OCEAN CITY — The Red Raider boys basketball team lost a nail-biter to Wildwood Catholic in the quarterfinal round of the Cape-Atlantic League tournament Saturday, falling 52-51.
The teams battled twice before during the regular season with the Ocean City High School boys winning 45-40 on the road Dec. 19 and Wildwood Catholic returning the favor, beating the Red Raiders on their home court 56-52 on Jan. 23.
On Saturday, it was a game of quarters. Ocean City won the first 14-10, but Catholic stormed back to take the second 17-7 for a 27-21 lead heading into halftime.
The No. 4 seed Red Raiders outscored the No. 5 seed 22-17 to nearly even things up in the third quarter. Down 44-43 heading into the final stanza, the teams turned defensive, finishing 8-8 to give Catholic the 52-51 victory.
Wildwood Catholic’s Riley Powell was the beast in the game, scoring 17 points and hauling down 17 rebounds for the victors. Ryan McGrath added 13 points, Tayshaun Jackson had nine and Chris Papageogiou had seven.
Ben McGonigle led the Red Raiders with 19 points, Dean Lappin had 10 and Leon Brown nine — all treys. Josh Lenko contributed five points, and Tighe Olek and Luke Tjoumakaris had four each.
In the opening round, the Raiders (16-6) had their third overwhelming win over the Mainland Mustangs (5-19), beating the No. 13 seed 50-37.
In that game, Tjoumakaris was the lead with 14 points, Lenko had 12 and Brown 10. Olek and McGonigle had four each, and Lappin and Jack Porta had three apiece.
Lucas DiBiaso led the Mustangs with 13 points, Dallas Rowell had seven, Ben Steinberg and John Franchini six each, Luke Kerrigan three and Colt Russo two.
The quarterfinals of the CAL tournament are Wednesday with No. 1 seed Atlantic City (19-5) hosting No. 5 Wildwood Catholic (17-7) and No. 6 St. Augustine (13-12) hosting No. 10 Holy Spirit (17-8), which upset No. 2 seed Middle Township 36-33. The CAL final is set for 2 p.m. Saturday.
Raiders top seed
The Power Points closed Saturday for the NJSIAA sectional basketball tournament. Ocean City was at the top, which will give the Raiders the top seed in South Jersey Group III. Mainland Regional was 15th in Power Points.
The Raiders had a record of 16-6 before the weekend cutoff and 24 Power Points. Timber Creek (15-7) was second at 22.415 and Moorestown (10-14) third at 20.78. Mainland (5-19) was at 13.359, just above 16th-ranked Toms River East (10-13) with 13.109.
The top seed should give Ocean City home-court advantage throughout the sectional.
The seedings were being announced Tuesday after the Sentinel sports section went to press.
The first round of the tournament is Feb. 26 with sectional finals March 7.
Ocean City opens the tournament Feb. 26 at home against No. 16 seed Toms River East.
Mainland, the No. 15 seed, travels to No. 2 Timber Creek.