WILDWOOD — Down by only six points with four minutes to go against Plainfield during the Boardwalk Basketball Classic on Dec. 29 in Wildwood, it looked like the Red Raiders had an outside chance to pull off the upset, but after a quiet spell by both teams the Cardinals turned on the gas and drove away with the 53-37 win.
Still, the Raiders finished the 2024 portion of the new basketball season with a 5-1 record, and playing such a high-caliber team should only help as they head into the new year of competition in the Cape-Atlantic League.
The day before during the nation’s largest coed high school basketball tournament, which took place at the Wildwoods Convention Center, Ocean City’s boys team made short work of Glassboro, beating their opponents 58-26 as three Red Raiders went into double digits in scoring. Ben McGonigle scored 12 points, Leon Brown and Josh Lenko had 10 each and another six players contributed to the total.
It was a different story the following Sunday.
The Raiders got off to a good start, finishing the first quarter up 11-10. The Cardinals found their footing in the second quarter, with Rashawn Williams and Micah Gordon combining for 14 of the team’s 18 points, while the Raiders managed two from Lenko and six from McGongle — featuring two of the five three-pointers he had in the game.
The third quarter was closer, a 13-8 differential that put Plainfield up 41-27 heading into the final stanza. Seven points from Luke Tjourmakaris and a trey from Tighe Olek early cut right into the Cardinals’ lead and put Ocean City in range at 43-37, but Plainfield kept the Raiders from scoring the rest of the way. Gordon finished with 19 and Williams with 17 for the Cardinals.
McGonigle scored 15 points and Tjoumakaris had 11, plus a good day on the boards against taller opponents. Lenko finished with eight points and Olek three.
“It just goes to show you in games like this possessions are so important,” Ocean City head coach John Bruno said. “There was one possession where I was going to call time-out if we scored, but then we turned it over and they went on a 6-0 run. It went from a six-point game to a 12-point game. They’re a hard team to come back on. We hit a couple of big threes, which I thought we had to do. If you don’t shoot well against them, you’re going to struggle.”
The coach said the toughest part of the game was the Cardinals’ rebounding.
“We didn’t have their size. Everyone says to box out, but really you can only box out on the first shot. Once the shot is around the rim, it’s about who’s bigger and taller and jumps higher.” That favored Plainfield.
“All in all, I was pretty pleased with our play,” Bruno said.
“I thought we were like Hickory in ‘Hoosiers,’” he added, referring to the movie by the same name. “No one was giving us a chance. I told them you have to play every quarter like it’s a game. At the end of the first quarter, it was 11-10 so I was happy. At halftime I was happy. Through three quarters I felt that we were in the game and in the last quarter it was all until the last 45 seconds that we made them play the whole time. That’s what you really want. When you play a team like that, make them play the whole game.”
“I told the kids before the game, if you had told me on Dec. 5 that we were going to be 5-1 going into the new year, I didn’t care who we beat,” Bruno said. “To our credit, we won some big games, such as St. Augustine, but as this season goes along we probably won’t play a team — maybe Middle Township, Atlantic City, St. Augustine again — that will play as tough as this team (Plainfield), so this was a good learning experience,” he said, “knowing that we can play with a team that will probably be vying for a state title.
“They were bigger, they were fast and we were able to compete. So I’m actually pretty happy with the way things turned out,” Bruno said. “We deserve a little bit of a break, so I think if it goes well into the new year we can compete with anybody in the Cape-Atlantic League.”
The coach said “the team goes as Ben McGonigle goes. He handles the ball, he scores, he passes. He really stepped up from his role as a role-player a year ago to being the main player this year.”
Bruno cited Tjoumakaris’s rebounding, steady play from Lenko and Olek and good contributions off the bench from Brown and Dean Lappin.
“The good thing about this year’s team is we have a little bit of a bench and I think we can sub,” Bruno said, adding he was told he subbed more in his first game at the Boardwalk Basketball Classic than he did all last year, when his starting five rarely were not fixtures on the court.
“This year we have guys who can step in. Ben is the part that makes the wheels go. We have some pieces around him. Collectively, different guys have stepped up each time for us to play well,” the coach said.
“I have been pleasantly surprised how we have played up until this point and I hope we can continue going into (2025).”
The Red Raiders are atop the American Conference in the CAL at 5-1. In addition to the last games at the Boardwalk Basketball Classic, the Raiders beat St. Augustine Prep 66-64, Wildwood Catholic Academy 45-40, Holy Spirit 48-41 and Williamstown 67-46.
Ocean City improved to 6-1 Saturday with a high-scoring win over Clearview (3-5), 70-65. Tjoumakaris led the team with 19 points, McGonigle had 15, Lenko 14, Olek nine, Lappin six, Jack Porter five and Zio Wright two.
The Raiders will head to Holy Spirit for a rematch at 6 p.m. Thursday and then host Lower Cape May Regional at 2 p.m. Saturday. They will be at Middle Township at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 13.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
