By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
LINWOOD — The Ocean City and Mainland Regional girls basketball teams are no strangers, as they typically play each other three and sometimes four times in a season with matchups regularly occuring in the Cape-Atlantic League and South Jersey Group 3 tournaments.
Usually, it’s one team ending the other’s season in the sectional championship.
This year, both came in as underdogs in South Jersey Group 3 and met each other in the first round, but it was a classic Ocean City-Mainland game that came down to the final seconds. Mainland cut the deficit to two points twice in the final minute, but Ocean City senior Naomi Nnewihe nailed four free throws in the final 37 seconds to seal a 42-36 victory for the Red Raiders in our Bunting Family Pharmacy Marquee Matchup.
Ocean City, the No. 10 seed, was the only team to score an upset in the opening round and the Raiders will head to No. 2 Moorestown on Saturday to play in the sectional quarterfinals. The other matchups in the second round include No. 8 Timber Creek at No. 1 Cherry Hill West, No. 5 Clearview at No. 4 Toms River East and No. 6 Hammonton at No. 3 Absegami.
The Red Raiders are moving on despite playing without star senior Madelyn Adamson, who has missed the entire season with a knee injury. She scored nearly 600 points in her first three years and also had more than 100 rebounds and 100 assists. In her absence, the Raiders lost five of their first nine games, and lost to Mainland in mid-January. But since then they’ve scored a pair of wins over the Mustangs, including in the opening round of the CAL Tournament.
“There’s never a dull moment, is there? Anytime you start a season without your best player, who is a senior captain and a leader and basically has given everything to the program, it’s tough. But these kids have given everything to the program, they work hard in practice and they are never going to quit. It doesn’t matter what the score is, this team will not back down,” said Ocean City coach Trish Henry. “This team is super tight. They care way, way more than the front of their jersey than the back of their jersey. They don’t care about stats, I can tell you that. Not one of them has a clue about (today’s stats), all they cared about was staying together and winning as a team.”
“With Madelyn not playing, no one can fill her shoes, so we all just chipped in a little and tried to play a little better than if we were playing with her to try to fill that hole she left,” Nnewihe said. “But she’s been awesome, she’s always here to support and she’s always coaching us. Even though she can’t play, she’s telling us what to do. It’s been fun just being around her.”
Mainland cut the deficit to two points, 36-34, on a free throw from sophomore Brielle Smith, but Nnewihe calmly drained a pair of foul shots with 37 seconds left to push Ocean City’s lead to four. She did the same thing with 11 seconds remaining, giving the Raiders a 40-36 lead after a driving layup by Smith had cut it to 38-36.
A 3-pointer by Mainland (9-16, 3-8 Cape-Atlantic American) in the waning seconds was blocked, and Ocean City (14-13, 10-2 CAL National) hit a couple of free throws at the other end to seal the victory. Nnewihe led the way with 14 points for Ocean City, while Marley Ostrander added nine and Kaia Chew and Allie Hudson each chipped in five points. Ostrander and Chew both hit big 3-pointers in the second half as the Red Raiders climbed out of a 33-28 hole.
“It felt really nice to beat them twice after them beating us earlier in the season. I think making our foul shots at the end of the game really did it for us, and making shots when we really needed it,” Hudson said. “Moorestown is going to be tough but I think we can stick with them. We have a really good connection right now and we’re playing hard.”
“We didn’t have the first couple of quarters that we wanted — and I didn’t have the first couple of quarters that I wanted — but at the end, we all banded together, worked together. We played defense first, and that translated to offense. Everything in practice paid off in the game,” said Nnewihe, who missed a chunk of time in the second half due to some foul trouble. “I just knew that this is my senior year, and I didn’t want to go out against a rival. I knew if I made them, no matter what they do it was going to be a two-possession game, so I just had to focus on the next shot.
“We know it’s a big rival, the atmosphere is high, the level is high, and you just have to stay composed,” she added. Every game you want to go into knowing you’re going to win. If you think you’re going to win, you have a better chance. We had the mentality that we were going to win.”
Henry gave a lot of credit to her substitute players, even though Chew was the only one who registered any points.
“I have an unbelievable staff and they had these kids ready for any moment. And I’ll tell you what, our kids who sit on the bench work hard and they push (the starters). They push them to be better so they come to the game and are prepared. That’s hard to do,” she said. “They are the unsung heroes on your team, the kids who are your practice players who work hard and push (the starters) every day. It’s a grind, and I give them all the credit in the world. Everything (Mainland) did today, my bench kids did it in practice to prepare them.”
Ocean City is just 3-5 in its last eight games, but it’s all about survive and advance in the state playoffs.
“It took us a little bit in the beginning but we worked together really well,” Hudson said, referring to the team’s slow start to the season. “We stick together, not matter what, even through the down times. We’re always together, no matter what.”
WHAT’S NEXT: No. 10 Ocean City at No. 3 Moorestown in the South Jersey Group 3 quarterfinals on Saturday, time TBD. Mainland’s season is complete.
