No bueno in Buena

Both Pennsville teams lost their Battle at Buena tournament openers, girls after blowing big lead, boys in a blowout

BATTLE AT BUENA
Girls games
Pemberton 50, Pennsville 47
Buena 48, Camden Academy Charter 20
Boys games
Camden Academy Charter 98, Pennsville 58
LEAP 68, Buena 31

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

BUENA – The first game of the post-Christmas segment of their schedule couldn’t have started any better for the Pennsville girls basketball team Wednesday. It couldn’t have ended any worse.

Quimia Wilkins hit two free throws with 17 seconds left to give Pemberton a three-point lead, then made one of two with one second left to complete a second-half comeback that sent the Eagles to a 50-47 loss in the opening round of the Battle at Buena.

The Eagles led until the final 75 seconds of the game. They led by 15 in the second quarter (23-8) and 11 (35-24) after Nora Ausland’s 3-pointer with 3:57 left in the third quarter. Pemberton took the lead for the first time when Aniah Rodgers hit a turnaround jumper in the lane with 1:15 to play and never lost it.

Foul trouble and turnovers were the biggest conspirators against the Eagles. Their starters were strapped to the bench the majority of the second half and the team was charged with 19 turnovers in the last quarter and a half.

“We don’t take care of the basketball; the turnovers are absolutely killing us,” Eagles coach Sam Trapp said. “People are afraid to be in tough positions. There are about two girls who are confident with the basketball when the game gets tough and I need more kids on the court who are ready for those tough situations.”

The Hornets struggled from the free throw line the first three quarters of the game, but found the range in the fourth. They were 6-of-17 from the line in the first three quarters, but went 9-of-12 in the fourth and at one point hit eight in a row.

Wilkins’ final free throw came after Marley Wood purposely missed the second of her two free throws with nine seconds left in an effort to get Pennsville a game-tying shot. Ausland corralled the rebound to give the Eagles a shot to tie, but Wilkins stepped in to steal the entry pass back into Wood and was fouled.

As if the foul trouble wasn’t unnerving enough, the Eagles held their breath momentarily late in the first half when Wood collapsed under the basket with an apparent ankle. She made her way to the training table for treatment, but was back in the game after only 15 seconds elapsed from the game clock and played until the final seconds.

Wood led the Eagles with 12 points.

“That kid is just built different; she’s tough as nails,” Trapp said. “She’s just got that competitive nature in her. She knew her team needed her and she hobbled right back out there. She knew how bad her foot was hurting and she played through it.

“You could see she couldn’t drive to the basket anymore, but to continue to get out there and fight and lead your team, tells you a lot about her.”

One of the biggest plays of the game turned out to be the reversal of a Wood jumper with 3:19 left in the game. The shot, which came right after Pemberton tied the game at 42, initially was ruled a 3, but after an officials’ huddle was changed to a 2. That point and not having to miss the free throw on purpose with nine seconds left could have sent the game to overtime.

The Eagles played strong defense at the outset to open their big early lead. At the point of their 23-8 lead in the second quarter, they held the Hornets to 3-of-15 shooting and created 10 turnovers.

“My bigs were dominant that first half and then in the second half there was just no presence there anymore,” Trapp said. “They beat us up.  The kids kept getting fouls called on them and they were afraid to work. It was a shame the foul count forces the kids to be afraid to keep working for the rebounds.”

Boys

CAMDEN ACADEMY CHARTER 98, PENNSVILLE 58: At least the Eagles didn’t get 100 hung on them, and that might be the best thing to come out of it for them.

The Cougars had every chance to break the scoreboard. They had 98 points with 95 seconds to play, but put up four bad 3-pointers and had a last chance to do it with two seconds left but missed a pair of free throws. It would have been the first time an opponent put 100 or more on the Eagles since Clayton and Wildwood did it in back-to-back games in February 2021.

