OCEAN CITY — After a come-from-behind win over St. Joseph of Hammonton to start the season, the Red Raider boys basketball team defeated Holy Spirit 55-28 Sunday evening in the Ocean City PBA Tipoff Weekend. They followed it with a 61-55 win over Wildwood Catholic Monday to improve to 3-0.
Head coach John Bruno said he believed his Raiders couldn’t have played any better than they did Sunday.
The Raiders overpowered Spirit in the first half, going up 13-4 in the first quarter and increasing the lead to 28-10 by halftime. They kept the pressure up in the third quarter with a 12-5 margin for a 40-15 lead heading into the fourth.
Both teams began to substitute liberally in the latter half of the fourth quarter, which ended with a narrow 15-13 margin in favor of Ocean City.
Raider Kori Segich led all scorers with 21 points, while teammate Omero Chevere had 11 and Dylan Schlatter 8. Sean Sakers and Colin Thompson had 5 each, Pat Grimley had 3 and Andrew Karayiannis 2. Karayiannis had 9 rebounds, including 8 defensive, Grimley had 8, and Schlatter 6.
Peaky Roseborough scored 8 points to lead the Spartans (0-2).
“We were getting to the midrange pretty good,” Segich said. “They weren’t allowing us to drive, but we pulled up mid-range or kicked out for shots. Against St. Joe’s we weren’t really hitting our shots, but tonight we played a lot better.”
Segich said the game against St. Joseph was a faster pace and the Hermits pressed the Raiders more. “They got out and ran and we weren’t used to it, but we adjusted.”
Sunday’s game, he said, “gives us more confidence winning by a lot and seeing how good we can play when we’re working together.”
Against St. Joseph, the Raiders trailed 16-10 after the first quarter and 32-21 at the half before mounting a comeback. The boys outscored St. Joseph 16-11 in the third quarter to narrow the gap and dominated the fourth, 22-13, to win 59-56 last Thursday.
Segich led his team with 18 points, Chevere had 13, Patrick Grimley 11, Schlatter 8 and Karayiannis 3.
A key to Sunday’s win, according to Bruno, was stopping Holy Spirit’s three-point shooting, which they did effectively.
“Our primary goal was to take away the three and contain Roseborough,” he said. “I thought we really did a good job offensively: executing, taking good shots, sharing the ball. I think we had 11 assists on 20 baskets. I can live with that.
“We’ve been waiting for Kori and Omero to have a good game together. And I think Dylan Schlatter has improved leaps and bounds as a point guard. His confidence is up, he looks to try to score, but he’s a point guard who brings the ball up and distributes it,” Bruno said.
The coach noted he has been lucky in the past few years because of the unselfish nature of his players and their support of each other.
“If you share the ball, good things happen,” Bruno said. “Andrew Karayiannis, when he’s not in the game, he’s the first guy up, the biggest cheerleader. The other guys on the bench, the sophomores, everybody is kind of involved in the game.”
Sunday night his team had “maximum effort,” he added.
“We’re going to struggle to rebound the ball. We’re not big, but if you’re aggressive enough, you can do a better job. I thought tonight we did,” he said. “It’s a matter of who wanted the ball more.”
The unselfish nature of play will balance things out throughout the season, he explained.
“I told these kids, one night someone is going to have 16 to 20 (points), but someone else is going to have 11, 8, 9, but when you add them up, you have a nice total. And tomorrow night, someone else is going to have the 20. I think they understand that and they don’t force too much on themselves to go on their own.”
Bruno said Segich adjusted after picking up a few charging fouls as he drove to the basket through traffic, but in the second half made a point of passing as he was making the drive, including kicking out to Omero for a three-pointer, “which shows he’s maturing.”
Overall, the coach said, “I don’t think we can play any better. I think Holy Spirit is a solid team that if we go play a second time will be a totally different story. This game tonight they didn’t play particularly well but we played about as well as we could play.
“And we just played good team basketball. That’s been the key to our success the first two games. We played really well together as a team and that’s important in high school basketball.
It might sound cliche, but I want them to like each other. And they like each other on the court and off the court,” he said.
That matters, Bruno noted, because even if they lose a game, they wouldn’t start pointing fingers of blame at each other.
“What I always like about our guys is they never get too excited if they win a big game … but when they lose they don’t get too down, so it’s easy to come back. There are many more games down the road. We just have to play one game at a time.”
On that note, he couldn’t even look ahead to Monday’s game against Wildwood Catholic until after the boys finished Sunday evening’s game against Spirit.
“Holy Spirt will bounce back. They’re too good a team and too well coached. It’s too early in the season to get down. It isn’t how you start, it’s how you finish.”
Ocean City 61,
Wildwood Catholic 55
When Ocean City turned its attention to Wildwood Catholic Monday night, it was another tight battle with the Red Raiders prevailing 61-55 and Omero having the hot hand.
Ocean City took a 16-11 lead after the first quarter, but Catholic came back in the second to make it a 25-24 game at the half.
Ocean City held a 16-10 edge in the third quarter and Catholic outscored the Red Raiders in the fastest-paced quarter, 21-20, but not enough to win.
Omero scored 24 points, Sakers was next with 17 and Schlatter had 14 with Grimley adding 4 and Karayiannis 2.
The Red Raiders are 3-0.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
