HAMMONTON – Coming off a huge upset win in the first round of the playoffs, the Red Raiders girls basketball team ran into the Hammonton Blue Devils for the third time this season.
The teams split the season series. Ocean City High School’s girls broke Hammonton High School’s undefeated 17-0 record with a 60-47 victory Feb. 4 after the first game finished with the Blue Devils barely on top, 56-55, in mid-January.
However, Hammonton left little room for doubt in game three, taking down Ocean City 56-29 on Monday, March 2, in the quarterfinals of the South Jersey Group III playoffs.
Ocean City had its chances early in the game with open shots and consistent rebounds but could not turn them into points. The Raiders made just one three-pointer for their only successful shot in a slow 8-4 first quarter.
Despite the rough start shooting for the Raiders, Scarlett Fletcher helped bring the score to 16-14 with her rebounding and shots under the net. The momentum that Ocean City gained off its run was short lived as Gabriela Stevenson and the Blue Devils regained control with their long-range shooting.
Hammonton took advantage of the early misses by Ocean City and built upon its lead with a 15-0 run that spanned until halfway through the third quarter. Stevenson scored seven of her game-leading 17 points in the run.
Asked after the game about the challenge of facing another Cape-Atlantic League team three times and what went wrong for the Raiders in the rematch, Ocean City head coach Trish Henry said, “First, both teams know exactly what the other is going to do. Physicality wise they were way more physical than us today and we just did not shoot well. It’s a very simple game where you must make foul shots, make your open shots and be aggressive. We were aggressive out there, but we made some mistakes.”
The Raiders shot well in both of their previous meetings against Hammonton, but the third time proved to be the charm for the Blue Devils. Fletcher finished the game with 10 points and the Raiders’ scoring leader for the season, junior Marley Ostrander, was held to only five points.
The team reached the quarterfinals after Ostrander came up big for the Raiders in their first-round upset victory over Shawnee High School.
Coming into the Group III playoffs, Ocean City was seeded 13th and had to travel to No. 4 Shawnee, where they got off to the best start they could have asked for.
Ocean City dominated the first quarter with a 14-4 lead and held onto that lead to win 42-39 after a final push by Shawnee. The Raiders’ three-point shooting was much more in sync with six made from beyond the arc, three scored by senior Kaia Chew.
Ostrander was everywhere on the court. She finished with 13 points but also racked up nine steals on defense. She added five rebounds and five assists to help her team stun the Renegades.
The Raiders had a chance to duplicate their success against Shawnee in their next game against Hammonton, but the offense did not translate as well. The Blue Devils kept the Raiders from getting into any form of rhythm early and took Ostrander out of the game after she dropped 21 points on them when the Raiders broke their 17-game winning streak.
“Hammonton did a really good job on Marley Ostrander, our top player,” Henry said. “Tip the cap to them, they did a nice job against her. We just missed some easy ones in the beginning and unfortunately sometimes that can deflate a team, or you can rise above. Today we could not rise above our missed shots.”
Ostrander leads the group of Raiders who will return next season. Along with Ostrander will be freshman Mya Dever, who was a standout player off the bench in her first season. She surpassed 100 points on the season and earned much more playing time as the season progressed.
Dever will likely be a starter next season after four of the Raider starters will move on next year. Gabrielle Henry and Allie Hudson will join Chew and Fletcher at graduation this spring. All four played significant roles since their sophomore years and coach Henry spoke about their contributions to the team off the court along with their basketball abilities.
“They gave us their heart and soul every single day out there,” Henry said. “They are going to be terribly missed because you cannot create heart and that’s what our seniors have. That is something as a coach you cannot teach.
“I give them all the credit in the world for the leadership they provided these years. There really are no words for the impact they had on this program.”
The Red Raiders finished the season with a 14-11 overall record and 8-3 in the Cape-Atlantic League National Division.
– STORY by WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
