Woodstown boys fall to Haddon Twp. in South Jersey Group I semifinals; got within 1 three times in second half, but couldn’t get the lead
SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I
Tuesday’s boys semifinals
Haddon Twp. 57, Woodstown 49
Woodbury 60, Pitman 50
Friday’s championship game
(5) Woodbury (16-14) at (3) Haddon Twp. (21-9), 7:30 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
WESTMONT – M.J. Hall stood in a vacant part of a quiet Woodstown locker room, leaned back against the lockers and pinched his fingers into his eyes to dab away the tears. This one hurt.
There might not have been a lot of people who expected the Wolverines to get this far in the South Jersey Group I basketball playoffs, but there they were Tuesday night, into the game to the end before ultimately falling to third-seeded Haddon Twp., 57-49.
And then it hit him. Not only did it hurt they came up short, it also was the end of his high school career.
“Just knowing you’ll never be able to play with the same boys again that you’ve grown up with is just something you never want to imagine,” Hall said. “I played with everything I had, not just for me and the other seniors, but (for) the coaching staff and all the rest of the boys.”
In another part of the dressing room Eli Caesar was feeling the same sense of loss. He and Hall were the Wolverines’ leading scorers with 17 and 16 points, respectively.
“We worked really hard all season,” Caesar said. “Nobody expected us to make this this far, but we did. To come up short in the semifinals, it sucks.”
The Wolverines went into the season with a first-year head coach and without the benefit of a summer program, but they put together one of their winningest seasons in years that included the program’s first playoff win since 2020. They knocked off the No. 2 seed on the road in the quarterfinals and were oh-so-close to taking down another upper seed on this night.
They were down by eight midway through the third quarter, but Hall hit six straight points to get them back within two with two minutes left in the period. The continued to fight back and actually took a one-point lead with 5:23 to play after an odd six-point play.
While Eli Caesar was hitting a 3-pointer out on the perimeter, Haddon Twp. was called for a foul away from the ball. The Wolverines got the bucket and the ball and Garrett Leyman promptly hit a 3-pointer to put them up 44-43.
But whenever the Hawks needed a basket, Jaden Haltiwanger seemed to always be there to deliver. He made a nice move in the lane and dropped in a layup that put the Hawks back on top for good.
Haltiwanger led the Hawks with 18 points and 13 rebounds. He had seven points and six rebounds in the fourth quarter.
The Wolverines’ comeback was fueled by their ability to attack inside, but they lost that edge late in the game when both big men, Leyman and first-team Diamond Division pick Rocco String, fouled out.
They did get within one on Caesar’s 3-pointer with 1:50 to go, but Nate Keating snuck behind the Woodstown defense while Haddon Twp. worked the clock for a layup and then hit two free throws to make it a five-point game with a minute to play.
A basket by Hall with 50 seconds left made it 52-49, but he missed the and-one and the Wolverines never got closer. The Hawks then closed it out at the free throw line.
“You hate losing more than you love winning,” Wolverines coach Ramon Roots said. “It’s about getting better. It’s a process, a journey. We came a long way since that Salem game (season opener) and just got better and better and better.
“They played hard tonight, we just left a couple plays out there. We fought and fought and we just needed to make that one play to take it over the top. We just didn’t make that one extra play.”
HADDON TWP. 57, WOODSTOWN 49
WOODSTOWN (17-10): Elijah Caesar 7 1-1 17, Blake Bialecki 1 0-0 3, Alejandro Vazquez 1 2-2 5, M.J. Hall 6 2-3 16, Garrett Leyman 1 0-0 3, Rocco String 2 1-2 5, Jalen Markward 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 6-8 49.
HADDON TWP. (21-9): Jaden Haltiwanger 7 4-7 18, Axel Mohr 0 3-6 3, Sean Crawford 1 2-2 5, Peter Black 1 1-1 3, Nate Keating 5 4-4 16, Collin Feeley 3 0-0 6, Eamonn Sheehan 2 0-0 5, Cavan McGovern 0 1-2 1, Joseph Sheehan 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 15-22 57.
| Woodstown | 9 | 14 | 15 | 11- | 49 |
| Haddon Twp. | 10 | 18 | 12 | 17- | 57 |
Riverview Sports News 