By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — It’s not easy to beat a Steve DiPatri-coached Wildwood Catholic Academy team. In fact, it’s so difficult that until tonight, Absegami coach Bob Lasko had never done it in his seven-year career.
Wildwood Catholic Academy, one of the top teams in the Cape-Atlantic League, shrugged off a slow start and stormed back to take a second-half lead on the strength of a 15-0 blitz in the third quarter. But somehow Absegami weathered the storm, mounted a comeback of its own behind star guard Reese Downey, and pulled off a 47-40 victory that has the Braves as the first CAL team to 13 wins. The victory was the six straight for Absegami after back-to-back losses to Holy Spirit and Middle Township earlier this month.
The Bunting Family Pharmacy Marquee Matchup was a signature win for the Braves, who were playing their first home game of the season. They’ve had to play on the road while their gym was being repaired after a water main break, and they’ve also been without one of their top players, senior Julia Hartman, who tore an ACL in December after missing her entire junior season with the same injury on her other knee. In her first two years she scored more than 400 points and hit 76 threes.
In her absence, it’s been the Reese Downey show, as the current senior has nearly 400 points this season alone and is bearing down on 2,000 career points. The Fairleigh Dickenson University recruit became the CAL’s all-time 3-pointers made leader earlier this month, and against Wildwood Catholic she finished with four 3-pointers and a game-high 21 points.
“It’s a great win for our girls. It just shows you how hard they’ve been working through all the adversity they have faced,” Lasko said. “We had 11 road games in a row, we lost a player before the season. They don’t know how to quit. All the kids contributed and gave us everything they had, and what can you say about Reese? She always comes up with big plays when we need it.”
Absegami (13-3, 3-3 Cape-Atlantic League American) stretched its halftime lead to 26-16 on a pair of assists from Downey to start the third quarter, but then the Crusaders (11-3, 7-1 CAL American) ripped off a 15-0 run that put them ahead, 31-26, late in the quarter. Lola McGonigle and Damiya Carter combined for 11 of those 15 points.
But the Braves rallied in the fourth quarter behind Downey, who did a little bit of everything. She scored on a driving layup and then hit a three to give Absegami a 33-31 lead and then, with 2:25 remaining, came the dagger, as she nailed a step-back 3-pointer to stretch her team’s lead to 40-36.
“We said to her, ‘listen, if you’re going to get doubled, we need to hit some cutters down low.’ I thought (Meghan) Johanson made some big buckets toward the end. It’s a big win for the girls, and it’s all about them, they did everything. I’m just happy for them.”
“We just fought through it,” senior guard Lily Ortiz said of weathering the Crusaders’ 15-0 run. “We all talk a lot, we’ve been working on a lot of things, and I feel like communication was a big part of that today. We just talked in our huddles and made sure we all had each other’s backs, and we were all good and ready to go.
“Reese is my best friend. She’s amazing, and I’m her No. 1 supporter. She’s just one of the most humble people I’ve ever met in my life, and that’s why I’m just so glad — she deserves everything that she gets.”
Downey scored 13 of Absegami’s 19 fourth-quarter points, including three from the foul line late in the game. She also had a big assist to Suzie Pawlowski with 1:30 left that put the Braves ahead 43-36.
“We were pretty much up the whole time, which was already surprising to me — not that I don’t have faith in our team — but against the (No. 1 team in the CAL) it’s really good to feel that way. I was kind of off in the second quarter, but I knew in the third and fourth quarter I had to pull through and just be aggressive and help my team out,” Downey said. “(Coach Lasko) told us we needed to slow down, which I agree with, I was going way too fast. Once we slowed it down we just did what we do in practice, we just slow it up and pass to our teammates and get a layup or a good shot.
“I think our bigs — Meghan, Suzie, Claire (Fitzgerald) — did great on the boards and got almost every rebound in the first half and that really set the tone for us.”
Lasko said he expected nothing less than a tough game from Wildwood Catholic, which beat the Braves 63-44 in the season opener. In that game the Crusaders nailed eight 3-pointers, but the second time around they hit just one, McGonigle’s long-rang shot in the third quarter.
“That’s how we played them last time, in their gym, it went back-and-forth. If you look at the first game, they hit a lot of threes, and in this game we hit a couple more threes than them. That probably was the difference in the game,” Lasko said. “And my kids just have a lot of guts. They aren’t going to let anybody tell them they can’t go out and do anything. They are going to go all out. We’re just going all out and let the chips fall where they may. But this is a big win for us, and for the program. Hopefully we can keep it rolling.”
Absegami has a tough stretch to finish out January — three straight league home games against Holy Spirit, Middle Township and Mainland Regional.
“This has made our whole team feel great. We still have Middle and Spirit (again) but this just gives us more motivation that we can beat any team,” Downey said.
Added Ortiz, “this makes us feel really good. We really felt like we had to prove ourselves and I feel like that’s what we did today.”
Somehow, Lasko is making things work with a lineup that features just three players — Downey, Ortiz and Johanson — who saw any significant time last year. Freshman Emma Grimley (9 points against Wildwood Catholic), Pawlowski, a sophomore, and Fitzgerald, a junior, have all been stepping up their game, and Ortiz is a much improved ball handler.
“We have a bunch of younger girls who are good at other sports, and it amazes me how into basketball they are. They don’t let the big moments bother them,” Lasko said. “And that’s a credit to Lily Ortiz and Reese, they are the leaders of this team and they are guiding the younger players. I can’t be more proud of my kids.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Wildwood Catholic Academy hosts Holy Spirit on Thursday at 6 p.m. Absegami hosts Holy Spirit on Monday at 5:30 p.m.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
