Trailing by 22 late in the 3rd, O.C. gets within 6 with 51 seconds left
MOORESTOWN – The Ocean City boys basketball team nearly overcame a double-digit deficit on the road Monday night in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III finals before coming up short 52-44 in front of a loud, boisterous partisan crowd.
The Red Raiders, trailing by 22 points late in the third quarter and by 17 going into the fourth quarter, managed to silence the crowd by slashing the Quakers lead to 6 points with less than a minute left in the game, behind Kori Segich’s 23 points, before falling to Moorestown.
Ocean City, which at one point in the season lost five games in a row, finished the season playing its best basketball, winning five of its last six games to close out at 15-13. Moorestown, 23-7, advances to the Group III state semifinals later this week with a shot at the state title game.
“At the end of the season, if you can say you played in the South Jersey finals, you’ve had a heck of a season,” Ocean City coach John Bruno said after the game. “We had a rash of injuries to start the season and other guys stepped up and we got better as we went along. Once we got all of those guys back at the end of the season, we went on this run.
“Now, how could we could have been if we would have had all of these guys for the whole season, no one will really know. But, you know, other guys got experience during that time and that helped us.”
With defending Group III state champion and No. 2 sectional seed Camden Eastside dismissed from the NJSIAA tournament, it left the South Jersey crown up for grabs. Ocean City went on the road to upset Timber Creek before scoring wins last week `over No. 15 seeded Clearview (70-53) and No. 11 seed Absegami (56-39) to reach its first South Jersey finals since 2004.
“Playing in the South Jersey finals is something these kids will always have,” Bruno said. “We don’t get a chance to play in too many of these so it’s great when you get a chance. There’s no shame in losing to [Moorestown]. That’s a solid, veteran team.”
Moorestown entered the game as the No. 4 seed. The Quakers upset No. 1 seed – and Ocean City’s top rival – Mainland on Friday on Josh Byrd’s 3-pointer at the buzzer in Linwood for a stunning 32-29 victory.
Despite trailing most of the game, Ocean City was prepared to make the most of its South Jersey finals experience. Trailing 40-23 going into the fourth quarter, it looked like Moorestown was ready to cruise to the title before Segich sank a 3-pointer 30 seconds into the final period and an Omero Chevere bucket to get the Red Raiders’ final rally going.
Ocean City proved to be at its best down the stretch. A Segich jumper, a free throw by Sean Sakers and another 3-pointer by Segich helped slash the Quakers’ lead to 48-42 with 51 seconds to play.
“They tried to take some time off the clock and I thought they were going to hold the ball for several minutes,” Bruno said. “We were able to turn them over a few times.”
At that point, Ocean City had outscored Moorestown 19-8 in the quarter, but two free throws each by Ryan Lynch and Leo Hinshillwood helped ice the game in the end.
Moorestown opened the game with a double-digit scoring run in the first quarter from which Ocean City never recovered. Bruno said he knew that was a dig that was going to be difficult to get out of on the road.
“I really thought [the first quarter] was the difference in the game,” Bruno said. “I actually thought we didn’t play too badly in the second, third and fourth quarters. I’m really proud of them because, despite everything that happened, they didn’t quit.
“When you get down as far as we did on the road, that’s really difficult but kept fighting and got ourselves back in the game.”
Bruno said Moorestown simply got “every rebound in sight” in the first quarter, getting two and three shots at the basket on offense while limiting the Red Raiders to one. He said once his team figured out how to get position to get some of those rebounds, their fortunes started to change.
“I thought we started to do a better job of containing them off the glass after the first quarter,” Bruno said. “I was really concerned about them hitting 3s. We knew they were a strong, physical team, but I thought if we could box out a little better that we would be in good shape.”
Going into the second quarter with an 18-12 lead, the Quakers continued their advantage in the second period, holding the Red Raiders scoreless until Chevere’s shot with 4:10 left before halftime.
“We were able to pick it up defensively and our defense has helped generate our offense all year long so that was getting back to the things we do well,” Moorestown coach Shawn Anstey said.
Bruno said that was where his defense found its footing. Ocean City held Moorestown scoreless over the final four minutes of the quarter to walk into halftime trailing 29-16.
“I thought they guarded us pretty tough,” Bruno said. “Then they went into a zone, which I thought was to our favor. We’re a spot-shooting, catch-and-shoot team and that zone created some space for us.”
Ocean City, though, continued to struggle on the offensive end in the third quarter despite improving defensively. A driving shot by Moorestown’s John Cwik and two free throws by David Gheysens gave the Quakers their biggest lead at 40-18 with 2:29 left.
A Segich 3-pointer and a Pat Grimley jumper cut the Quakers’ lead to 17 as Ocean City’s defense blanked Moorestown the rest of the period, going into the final quarter.
“Hey, they made shots and got back into the game. You have to tip your hat to them,” Anstey said about Ocean City’s fourth-quarter rally. “They caught us a little bit on cruise control. They made a run and made some good shots, but we held on for the title.”
Segich added 5 rebounds and 2 steals to his game-leading 23 points. Dylan Schlatter finished with 7 points, Charlie LaBarre had 2 and Chevere, Sakers and Grimley had 4 each. Grimley and Chevere had 3 rebounds each, Sakers had 2, and Schlatter, Ben McGonigle and Andrew Karayiannis had 1 each. Grimley had 2 steals and Schlatter, McGonigle and Chevere had 1 each.
Schlatter had the team’s only blocked shot; the taller Quakers blocked 9 Red Raider shots and out-rebounded Ocean City 28-16. They also had 10 steals to the Red raiders’ 7.
Score by quarters;
Ocean City 12-4-7-21=44
Moorestown 18-11-11-12=52
By CLYDE HUGHES/Special to the Sentinel
