Staff Report
The Ocean City High boys basketball team had one of the most interesting seasons in recent memory. The Red Raiders went on an amazing run as they went 16-3 down the stretch, including a magical 6-0 run through the state playoffs that ended with a Group 3 state championship with a 55-46 win over Colonia.
Ocean City put on a clinic through the state playoffs, displaying the type of unselfish basketball that has become the hallmark of John Bruno’s impressive coaching career. The Red Raiders became a team that won a state title without having a single college recruit in the senior class.
But that doesn’t mean the team was without outstanding high school basketball players, most notably forward Luke Tjoumakaris. He was the quiet, steady leader — the kind of kid who you think might be having a bad game at halftime, but still somehow end up with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
He scored nearly 500 points in 31 games, averaging 15.5 points per game, and he also was one of the best passing big men in all of South Jersey. Tjoumakaris also was the player all the other Red Raiders seemed to look to when times got tough, and he delivered steady, productive games night in and night out. As a true testament to his consistency, Tjoumakaris had just two games in which he didn’t score in double figures, but he also only had four games with 20-plus points. By comparison, he had 17 games in which he was within three points of his 15.5 points-per-game average.
A true champion in every sense of the word and one of the best leaders the school has seen in the last decade, Tjoumakaris finished his career with nearly 1,000 points. But he’s the kind of player who would have taken zero career points in exchange for that state championship trophy.
— Staff Writer Dave O’Sullivan
