Senior Tori Vliet leads Ocean City with 18 points
OCEAN CITY – In a showdown of the top two girls basketball teams in Cape May County, Ocean City used the strong inside play of senior Tori Vliet and timely free throw shooting to subdue Middle Township at home 40-35 on Monday night.
The win improves the Red Raiders’ record to 8-2 on the season and was their seventh in a row. The result also snapped the Panthers’ five-game winning streak as they fell to 9-3.
It was a topsy-turvy game in which each team had chances to wrestle control only to see their opponent claw their way back to even again.
“I think our kids kept their composure,” Ocean City coach Stephanie Gaitley said. “What I liked about this game is that we’ve grown a lot. It was a game of runs. We went out strong and they came back.
“That’s fine and we just stayed composed and let it be decided in the last quarter and we did just that. I’m so proud of our kids because they needed to stay composed when we really needed them to do that and make the big plays.”
With the game tied at 31-31 with 2:30 left to play, Ocean City broke Middle Township’s press in the backcourt and Avery Jackson turned it into a driving layup at the 2:05 mark.
After the Panthers missed two free throws that could have tied the game. Vliet found herself at the free throw line with 53.4 seconds remaining and the game on the line. The free throw bounced on the rim before finding its way in and she swished the second one to give the Red Raiders a 35-31 edge.
“I totally thought [the first free throw] was going to bounce out,” a relieved Vliet said after the game. She led Ocean City with 18 points. “It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to lose this game for my teammates.’
“When it went in, it’s just a weight lifted off my shoulders. I was able to finish after that.”
After a quick basket by Panthers’ senior Jada Elston to knock the lead back to two points, Middle Township fouled Vliet again. By then, though, the senior had found her groove and easily hit both free throws to extend the Red Raiders’ lead again.
Elston, who led all Middle Township scorers with 13 points, made two free throws on the other end with 28.4 left. Madelyn Adamson kept Ocean City ahead with two more freebies their next trip down the court.
The Red Raiders’ defense then took over, denying the Panther’s offense on their next two trips down the floor to preserve the win at Ocean City Intermediate School.
The contest was moved to that facility because of water damage to the Ocean City High School gym floor during a pipe break over Christmas holidays. School officials said home games will be played at OCIS until further notice.
“In every big game you always have a little bit of the jitters but it’s all about staying together,” Jackson said. “We trust our coaches and we trust each other. We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game and that nothing’s going to be that easy this season.
“We accept every challenge and we’re going to take it one game at a time and do it as a team.”
For Middle Township coach John Leahy, it will be one that got away from them this season. The two missed free throws that failed to tie the game in the fourth quarter was just a small part of the Panthers’ woes from the free throw line, going 7 for 14. By contrast, Ocean City made 10 of their 12 attempts.
“You can’t shoot .500 from the free throw and win a game like this against a quality opponent,” Leahy said. “When you go on the road against anyone in this league, you’ve got to make your layups and make your free throws. Tonight we missed four of five layups out there.
“It’s the simplest form and tonight it cost us the game. There are no gimmes in our league. You’re playing good teams every night and we have to be able to handle that. We had some breakdowns that are disappointing considering the time we’ve put into it and worked on it. We’ll grow and learn from it.”
The first quarter appeared to be a foreshadowing for the rest of the game. Ocean City, behind Vliet, jumped out to an 8-0 lead over the game’s first five minutes and the Red Raiders’ defense forced the Panthers to miss their first seven shots from the field.
Elston got Middle Township going with a 3-point shot and the Panthers defense blanked the Red Raiders over the final three minutes of the quarter, clawing back to an 8-6 deficit by the end of the opening period.
A 3-point shot by former Red Raider Hannah Cappelletti playing for Middle Township appeared to give Middle the lift it needed in the second quarter with the Panthers outplaying Ocean City to take a 15-13 lead into halftime.
Both teams battled to a virtual stalemate in the third quarter with the Red Raiders pulling even with a late basket to go into the fourth quarter tied at 24-all.
“It just goes to show how far mental toughness can take you,” Vliet said, commenting on the intensity and physicality of the game, particularly down the stretch when both teams clawed for every basket and every possession.
“We’ve been working towards this since the beginning of the season. It’s such just a weight off of our shoulders to be able to say that we’ve been able to win this game because of how tough we are mentally.”
For the Raiders, A’yanna Morton had 6 points and 6 rebounds, Jackson and Maddy Monteleone had 5 points each, Naomi Nnewihe had 4 points and Adamson had 2 points and 2 steals.
The Red Raiders girls host Our Lady of Mercy Academy at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Williamstown at 7 p.m. Thursday and Wildwood at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Intermediate School.
By CLYDE HUGHES/Special to the Sentinel
