Tuesday basketball

Penns Grove uses energy, defense to win on back-to-back days; Hengel gives courageous effort in Woodstown girls’ win; and more

BOYS BASKETBALL
Penns Grove 63, Woodstown 52
Glassboro 56, Pennsville 17
Overbrook 64, Schalick 18
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Woodstown 60, Penns Grove 28
Schalick 37, Overbrook 28
Glassboro 54, Pennsville 32
Salem 64, Salem Tech 36

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – Some basketball teams, especially young ones that want to play at a fast pace, might be worried about playing on back-to-back days. Penns Grove coach Damian Ware welcomes the challenge.

Says it builds character.

The Red Devils have played on back-to-back days at least three times in each of Ware’s 13 years as head coach. They’ve already done it three times this season, but Tuesday was the first time they had won on consecutive days after turning back rival Woodstown 63-52.

It came a day after they beat Burlington City team in an intense MLK Day matinee decided by defense in the final 15 seconds.

“The difference between today’s game and yesterday’s game (was) yesterday in the fourth quarter we let Burlington City back into the game,” Ware said. “They took the lead on us at one point and we squeezed it out for the win.

“Today we stretched the lead out. It was a different game because we learned how to finish today. That was the difference between yesterday and today. It’s always good to finish a game and not have to worry about, shoot, we’ve got to make the last second shot to win the game, so that was good for us today.”

The Red Devils’ history has been pretty good on the second day of back-to-back games during Ware’s tenure. They were real good there for a while – 16-3 from 2017-2021 – and have a two years of struggle they’re starting to get the hang of it again.

They’re 32-24 in the second game of those sets, 20-12 after winning the first game. Their game Tuesday was their fourth in five days, sixth in nine.

The key to holding up in back-to-back games is having energy and Geonni Conrad said the Red Devils brought it from the start.

“Every time we come out with energy we do good, we can win back-to-back games,” the junior guard said. “If we don’t start the game with energy or a high tempo we most likely are losing to that team. I feel we like we did bring the energy early. I feel like we pushed it and tempo’d up the floor, played good defense and did what we needed to do.”

The second quality is stamina, and Ware has never worried about that.

“It’s very good for our conditioning,” he said. “We work very hard on practice on it. . We have good conditioning. I always say in the fourth quarter our conditioning should take over because we should be in better shape and we should be able to work harder from the first quarter to the fourth quarter and by the time we get to the fourth quarter we should have that team worn down. And I think that’s what happened today.”

The Red Devils got 17 points apiece from Conrad and Roman Gipson. Conrad opened the second half with two 3-pointers to help them start pulling away. There were four ties and eight lead changes in the first half.

“They were good looks,” Conrad said. “My teammates found me on the open wing and I tried to knock it down for them.”

They also got a double-double from 6-4 sophomore Mishawn Brantley. He had 10 points and 11 rebounds, with seven points and five boards coming in the fourth quarter when the Red Devils pushed the lead to 16.

“I came into this game looking forward to be dominating,” Brantley said. “I came into this game knowing we would win, knowing we were coming here and take home the win.”

“That was a break out game for him,” Ware said. “He’s only a sophomore and he hasn’t really played at a high level of varsity before, but now he’s starting to get to the point where he really understands it and he’s feeling more confident in himself. He’s coming out of his shell.”

The Wolverines were led by Blake Bialecki. The senior scored 16 points to push his career total to 916 and he hit two 3-pointers to break the boys’ school record for career 3s. Bialecki now has 167. The all-time school record is 186 by Talia Battavio.

“It’s cool,” he said of the record. “I work really hard shooting a lot of 3s training. I just want to win games.”

If Bialecki maintains his 14.3 ppg season scoring average he’s projected to hit the 1,000 mark at Overbrook Feb. 5, the end of a five-game road stretch. Failing that, the Wolverines’ three games after that are all against Salem County teams.

PENNS GROVE 63, WOODSTOWN 52
PENNS GROVE (9-6): Will Roy 4 0-0 9, Roman Gipson 7 1-1 17, Geonni Conrad 6 3-4 17, Carson Pearsall 0 3-6 3, Luis Colon 1 1-2 3, Mishawn Brantley 4 2-4 10, Jameel Horace 1 0-0 2, Ahkeem Edwards 1 0-0 2, Zane Thomas 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 10-17 63.
WOODSTOWN (8-6): Eli Caesar 4 0-0 10, Jalen Markward 3 1-2 7, Blake Bialecki 5 4-5 16, Alejandro Vazquez 2 0-0 5, John Hood-McGinley 1 0-0 3, Josh King 0 0-0 0, Andrew White 3 3-4 9, Lucas Fulmer 1 0-0 2, Totals 19 8-11 52.

Penns Grove	15	14	14	20-	63
Woodstown	13	13	11	15-	52

Schalick	9	0	0	9-	18
Overbrook	17	22	14	11-	64

GLASSBORO 56, PENNSVILLE 17: The Bulldogs raced out to a 27-0 lead in the first quarter and coasted past the Eagles. Xavier Sabb had 16 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Maurice Davis had 14 points and seven boards. Aidan Clark had eight points for the Eagles, who are still missing top scorer Mason O’Brien.

