quarters.
“I think that the fact that I kept mixing up defenses helped a lot,” Gaitley said. “One of the things we talked about was letting our defense and rebounding set the tone and I thought our kids did a great job with that.”
Vliet, who scored 11 points for Ocean City, said the two previous losses to Mainland helped them solidify their game plan to stop the Mustangs this time around.
“In practice over the last few days, all of our coaches drilled into our heads that we had to be on top of our help-side defense,” Vliet said. “We knew that they like to drive and pass it off, so we had to be in the passing lane and make sure they couldn’t get any of those passes off.”
Bretones led all Mainland scorers with 13 points. She was the only Mustang to score in double figures.
Mainland’s future looks bright with the Mustangs returning all five of its starters intact for next season – Bretones, twins Ava and Bella Mazur and Sydney Stokes are all juniors and Ava Sheeran is a sophomore.
But that was little consolation for Betson and his team as many of the Mustangs emerged from their locker room in tears after the game.
“We feel good about bringing everybody back but at the same time you want to be able to capitalize when you can because we just learned in this last run you never know when injuries can happen,” Betson said, pointing out injuries that slowed down some of its key players during the playoffs.
“I appreciate how hard they played all season long and realizing it was a pretty heavy lift even get to this point, given all the injuries. I talked with them about how one game doesn’t necessarily summarize the entirety of the season. It’s just a shame that it was a bad night to not play our best.”
Ocean City will now try to reach the Group III state finals with a veteran cast of seniors Jackson, Vliet, Maddy Monteleone and A’yanna Morton to go with Adamson. Sophomore Naomi Nnewihe proved to be an unsung hero for the Red Raiders, coming off the bench to lead Ocean City in rebounding (seven) and steals (four) on Tuesday.
The Red Raiders last won the South Jersey title in 2020, followed it with a win in the state Group III semifinals before that year’s run was ended just before the state final game because of the COVID-19 shutdown.
– STORY By CLYDE HUGHES/Special to the Sentinel
– PHOTOS By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
