By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
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OCEAN CITY — The Delsea Regional High boys basketball team was feeling pretty good about itself at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The fourth-seeded Crusaders had won 8-of-10 games heading into the South Jersey Group 3 championship game against No. 3 and defending sectional champion Ocean City, and Delsea had just knocked off No. 1 Deptford a few days prior.
About 20 minutes later, Delsea had a 17-11 lead early in the second quarter, and the Crusaders were a couple baskets away from taking a double-digit lead.
After Luke Van Auken’s driving layup, Ocean City regrouped and got back to what it does best — playing relentless help defense and sharing the ball like a child’s game of hot potato on offense. Senior point guard Dean Lappin scored two straight baskets, Luke Tjoumakaris got into the action with a nifty move under the rim to score another basket, and that sparked a 15-0 run. Following that 17-11 deficit, Ocean City outscored Delsea 30-14 and cruised to a 51-33 victory, capturing the program’s second straight sectional title and third overall under legendary coach John Bruno.
Led by a group of seniors who have been playing together since second grade, the Red Raiders just wore down the Crusaders like a stump grinder, getting key Delsea players in foul trouble and working the ball around the court like it was inside a roulette wheel.
“We all know what it takes to win and we all have a certain expectation of how the season should go, and we all know what it takes to meet that expectation. We’ve been playing together (since elementary school), summer camps, seasons, practices. I’ve spent so many hours — maybe too many hours of my life with these guys. And when you have that sort of camaraderie between teammates it’s really easy to form a strong bond. And once you have that bond you can trust everybody to do what they need to do,” said Tjoumakaris, who led all scorers with 18 points after a slow first half. “Coming in and not being the No. 1 seed like we were last year, we were a little disappointed, but we knew what it took. The way it worked out, the two highest seeds were knocked out and we got to play here at home. It’s awesome in front of these fans. Winning was really nice to do in front of these people.”
“We just had to keep our head in the game. It was team first, bringing it in and just staying calm. We’ve been playing with most of these kids since second grade, so we have that chemistry. It was just keeping calm, keeping our composure and executing,” said Lappin, who added 14 points, three assists and four steals. “Props to our coaches for watching so much film on their 6-foot-6 kid. We don’t have any 6-6 kids, but if you play defense the right way you can stop him.”
Ocean City (24-6, 9-3 Cape-Atlantic American) knew it had to contain Van Auken, a strong, 6-6 center who’s also a Colorado State football recruit. The Red Raiders were mostly successful, as Van Auken scored 13 points but was limited to five rebound and only went to the foul line once.
“Their big guys is really difficult to guard, especially when they have four really good guards out there. Practices really helped and our coaches are really smart, they knew how to play against them. And Dean is such a special player. He will always do whatever it takes to win — that’s my favorite part about him. He knows what it takes and he gets it done every single time,” Tjoumakaris said. “The effort from my teammates, that’s what motivates me. Seeing how hard we play and how well we play together, knowing what it takes to click and seeing them go out there and do everything in their power to win this game — it was just really inspiring.”
Ocean City got big baskets up and down its lineup, as Alec Bell nailed a 3-pointer that gave the Red Raiders a 22-17 lead and Lappin scored two straight baskets to finish off the 15-0 run early in the third quarter. A few minutes later, Tighe Olek scored on a runner in the lane to push Ocean City’s lead to 28-19 and the Crusaders were never able to bounce back.
Josh Lenko drained a three from the left corner to start the fourth quarter, and it was all over at that point as Ocean City built a 39-25 lead.
“We have four seniors starting and we know this is our last ride playing together, and probably basketball for me, in general. This is just awesome,” Tjoumakaris said.
“It didn’t take much to settle into our team (this year). If you put your mind to it and put the work in during the offseason, (wins like this) can happen,” Lappin added. “We spent a lot of time with recovery and just making sure everyone was healthy and on the same page. We’re all just having fun, whether it’s practices or games, and we have that experience of having been in three straight sectional finals now.”
Where last year’s South Jersey title may have been a surprise to many, this season the Red Raiders expected to be exactly where they are — in the Group 3 semifinals playing for a chance to go to Rutgers.
“It didn’t take much to settle into our team (this year). If you put your mind to it and put the work in during the offseason (wins like this) can happen,” Lappin said. “We spent a lot of time with recovery, and just making sure everyone was healthy and staying on the same page. We’re all just having fun, whether it’s at practice or in games, and we have that experience having been in three straight sectional finals now.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Ocean City vs. Westampton Tech on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Central Regional High School in Ocean County. Winner plays for the Group 3 state championship. Delsea’s season is complete.
