By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
MEDFORD — Midway through the first quarter of Bishop Eustace’s matchup against undefeated Lenape, Crusaders’ 6-foot-6 senior forward Dillon Adomanis scored on a layup to break the hallowed 1,000-point barrier for his career.
As is customary in these situations — even on an opposing team’s court — Adomanis was greeted by elated teammates and a banner commemorating the achievement. The bucket gave Bishop Eustace an early 10-5 lead, but the ensuing stoppage in the game acted as kind of a “free timeout,” said Lenape coach Matt Wolf, and his team took full advantage.
The Indians got their defense squared away and started knocking down some shots, and outscored the Crusaders 23-8 the rest of the first half to take a 28-18 lead into the break. Eustace never recovered, and Lenape rolled to a 59-49 victory that was never that close throughout the second half.
“It kind of gave us a little bit of a free timeout to use, for sure. We were not executing defensively the way we talked about. Not protecting the paint — guys were getting open, guys were throwing lobs without weakside help. They had two baseline drives,” Wolf explained. “All we talked about was how we needed to be in help position because we wanted to guard from inside out. (The inside game) was their strength and we were giving them their strength. We weren’t taking away what they do well.”
Adomanis had six of Eustace’s first 14 points but was held scoreless in the second quarter. That’s when Lenape (8-0, 1-0 Olympic American) turned up the heat defensively and started turning steals into points.
“We just had to stop (Adomanis). We knew if we stopped him and played our game, we could win,” said Indians senior point guard Nolan Barnes. “I was glad for him (that he got his 1,000th), that’s my man, but we weren’t glad to see him do it on our court. It was all about communication and defense. We turn defense into offense, so that’s really what we had to do, play better defense. We had to get rebounds and talk on the wings.”
“When we get it going, we get shots up, everybody gets into rhythm and knocks downs shots and we’re ready to play,” said junior guard Jaidyn Boyd, who finished with a team-high 15 points, nine of which came in the second and third quarters combined. “When he got his 1,000th point, we got together and we knew what we needed to do. We had a game plan but we weren’t executing it at first, but then we were able come out and execute it, and we were able to go up by about 15 points.
“Any guy in our starting five or our seven-man rotation can have 10-to-15 points on any given night. Anyone can score the ball, it’s just whose night it is (that night).”
Lenape displayed an unselfish brand of basketball, as four of the five starters had at least nine points. The Indians closed out the first half on a 9-0 run that featured Barnes scoring off a steal, Boyd scoring off an assist from Dante Diaz on another steal, and Brett Halfpenny draining a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer off an assist from Boyd. Xayvion Chapman added 11 points, three rebounds, four assists and three steals for Lenape, which finished with eight steals while also nailing six threes.
“We certainly can’t complain with our start — so far, so good. I told the guys in the locker room to enjoy it for about 15 minutes, then we’re on to Cherokee on Tuesday. Obviously, there is still a ton of season left and with our schedule there are no nights off,” Wolf said. “We have a saying, ‘pass up shots that you can make for shots that we can’t miss.’ Yeah, you can make that shot, but the next one might have been a layup that we couldn’t miss. Do something to get your teammates open and they will do something to get you open. And, half the time when you’re doing something to get a teammate open, you’re the guy who is open because there will be some kind of breakdown (in the opponent’s defense).
“We preach sharing the ball, giving up good shots for great shots, and I thought we did that today. We split-and-kicked for each other nicely and hit some shots, and the next thing you know our defense was creating offense.”
Lenape has been to four straight South Jersey Group 4 finals and won the last two, but this year’s team is virtually a whole new crop of starters. Guys like Barnes and Boyd were standout players, but Chapman and Halfpenny combined to score just 30 points last year, and junior Colin Myers scored just 15 points all of last year. Now those guys are making big impacts for a team that has beaten squads such as Middle Township, Eastern Regional, Woodbury, Shawnee and Trenton so far this season.
“We’re not surprised at all,” Barnes said of the undefeated start. “The key has been communication and playing together, that’s all we want to do. We want to just keep being us and doing what we need to do to win.”
“People look at us like we’re not that good, but we’re coming for everything. We want to be in the top 10 in South Jersey, we want to win a state championship — that’s our tradition, winning sectionals, things like that,” Boyd said. “We want to continue to practice hard, communicate more on the defensive side of the ball, learn more things, watch film. We don’t care who the opponent is, we just want to play ball.”
Added Wolf, “every game is tough with our schedule, in our conference. The big thing we preach is just to get better every day. I know it sounds cliché but that’s what I tell the kids. Yes, we’re off to a good start, but we have to keep getting better.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Lenape hosts Cherokee on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Bishop Eustace (7-2, 1-0 Olympic American) travels to Camden Catholic on Thursday at 7 p.m.
