By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP — Back in 1998, the first MP3 player was introduced in Japan. The national minimum wage was just $5.15 per hour. The average price for a gallon of gas was $1.06. Pete Sampras won Wimbledon.
Feeling old yet? That’s also the last year that the Middle Township High boys basketball team won the Cape-Atlantic League championship.
Until this weekend.
The top-seeded Panthers survived a huge scare in the semifinal round, then collected themselves and showed why they were the top seed with a thorough 61-45 victory over a tough Mainland team — a squad that won the tournament two years ago and came into Saturday’s championship game at Egg Harbor Township High with just five losses in the first 10 weeks of the season.
The victory showed a lot about how far this Middle Township team has come in the last four years. When this year’s seniors were freshmen they played just five games — winning just one of them — in the covid-pandemic-shortened 2020-2021 season. Legendary coach Tom Feraco, whom the Panthers’ court is named after, was still roaming the sidelines as skipper. But a year later LaMarr Greer — a former McDonald’s All-American who led Middle Township to two state championships in the early 1990s — took over the program.
In his first year, the Panthers won 17 games but were bounced in the quarterfinals of the CAL Tournament and the state playoffs. Last year, Middle went 20-12 but was blown out in the CAL semis by St. Augustine Prep and lost a heartbreaker by three points to Manasquan in the South Jersey Group 2 semifinals.
This year, the Panthers want all the titles, and they’re not being shy about everything they are going after. After the win over Mainland, they are 25-2 and have lost to just one in-state opponent. The lineup has three seniors and two juniors who have a wealth of experience now, and are brimming with confidence. That showed on Saturday afternoon when the Panthers raced out to a 23-11 early lead on the third-seeded Mustangs and never let up. They led 36-25 at halftime and by the time the fourth quarter started they had a 13-point lead and were in cruise control.
“This means a lot, but what we’re looking forward to the most is winning a state championship. We want to hang a banner,” said point guard Jamir McNeil, who was named the game’s MVP after scoring 13 points and added seven rebounds, six assists and six steals. “Coming into this game, we were executing all day in practice, all week looking forward to this game and we knew what we had to do. Applying pressure and playing hard (was the key). One of the most important things is playing defense and that’s what we wanted to do, rebound, and get up and down the floor. I was very motivated. I just wanted to give it all I’ve got. That’s what I wanted to do today, and that’s what I did.”
“It’s been a lot of hard work. We know we work harder than all these teams, so we just had to have a good start, play good defense and we’d be alright,” said senior guard Anthony Trombetta. “It was all about energy. In the semifinals (against Atlantic City), we were down by 16 at halftime and our whole emphasis was we can’t start like that or we’ll lose. We knew we couldn’t be in that situation (against Mainland). I just kept telling everybody, ‘I don’t want to feel that way. We have to be up and have the lead at the half.’
“It feels good to get a (CAL championship) but we’re coming for states. That’s what we want the most. We want to hang a banner.”
Greer said he let his team have it a little bit in practice on Thursday and Friday after the Panthers were down 30-14 at halftime against Atlantic City in Wednesday’s semifinal round.
“I flipped out in practice about that (on Friday). In the beginning of practice, doing the warm-up drill, I was like, ‘are we crazy? You see how we started that game? We can’t do that again. ‘ (Mainland) is too good. They are champions, they know how to win, and their coach (Dan Williams) is amazing. We couldn’t start like that, they wouldn’t have let us get back in the game if we did,” the coach said. “Our bus rides are amazing because all (the coaches) talk about how they lost. We all talk about it, and all those stories that you hear, so to come here and win one is a really good feeling. I think coach (Feraco) and I are tied now, with one apiece. I think everything else of his is going to take a lifetime to get to.”
The Panthers showed their league superiority in nearly every statistical category on Saturday. They shot 58 percent for the game, outrebounded Mainland 27-20, had seven more assists and had four more steals. The interesting thing about this team is they aren’t overly dominant on the inside, even though they have some height with Re’Ale Basquine and Chase Moore. They rely on shooting, and work on that facet of their game relentlessly. They shot 11-of-23 from beyond the 3-point line against Mainland.
“We put a lot of work into our shooting, and that’s the game now in 2024. You have to be able to shoot the ball,” Greer said. “For these kids to go to college, they have to be able to knock down shots, so we put a lot of work into it. It’s also about the pass — on time, on target. Hitting guys with great passes so they can take good shots. We worked hard at that the last two days.”
What the Panthers also have this year is the experience and maturity that they may have lacked in years past, and that’s making a huge difference — especially in McNeil, the team’s emotional leader. He didn’t play well at all in the narrow win over Atlantic City in the tournament semis.
“I got on him. And I keep telling him, it’s not about his scoring. To me, it’s about his defense and how he puts pressure on the ball. That starts everything for us, get everybody going and then pick your spots to score. He’s maturing. The last two years he wouldn’t have responded like that, he would have had an attitude, but now he’s responds by saying, ‘hey, it’s my fault.’ And then he goes out and plays well,” Greer said. “I’ve been with Jamir since the beginning and I know how he’s grown. Before, when I used to yell at him he’d make a face, but I see how he’s growing. And now, the great thing is, he’s teaching our young kids what’s expected and what’s demanded of them. He’s teaching them, and for me to see that shows me that he’s growing as a player. Our upperclassmen are amazing. I hear them telling our young kids, ‘this is how we do things. Don’t make that face, your body language is bad.’ The things they say are amazing. I’m going to be torn up when they leave.”
Greer said his players are starting to buy into the concept that being relentless on defense and rebounding will always lead to good things on the offensive end.
“It comes from our experience,” he said. “These kids play a ton of basketball, so when they lock in and we get good shots — it starts with good defense and rebounding. They are starting to realize that and believe in it.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
