By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
MILLVILLE — Last season, the Middle Township boys basketball team was so loaded that then-junior forward Riley Powell scored just 65 points and went to the free-throw line just six times all year. He was a reserve player on a team that went 28-3, won the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament and made it to the South Jersey Group 2 championship game.
This year, Powell is headed back to the CAL title game — but he’ll be wearing the royal blue-and-white of Wildwood Catholic Academy.
The Crusaders, seeded No. 5 in this year’s tournament, upended top-seeded Atlantic City, 62-58, on Wednesday night to punch their ticket into Saturday’s championship game. They’ll take on No. 6 seed St. Augustine Prep at 2 p.m. at Egg Harbor Township High. The Hermits beat No. 10 Holy Spirit, 48-26, in the other semifinal.
Powell has only played in 15 games so far this year after missing 10 games while sitting out due to the transfer rule, but he’s already scored 260 points (17.3 points per game) and he’s scored in double figures in all but two games. He has 11 double-doubles, and against Atlantic City came through with a team high 21 points and 11 rebounds.
“It was so much fun to be able to compete with them, to be in front of a packed gym and just play basketball, be physical and have a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. We had to lock in mentally. We made free throws, we stopped turning the ball over,” said Powell, whose sister, Reagan, is the leading scorer for the Middle Township girls basketball team, which also will be playing for a CAL championship on Saturday. “We’re one of the toughest teams in the CAL, that’s what this says. I think it says we’re very tough, mentally, we can take care of the ball and just get wins when we need to. (My performance) shows I’m built for the moment and I’m ready to just come out here and play basketball, compete against everyone. I was looking to not get overwhelmed by the moment, not try to do too much, and just come out with the win.”
“For Riley, just call it what it is — his in-game experience is probably less than anybody who played in that game tonight. He’s got, what, 13 games of varsity action under his belt, and the numbers he’s putting up are remarkable,” said Wildwood Catholic Academy coach Will Wareham. “I think the kid is a college basketball player. The level is probably yet to be determined. He has interest from Division IIs and a bunch of Division IIIs, but I think the kid’s best basketball — and it’s so cliché to say it — but his best basketball is in front of him. If you come to practice you’d be shocked at how hard he works at his game.”
The game was back-and-forth the entire way, with the largest lead by either team at five points, and that was when Atlantic City (19-6, 11-1 Cape-Atlantic League National) jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the game. With 2:50 left in the game, the Vikings’ Khajuan “Peaky” Roseborough nailed a long 3-pointer to give his team a 53-49 lead, but the Crusaders (18-7, 7-5 CAL American) responded when Ryan McGrath — who has hit 52 threes this season — drained a long-range shot from the corner to get Wildwood Catholic within 53-52. He hit one late in the third quarter, too, that got the Crusaders to within 38-36.
“Ryan had a big three in the corner, and we just dug out of it as a team. (McGrath’s three) was huge, that really turned the tide for us. We really needed it, and it’s a main reason why we won,” Powell said.
“We were a little worried because Ryan, like any other shooter, they need to see the ball go through the net or it becomes a mental piece,” Wareham said. “The first half he missed a few, it was our ball coming out of halftime and we draw something up where Ryan is one of the options coming off a triple screen and he shoots and misses. I actually said it out loud, ‘I hope this kid’s not in the tank.’ And sure enough, he hit two big ones. He’s the definition of a shooter. He’s going to shoot if he’s open and if it goes in he looks great. He’s a shooter, and he’s a great kid. He had the confidence to take those shots and knocked him down.”
Tayshaun Jackson, who finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, scored in transition to give Wildwood Catholic a 54-53 lead with 2:12 remaining, and with less than a minute to go Alex Daniel scored a big layup to put Wildwood Catholic up, 58-55. From there it was a free-throw game, and Daniel and Powell went 5-of-6 from the stripe down the stretch.
“Alex is so unselfish passing the ball, and when they were really focusing on me he was able to go, and he got that go-ahead layup toward the end,” Powell said. “We knew they were a very physical team. They rely on their size and speed to get out and overwhelm teams, so we knew we had to lock in mentally and really take care of the ball and I think we did that a lot in this game.”
Wareham said the final two minutes came down to the mental toughness his team has been building through a difficult CAL American Conference schedule as well as non-league games against the likes of Woodbury, Wildwood and Freehold Borough.
“The biggest thing for us, if you look at our record — and this is no level of disrespect to Atlantic City whatsoever — I think we’re just a little bit more battle tested than them. The division we play in, there are no easy outs. Night in and night out, our wins come from being the tougher team,” Wareham said. “Our losses, with the exception of St. Joe’s, we don’t have a loss on our record that’s more than five points. I think our toughness really shined, especially in the last three or four minutes. I think the composure that we wanted our guys to play with for a full 32 minutes became really evident in the last four minutes.”
Powell said he’ll certainly be savoring the moment on Saturday, as this year he’ll be a starter in the league championship game.
“This means everything. I was here last year with Middle Township, but it means even more to be able to come here again while I’m in the mix this time,” he said. “It was a tough decision, transferring, leaving all my friends and the coaches at Middle, but I felt it was the right move for my future. I’m just grateful that I got the opportunity and now I get to go to the CAL final again.”
WHAT’S NEXT: No. 5 Wildwood Catholic Academy vs. No. 6 St. Augustine Prep in the Cape-Atlantic League championship game on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Egg Harbor Township High. Atlantic City hosts Egg Harbor Township on Feb. 27 in the opening round of the South Jersey Group 4 state playoffs, time TBD.
