The way home

Penns Grove closing in on goal of home playoff game, Pennsville hoping to secure a spot; includes all Salem County games

THURSDAY’S BOYS GAMES
Penns Grove 60, Pennsville 51
Salem 89, Clayton 63
Overbrook 75, Schalick 38
Washington Twp. 50, Woodstown 46
Pitman 76, Salem Tech 42

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – The goal for the Penns Grove basketball team this week was pretty straight forward.

Play four games, win four games. Do that and there’s a good chance they can collect a nice reward at the end of the week.

Ever since the second half of the season began the push for the Red Devils has been to fight their way back for a first-round home game in the South Jersey Group I playoffs.

They moved a step closer to locking that up Thursday with a 60-51 win over Pennsville for their third win of the week. It’s their longest winning streak since late in the 2021-22 season.

“It keeps it rolling,” Penns Grove coach Damian Ware said. “It’s three in a row; we want to keep winning.

“Our goal for this week was to go 4-0 and move into the Tri-County Conference (on a roll). Right now we’ve got three of them so we look to finish off the week tomorrow.”

The Red Devils (9-12), 5-11 on Jan. 29, entered the day in ninth place in the SJ Group I power points standings, 24 points behind of Palmyra that holds the eighth and final home game slot. They cut the gap to eight points with their win over the Eagles with a winnable game Friday at Schalick before Saturday’s state cutoff. Palmyra plays LEAP Academy (13-8) Friday.

If they win Friday and get the same 25 power points they did for beating Schalick on Tuesday, the Red Devils would net gain 16 power points in their best 16-game ledger. If Palmyra loses, it would net gain six points and the Red Devils would jump them with a win.

“As long as we win tomorrow we should be locked into it, but we’ve got to finish the job,” Ware said. “We’ve had a really good week. If we finish tomorrow, we’ll have a great week. I’ve told these guys all year it’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish. We’re trying to finish strong.”

Pennsville, meanwhile, has been living on the bubble. The Eagles (9-14) are 15th after Thursday’s game, but feel good about their position despite the loss because they’re 27 points ahead of the final qualifying spot and the two teams above them and the three teams directly below them all lost.

They can nail it down with a win Friday at Paulsboro, but they’ll have to do it without junior guard Luke Wood. The 1,000-point scorer turned his ankle in the first two and a half minutes of the game, hurridly hobbled off the floor to the training room and didn’t play the rest of the game.

He is not expected to play Friday. Of even greater concern is how the injury might affect him for the upcoming baseball season. A promising left-handed pitcher, the ankle he hurt is in his push-off leg on the mound.

With Wood out of the game, the Eagles turned their eyes to post Danny Saulin to either score down low or draw the defense in to get the ball to his teammates. The 6-7 senior took advantage of the mismatch and responded with a career-high 28 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double this year and 10th over the last two seasons. He also blocked two shots.

“I had to take control to help us get back in the game, to help find my teammates and my teammates found me,” Saulin said. “We had them on the ropes. It was just that first quarter not getting used to that press without Luke, then we figured it out and we were moving the ball from there and we almost won the game.”

Saulin scored the first 11 points in a 14-6 run that got the Eagles to within two with 1:14 left in the third quarter. 

But that’s where the game turned. Penns Grove’s Giomar Conrad made a driving layup and was fouled, but Pennsville coach Joe Mecholsky protested too loud and long that it was a foul on the floor and was rung up with a technical. Conrad made his and-one to complete the three-point play and then hit both two technical foul shots to put the Red Devils up by seven. 

“That pretty much changed the game,” Ware said.

Conrad led Penns Grove with 19 points. He was 7-for-7 from the free throw line, 6-for-6 in the second half. Mekhi Ballard had 16 with three 3-pointers.

The Eagles made one more push. They got back within three on four more Saulin points, but then KaRon Ceaser hit two buckets to make it a seven-point game with 4:40 left and Penns Grove never led by fewer than five the rest of the game.

PENNS GROVE 60, PENNSVILLE 51
PENNS GROVE (9-12) – Mr Peterson 1 0-0 2, Brandon Robbins 1 0-0 2, Roman Gipson 1 0-0 2, Giomar Conrad 6 7-7 19, KaRon Ceaser 2 1-3 5, Willie Slocum 4 1-4 9, Mehki Ballard 5 3-4 16, Camren Thompson 2 1-2 5. Totals 22 13-20 60.
PENNSVILLE (9-14) – Luke Wood 0-0 0-0 0, Peyton O’Brien 4-6 1-3 10, Daniel Saulin 12-19 4-8 28, Mason O’Brien 3-6 0-3 6, Cohen Petrutz 2-5 3-6 7, Connor Starn 0-0 0-0 0, Cole Johnston 0-3 0-0 0, Logan Hitt 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-40 8-17 51.

Penns Grove	17	10	15	18 –	60
Pennsville	11	10	14	16 –	51

WASHINGTON TWP. 50, WOODSTOWN 46
WOODSTOWN (10-9) – Blake Bialecki 20, M.J. Hall 9, Garrett Leyman 2, Max Webb 4, Rocco String 11.
WASHINGTON TWP. (13-9) – Gevon Conrad 2 7-8 13, Justin Pagano 0 0-0 0, Ethan Hyman 3 2-2 9, Luke McKenty 5 2-3 14, Kade Pekarick 1 0-0 2, Keegan Smith 3 4-4 12, A’Quil Taylor 0 0-0 0, Matt Rodia 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 15-17 50.

Woodstown	6	16	13	13 –	46
Washington Twp.	5	19	7	19 –	50

OVERBROOK 75, SCHALICK 38
OVERBROOK (18-5) – Shaun Mills 5 3-4 14, Chris Grier 3 0-0 6, Nic Johnson 5 3-4 15, Lamar Little 2 1-2 6, Zair Green 2 4-5 8, Amare Kee 3 0-0 8, Maki Ortiz 2 0-0 4, Xavier Wright 2 1-2 5, Kevin Satchell 0 2-2 2, Tory Scott 1 0-0 2, Davian Santiago 1 0-0 2, Samir Muhammand 1 0-0 3. Totals 27 14-19 75.
SCHALICK (7-12) – Reggie Allen 1 1-4 4, Daniel Lis 5 0-0 11, Nylan Sutton 6 1-2 15, Jake Siedlecki 1 0-0 3, Jordan Johnson 1 0-0 2, Jase Volovar 1 0-0 3, Justin Iacona 0 0-0 0, Dylan Sheehan 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 2-6 38.

Overbrook	23	13	22	17 –	75
Schalick	10	9	12	7 –	38

SALEM 89, CLAYTON 63: Jabez DeJesus led four Salem scorers in double figures with 24 points, 15 in the second quarter. Ramaji Bundy had his best game of the year with 13 points, highlighted by three 3-pointers. Paul Weathers had 13 points and Anthony Farmer added 10. The Rams (14-7) have won seven of their last eight and are currently a solid third in the South Jersey Group I power points standings.

CLAYTON (3-18) – Dillon Jones 7 2-4 16, Nazir Davis 4 3-6 11, John Carter 1 0-0 3, Demetris Williams 2 0-0 4, Jon Cox 3 0-0 6, Cristan Scott 2 0-0 5, Ashaud Hines-Pope 1 0-0 2, Nasir Carter 5 0-0 13, Fareed Mamah 0 0-0 0, Earl Townsend 0 0-0 0, Brian Marshall 0 0-0 0, Isaiah Aviles 0 0-0 0, Rodney Robinson 1 0-0 3. Totals 26 5-10 63.
SALEM (14-7) – Anthony Farmer 3 4-4 10, Ramaji Bundy 5 0-0 13, Jabez DeJesus 10 2-2 24, Paul Weathers 6 1-2 13, Davonte Jackson 3 0-0 8, Tymear Lecator 3 0-0 8, Marshall Stephens 2 0-0 4, Xavier McGriff 2 0-0 5, Donovan Weathers 0 0-0 0, Antwone Rogers 1 0-0 2, Joe Tunis 0 0-0 0, Cole Sayers 1 0-0 2. Totals 36 7-8 89.

Clayton	12	15	15	21 –	63
Salem	20	25	19	25 –	89

Salem Tech	9	5	17	11 –	42
Pitman	17	30	19	10 –	76

Power Points
South Jersey Group I

TEAM	RECORD	POINTS
KIPP Cooper	19-6	493
Pitman	16-6	434
Salem	14-7	393
Wildwood	13-9	388
Audubon	14-8	357
Glassboro	11-11	345
Woodbury	13-10	331
Palmyra	11-8	315
Penns Grove	9-12	307
Paulsboro	9-12	299
Riverside	10-12	288
LEAP Academy	13-8	279
Woodstown	10-9	262
New Egypt	7-12	249
Pennsville	9-14	235
(16) Burlington City	4-18	208
Maple Shade	8-15	203
Schalick	7-12	182
Clayton	3-18	169
Cape May Tech	2-18	138
Gateway	1-22	131
Buena	0-21	126
Camden Prep	1-6	56