Red Raiders, Mainland girls each host semifinal matchup Friday
OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City Red Raiders girls basketball team advanced to the South Jersey Group III semifinal round Friday by knocking off visiting Winslow Township 56-40 on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
The Raiders came out firing and built their lead in a hurry with an 11-2 spurt.
“We knew they were going to be physical and aggressive,” coach Stephanie Gaitley said, “but if we kept our composure we’d get good shots and it always helps when you hit shots early. We’ve been struggling in that department, but this is probably the best team win we’ve had all year. We’ve had a lot of good ones, but everybody played their role and did it well.”
“We stuck to our game plan, stuck to what our coaches told us to do,” Madelyn Adamson said. “We knew coming in we had to play as a team and stick together. Our defense is what gets us going in games, so we knew we just had to stick to the game plan.”
“It feels good because we’ve been working all week on shooting, finishing, and getting to the basket,” teammate Tori Vliet said, “so it really shows that if you practice hard you can execute in the games. It’s such a great feeling to be able to do that.”
Vliet and Adamson both knocked down three-pointers in the first quarter and the two combined for 12 points in the frame. The two led the team in scoring with 15 points each. Adamson added 6 rebounds and 3 steals and Vliet had 4 and 1 to go with her 5 assists.
“I was kind of (feeling it),” Vliet said. “I’ve been kind of off the last few games and I just felt good going into this game. It’s really exciting.”
“They were great,” Gaitley said. “They stepped up. Avery (Jackson) has been carrying us a lot and it’s nice to see different people step up. Now if we get Avery going we’re going to be a really difficult team to beat.”
A major weapon for the Raider offense was the drive-and-kick for open jumpers.
“They did a great job with that,” Gaitley said. “We knew that Winslow was going to be really good on the boards, and we knew (Hope Goodwine) was going to get to the rim so we just had to pay extra attention to her and just stay composed on offense, which they did. We got their best players in foul trouble which helped a lot.”
“We’ve been working on it a lot recently,” Vliet said. “We’ve been trying to build the chemistry up knowing where everyone is on the court, knowing that if you drive to the basket someone is going to be open outside.If you see someone crashing, someone is open. So we’ve been looking for those open shots and focusing on that.”
“They play an aggressive zone, so moving the ball and making the extra pass was something we put an emphasis on,” Adamson said.
On the other end the Raiders did well funneling drives into defenders and forcing turnovers.
Goodwine, the Winslow point guard, stood out in the first half as she battled to keep her team in it.
Goodwine made seemingly impossible finishes in traffic as she drove the lane into a crowd of Raiders.
“She’s a great player,” Adamson said, “but our defense locked down and got it done.”
“She was on one of my old AAU teams,” Vliet said, “so I’ve known her since we were younger. She’s always been so great and it’s bittersweet to be able to beat a friend of mine. But it’s a great feeling (to win).”
“We switched up our defense to try and put a little more pressure on her,” Vliet said. “We clogged the lane to make sure she couldn’t get in and get the lay-ups that she’s really good at. It comes down to team chemistry and knowing that help is going to be there.”
The Raiders were able to slow her down as the game wore on.
Meanwhile, the offense spread the ball around to stretch out their lead to 17 by halftime – 36-19 – as the home gym went wild.
“This was electric,” Adamson said. “It was amazing. This was incredible.”
Winslow wrapped its season with a 14-12- record.
Ocean City (21-6) earned the right to host the semifinals at home at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, against No. 3 seed Westhampton Tech (19-4). The Red Raiders are the No. 2. seed in the tournament.
It will be a doubleheader with the boys, who play at 7 p.m. against Absegami in the semifinals.
“We all know basketball is something that we do for fun,” Vliet said, “and we know we all play better when we’re having fun with each other.”
“It makes it that much more fun,” Adamson said. “We love each other, we’re sisters, it’s a dream, it’s amazing.”
“I was really happy for them,” Gaitley said. “It was a great win. We actually gave them a video of Cheryl Reeve – our next Olympic coach, Cheryl played at Ocean City and she’s the Minnesota Lynx coach – and it said, ‘Play together, play hard, and things will take care of themselves.’ We showed that to them and the kids did exactly that.”
Jackson and A’yanna Morton scored 7 each, McKenna Chisholm had 6, Maddy Monteleone 4 and 4 steals and Callie Smith scored 2. Morton had 5 rebounds, and Naomi Nnewihe led the team with 5 steals.
Depleted Mainland
also in semifinals;
local S.J. finals?
The Mainland Mustang girls (25-2), the top seed in the South Jersey tournament, escaped the quarterfinal round by the skin of their teeth. Missing a pair of starters due to injury, they beat No. 8 Clearview (15-12) 43-39 in overtime.
Mainland will host No. 4 Moorestown (22-7) at 5:30 p.m. Friday as part of its own doubleheader; the Mustang boys play at 4 p.m.
If the Mainland and Ocean City girls both win Friday, they’ll play for the South Jersey championship Tuesday at Mainland.
The Mustang girls won the South Jersey title last year, beating Timber Creek, and went on to the state finals, where they lost to Sparta.
Ocean City fell in the semifinals.
– STORY By KYLE McCRANE, PHOTOS By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