“We talked about that in each of the last three timeouts; that was our main thing in the fourth quarter,” Pennsville coach Joe Mecholsky said. “That’s what we said. Boys, they’ve got 85. You’ve got to keep it to under 100. You’ve got to play with a little pride out there today.

“A hundred is the magic number. It’s bad enough to lose by 40 and then have that other taboo of having 100 on us … It just shows we didn’t compete today. We didn’t have any answer defensively.”

Turnovers, transition – “the killer T’s” – and rebounding all conspired to do in the Eagles. They led 8-5 after back-to-back baskets by Daniel Saulin, then the Cougars got rolling. They went on a 26-3 run to take control of the game. Pennsville had 33 rebounds and 21 turnovers in the game. Camden Academy Charter had 23 offensive rebounds.

“You’ve got to be a little bit more competitive,” Mecholsky said. “We got killed on the boards, by far. Too many second-chance points. We just didn’t take care of the ball and they turned it into transition points and that was it. We lost to a better team today.”

The drama in the game was saved for how long it would take Cougars senior Julius Dominguez to hit the 1,000-point plateau. He needed 13 points and reached the milestone on a hard drive to the basket 3:27 before halftime after five wild attempts to make it happen earlier in the quarter. He finished with 17 points and now has 1,004 for his career.

Daniel Casasola led the Cougars with a career-high 32 points.

Pennsville’s Luke Wood moved 16 points closer to the 1,000-point plateau. He now has 894. 

BATTLE AT BUENA
GIRLS GAME
Pemberton 50, Pennsville 47
PEMBERTON (2-3) – Quimia Wilkins 4 4-6 12, Mijanay McKinny 0 0-0 0, Akeelah Thomas 0 2-6 2
Eniola Oluwagbemi 5 5-8 15, Tamya Harvin 1 0-0 2, Taleylah Williams 0 0-0 0, Aniah Rodgers 7 5-9 19. Totals 17 16-27 50.
PENNSVILLE (2-2) – Taylor Bass 4 0-0 8, Anikka Macalino 1 0-0 2, Marley Wood 5 1-2 12, Isabelle Saulin 3 1-2 7, Nora Ausland 4 1-1 10, Malani McGee 1 0-0 2, Calli Ausland 0 0-0 0, Bella Farina 2 0-2 4, Kylie Harris 1 0-0 2. Totals 21 3-7 47.

Pemberton	5	13	15	17 –	50
Pennsville	14	13	10	10 –	47

BOYS GAME
Camden Academy Charter 98, Pennsville 48
CAMDEN ACADEMY (4-1) – Michael Morton 6 1-1 14, Kamar Goodhall 5 0-0 12, Julius Dominquez 6 5-6 17, Omar Quinones 2 0-0 5, Aaron Figueroa 2 0-0 6, Joseph Devine 2 0-0 5, Zyare Roberts 0 0-2 0, Yasir Logan 0 0-0 0, Marcus Smith 0 0-0 0, Kensworth Clarke 0 2-2 2, Daniel Casasola 13 6-6 32, Jenar Carmichael 2 0-2 5. Totals 38 14-19 98.
PENNSVILLE (2-3) – Luke Wood 6 3-6 16, Peyton O’Brien 5 0-2 10, Daniel Saulin 6 0-2 12, Jayden Thomas 6 2-3 15, Malik Rehmer 0 0-0 0, Cohen Petrutz 0 1-2 1, Mason O’Brien 1 0-0 2, Conner Starn 0 0-0 0, Logan Hitt 0 0-0 0, Carlo Merindino 0 0-0 0, Cole Johnston 1 0-0 2, Totals 25 6-15 58.

Camden Academy	20	22	31	25 –	98
Pennsville	11	11	26	10 –	58

Thursday’s schedule
Girls games
Consolation: Pennsville vs. Camden Academy Charter, 11 a.m.
Championship: Pemberton vs. Buena, 3 p.m.
Boys games
Consolation: Pennsville vs. Buena, 1 p.m.
Championship: Camden Academy Charter vs. LEAP, 5 p.m.