OCEAN CITY — The Red Raider girls basketball team made quick work of the Highland Tartans on March 1 in the first round of the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III tournament and followed that with a victory over No. 6 seed Moorestown Thursday in the quarterfinals.
The Ocean City High School girls’ run in the tournament came to a halt Saturday with a loss to No. 2 seed Timber Creek.
First-round win
Ocean City, the No. 3 seed, opened with a bang, scoring the most points in the first quarter en route to shutting down Highland, the No. 14 seed, allowing their opponents only 3 points in the second half.
Avery Jackson led the Red Raiders with 12 points, Madelyn Adamson had 8 and A’yanna Morton contributed 7.
Seven Red Raiders scored in the game, including Hannah Cappelletti with 5, Marin Panico and Tori Vliet with 4 each, Taylor Wenner with 3 and Maddy Monteleone with 2.
The Red Raiders (18-9) outscored Highland 45-16.
“Every time we play, we just want to achieve our potential,” coach Michael Cappelletti said. “I really mean that. I thought they played like a team tonight and I’m really happy with the effort. Obviously there are always things to improve upon and we’re going to have to do that if we’re going to continue to get wins.”
In preparation for Thursday’s game, coach Cappelletti said the girls had to have a good practice Wednesday, “show up motivated and fight for each other out there. The coaches are fighting for them and the girls have to fight for the coaches. As long as we’re doing that, I have confidence that we’ll do whatever we need to do.”
O.C. tops Moorestown
On Thursday, Ocean City hosted Moorestown (17-9), which won its opening-round game 30-18 over No. 11 Cherry Hill West.
The Red Raiders beat the Quakers in a low-scoring affair, 27-11.
Ocean City reached double digits only in the first quarter, taking an 11-2 lead. After that, scoring was a problem for both teams.
Ocean City outscored the Quakers 6-3 in the second quarter, 4-2 in the third and 6-4 in the fourth.
Vliet scored 7 points; Panico had 6; Jackson, Morton and Monteleone had 4 each and Wenner had 2.
Ocean City falls in semifinals
The Red Raiders finished their solid season Saturday morning, falling to No. 2 seed Timber Creek (21-5) 62-27.
The girls had a rough first quarter, scoring only 3 points to Timber Creek’s 15.
In the second, it was a draw at 6-6, but Timber Creek kept building its lead in the second half, outscoring Ocean City 20-11 in the third and 21-7 in the fourth.
Panico, with Wenner the only seniors on the team, led the Red Raiders in her final game with 11 points. Jackon and Monteleone had 5 each and Cappelletti and Frankie Ritzel had 3 each.
Mustang girls win
The Mainland Regional High School girls, the No. 1 seed in the sectional, won their opener 74-31 over No. 16 Triton.
Mainland (24-2), which won the Cape-Atlantic League crown Saturday over Wildwood Catholic, beat No. 9 Lacey Township in the quarterfinals Thursday and on Saturday knocked off No. 4 Absegami to make it to the South Jersey finals Monday.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff