Eagles split in TCC tourney

Farina leads Pennsville girls to B Flight consolation victory, Pennsville’s boys fall in the C Flight title game

TRI-COUNTY TOURNAMENT
BOYS
C Flight
Championship
Gloucester Tech 58, Pennsville 48
GIRLS
B Flight
Consolation
Pennsville 45, Pitman 13

OTHER GAMES
BOYS
West Deptford 59, Woodstown 56

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE — Joe Mecholsky has never been a big fan of playing the next day after going 32 up-tempo minutes with Clayton regardless of the outcome and the Pennsville coach had more reason to dislike it Thursday night.

The experience is kind of like going to the holiday party. You know you’re going to have a good time, but you also know you’re going to pay for it the next day.

The Eagles had some of the most fun they had all season in beating the Clippers Wednesday night, but back at it 24 hours later they felt it in their legs and lost to Gloucester Tech 58-48 in the C Flight championship game of the Tri-County Conference Tournament.

They were off with their shots, both from the floor and the free throw line, and GCIT, which also played the night before, came with energy that lasted the whole game. They shot 40 percent for the game, but were only 4-of-20 from behind the 3-point arc, a sure sign of tired legs.

It’s the second time this year they have fallen victim to the Clayton Effect. They opened the season with an 80-66 win over the Clippers, then lost at Deptford 76-50 less than 24 hours later. They are 3-6 this year in the second game of consecutive starts regardless of the first-game opponent.

“We didn’t do the things that have made us successful tonight,” Mecholsky said. “We didn’t get it down to Danny (Saulin). We missed a lot of shots. Hung in it, however, basketball is a simple game. Their team made more shots than us.

“Could it have been the Clayton Effect? Maybe. I don’t want to take anything away from GCIT’s performance. They played well, they did what they wanted to do, we couldn’t stop it on defense and that’s why they won the game.”

The game was close throughout. The Cheetahs, who lost to Pennsville by 11 back in December, took the lead for good with an 8-0 run in the second quarter, but could never put the Eagles away until the end. 

Pennsville’s shooting woes took their toll in the second half when the Eagles went 1-for-13 over an eight minute stretch that put them in a nine-point hole with 1:55 to play. Still, they got it back to within three with 18.4 seconds left, then GCIT closed it out by hitting seven of eight free throws in the final 16.6 seconds.

The Cheetahs were 14-of-22 from the line in the fourth quarter. Trent Phillips was 10 of 12 and led all scorers with 20 points.

Luke Wood had a tough night shooting for Pennsville, but still wound up as the Eagles’ high scorer with 13 points and moved into third place on their boys all-time scoring list. Saulin, who went for 29 points and 26 rebounds in the Clayton game, was bottled up for 12 points and eight boards. 

“They did everything right tonight,” Mecholsky said of the Cheetahs. “I just think they played a really nice game. They came fired up, they were excited at every time out, their bench was engaged and they were ready. We got outplayed.”

The win left the Cheetahs feeling like they just won a national title. They didn’t qualify for the South Jersey Group IV playoffs, but the win did make them one of the winningest teams in school history. If they win their only remaining game on the schedule next week they would finish the season just one game below .500.

“That’s huge here,” Cheetahs coach McNeil Wrice said. “You’re talking about in the history of GCIT it’s only had one winning season in 20-plus years, so to be a double-digit win team puts us in a special place in history. For us to be the first one to bring a conference championship, whether it’s A, B, C or D, that means something.”

If the Eagles had pulled it out, it would have given them 11 wins in a season for the first time in more than 25 years. They can still hit that benchmark with an upset over second-seeded Pitman in the first round of the South Jersey Group I tournament Thursday.

“It would have been nice to go out with a good taste in our mouth on the long weekend,” Mecholsky said. “We wanted to win the C Bracket championship. It doesn’t break our heart (they didn’t). Now we get ready for Pitman and that’s our focus to end the season.”

TRI-COUNTY TOURNAMENT
C FLIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
GLOUCESTER TECH 58, PENNSVILLE 48
GLOUCESTER TECH (12-14) — Trent Phillips 4 10-12 20, Michael Stanwood 6 1-6 13, Mark Hallman 5 3-4 15, Gavin Shainline 1 1-2 3, Ian Malgapo 1 0-2 3, Carl Schmidt 3 0-0 6, Brady Johnson 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 15-26 58.
PENNSVILLE (10-15) — Luke Wood 4-20 3-7 13, Peyton O’Brien 2-3 0-0 4, Daniel Saulin 6-10 0-1 12, Mason O’Brien 3-5 0-2 7, Cohen Petrutz 4-11 1-2 10, Jayden Thomas 0-1 0-0 0, Cole Johnston 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 20-51 4-12 48.

GCIT	10	16	16	16 —	58
Pennsville	12	10	14	12 —	48

Regular Season

WEST DEPTFORD 59, WOODSTOWN 56: The Eagles capped a second-half rally with a 21-14 fourth quarter to beat the Wolverines in a game Woodstown picked in lieu of a third meeting with Penns Grove in a TCC Tournament B Flight consolation game.

WOODSTOWN (11-12) — Blake Bialecki 4 3-3 12, Alejandro Vazquez 1 0-0 2, M.J. Hall 5 0-2 11, Garrett Leyman 4 0-1 9, Max Webb 2 0-1 4, Rocco String 5 2-2 12, Elijah Carter 3 0-0 6. Totals 24 5-9 56.
WEST DEPTFORD (9-16) — Andre Johnson 7 1-2 15, Zayd Mujahid 0 0-0 0, Mark Koszowski 2 0-0 5, Nick Senatore 5 4-4 17, Carter Watson 1 0-0 3, Aiden Cranmer 8 3-3 19, Zamir Davis 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 8-9 59.

Woodstown	19	16	7	14 —	56
West Deptford	13	12	13	21 —	59

Girls Games

Farina’s big game lifts Pennsville over Pitman

PENNSVILLE — Bella Farina knew it was going to be a good day the minute she hit the alarm clock early Thursday morning.

She got up on the right side of the bed, enjoyed a good lunch in the middle of the day and was excited to play a game against one of her close friends.

“I just had a lot of energy today,” she said.

She channeled that energy into the best game of her career. The senior post went for 19 points and 10 rebounds – the second double-double of her career – leading the Pennsville girls to a 45-13 rout of Pitman in the Tri-County Tournament B Flight consolation game.

“I knew the team wanted to end the week off with a win and it was my last regular season game of my career,” Farina said. “We all just worked really well together today.”

Farina’s other double-double came in a 13/11 game against Millville last Friday. Her previous scoring high was 16 points against Salem Tech in December 2022. In nine February games this season she has scored six points or more seven times and has scored eight points or more in each of the last four.

“I told her I don’t know what’s recently clicked for you but suddenly you’re getting it, you’re reading it, you’re understanding it and making the right cuts, in the right place at the right time,” Eagles coach Sam Trapp said. “Something is just clicking all of a sudden and she’s just blossoming at the right time, which is really fun to watch.”

When Farina scored, her points came in bunches. She had four straight points in the Eagles’ opening 8-0 run. She opened the second half with seven straight points, capped by a three-point play in which she went over Pennsville Senior Little League World Series teammate Jess Bretz for the putback.

And then she scored their last four points of the game.

The Eagles (13-13) took control of this one early. The Panthers (12-12) were missing one of their injured ballhandlers and the Eagles held them without a field goal and to just one point in the first quarter. They did the same thing in the third.

The win got the Eagles to .500 for the seventh time this season. They’ll play their final home game of the Trapp tenure Thursday in the opening round of the South Jersey Group I Tournament. The coach announced earlier this month that she was stepping down at the end of the season to become the new athletics director at Triton.

“The goal I set for myself at the beginning of the season was 17 wins,” Trapp said. “The best Pennsville has so far was 16 wins for the girls basketball team and I was really shooting and hoping for that 17. I finished 15-11 (each of the last two years), so my goal was not to be 15-11 one more time. I wanted to do whatever it took.

“I was hoping for that 17th win with no injuries and no issues. There was a slew of injuries that I wasn’t expecting, which significantly impacted our season. I think we were 6-10 at one point, so to be able to just turn it around and come back and get win after win after win and build their confidence and show the true potential of this team, that’s all we’ve been focusing on.

”Now that we’ve been playing all together, we’ve been playing our best basketball. We’re doing things right and we’re doing them right at the right time when were all back together finally, which is what I like to see.”

PENNSVILLE 45, PITMAN 13
PITMAN (12-12) — Miya Villari 1 1-2 4, Jess Bretz 0 3-5 3, Evelyn Wisely 1 0-0 2, Audrey Duffield 1 0-0 3, Collette Rollins 0 0-0 0, Jocelyn O’Brien 0 0-0 0, Dalayah Brown 0 1-2 1, Kendall Bennett 0 0-0 0, Bella Pramov 0 0-0 0. Totals 3 5-9 13.
PENNSVILLE (13-13) — Nora Ausland 2 1-2 5, Taylor Bass 1 0-0 2, Sofia Belitsas 0 0-0 0, Karsen Cooksey 1 0-0 2, Bella Farina 8 3-4 19, Ashlyn Fredo 0 0-0 0, Kylie Harris 0 0-0 0, Malani McGee 0 0-0 0, Izzy Saulin 0 0-0 0, Avery Watson 0 0-0 0, Marley Wood 7 3-3 17. Totals 19 7-9 45.

Pitman	1	8	1	3 —	13
Pennsville	8	13	16	8 —	45