GLASSBORO (3-9): William Goggans 8, Xavier Sabb 16, Mekhi Parker 3, Aiden Harris 9, Maurice Davis 14, Jack O;Connell 3, Derreck Robinson 3.
PENNSVILLE (1-12): Jake Layfield 1, Gavin Spears 2, Danny Knight 5, Jacob Farina 1, Aidan Clark 8.

Glassboro	27	11	12	6-	56
Pennsville	0	5	5	7-	17

1000-Point Watch

PLAYER	TODAY	TOTAL
Blake Bialecki, Woodstown	16 vs. Penns Grove	926
Tymear Lecator, Salem	DNP	788

Girls games

PENNS GROVE — Woodstown’s Lauren Hengel gave one of the most courageous performances in the state Tuesday night.

The senior point guard lost her aunt and uncle in a Mullica Hill car crash over the weekend, but she played Tuesday night and led the Wolverines to a 60-28 victory over Penns Grove. She scored 24 points, hit four 3-pointers and pulled down 15 rebounds – all career highs. She also had four assists and five steals.

“Lauren was great tonight,” Woodstown coach Matt Smart said. “It was an emotional game for a lot of reasons, coming off an emotional loss last week and dealing with everything that she’s dealing with. At the end of the day she just wanted to be with her friends.

“She came out and played and was a leader on the court. Lauren is a fantastic player but at the end of the day she’s an even a better human being and I know the entire Woodstown community, family, our team, especially me, we all care about her.”

Hengel hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Wolverines (7-8) jumped out to a 16-10 lead. She scored 14 points in the second half when they pulled away.

In between, she handled the ball, made several sharp passes that helped her teammates score, drove hard to the basket and held her own defensive guarding a big. She also helped bring players along who were getting some extended minutes.

“We’ve put her in a different role than she has been in the past three years,” Smart said. “There are ups and downs with that. Sometimes she can’t be that scorer that we need, but she distributes the ball. It’s a difficult year for her on the court dealing with that transition but she’s taken it in stride. She never complains about anything. She only asks how to get better.”

Emma Perry added 12 points and held Penns Grove top scorer Kezia Patterson to one field goal and seven points. JaNiyah Cummings led the Red Devils with 11 points.

Meanwhile, Kailyn Kennedy added eight points to the Wolverines’ attack, while Kendall Young and Talia Guardascione had seven points each.

Lauren’s uncle Thomas Hengel coached multiple sports at Clearview High School for more than 40 years. He was inducted into the Gloucester County Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

WOODSTOWN 60, PENNS GROVE 28
WOODSTOWN (7-8): Lauren Hengel 9 2-4 24, Emma Perry 6 0-0 12, Kendall Young 2 3-4 7, Talia Guardascione 2 3-5 7, Kailyn Kennedy 3 2-2 8, Jaelyn McDonald 0 0-2 0, Gina Murray 1 0-0 2, Autumn Paleschic 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 10-17 60
PENNS GROVE (1-12): Mikayla Washington 3 2-6 8, JaNiyah Cummings 5 0-2 11, Kaziah Patterson 1 4-6 7, NyAsia Numan 0 0-0 0, ArManai Blackston 0 0-0 0, Yeichelyn Rodriguez 1 0-0 2, Domari Torres 0 0-2 0. Totals 10 6-16 28.

Woodstown	16	8	14	22-	60
Penns Grove	10	6	9	3-	28

Overbrook	4	2	5	17-	28
Schalick	11	14	6	6-	37

Pennsville	5	11	9	7-	32
Glassboro	9	18	14	13-	54

SALEM 64, SALEM TECH 36: Dyaira Anderson enjoyed her fifth double-double of the season and fourth in the last five games to help the Rams snap a three-game losing streak and get back to .500 (5-5).

Anderson had 16 points and 15 rebounds. She has had at least 10 rebounds in each of the last five games and averaged 17.8 points and 14.6 rebounds during the run.

Carlysia Pierce had 17 points, six rebounds and five steals, and Madison Dixon had 11 points.. Shelby Drummond led the Chargers with 10 points. Rylee Doerr had eight points, 15 rebounds and blocked four shots. Amora Delaine had eight points and 12 boards.

SALEM (5-5): Samiyah Moore 3 0-0 6, Timmiyah Simmons 3 1-2 8, Madison Dixon 4 2-4 11, Dyaira Anderson 8 0-0 16, Carlysia Pierce 7 2-2 17, Jaryn Weathers 2 0-0 4, Tricia Wilson 1 0-0 2. Totals 28 5-8 64.
SALEM TECH (2-8): Shelby Liber 3 0-0 7, Shelby Drummond 4 1-2 10, Evening Amedee 1 1-4 3, Amora Delaine 2 4-5 8, Rylee Doerr 3 2-4 8, Rachel Reed 0 0-0 0, Tiara Bazemore 0 0-0 0, Olivia Lyon 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 8-15 36.

Salem	26	15	17	6-	64
Salem Tech	7	5	11	12-	36