Salem County Thursday

Penns Grove takes down Willingboro, Salem Tech falls in TCC bracket; Salem bowling reaches sectional semis

BOYS BASKETBALL

PENNS GROVE – The reason teams try to schedule games late in the cutoff week is to make a last-minute move up the power points standings.

Penns Grove gained a lot of power points in its hope to move into the South Jersey Group 1 top four and potentially two home playoff games Thursday with its 69-58 win over Willingboro.

The Red Devils (15-9) jumped out front early and stayed in control. Geonni Conrad and Roman Gipson led their usually balanced scoring attack with 16 and 14, respectively. 

The Chimeras had three scorers in double figures, led by Yasin Hogue’s 25 points, but Penns Grove had eight players hit the scoring column, with half of them scoring at least seven points.

Wildwood 68, Salem Tech 31: Trevor Troiano hit three 3-pointers and scored a game-high 15 points to lead the Warriors in the first round of the Tri- County Postseason Bracket. Raphael Busch led the Chargers with 11. Wildwood now plays at Pitman in the quarterfinals.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Wildwood 59, Salem 27: The Warriors (17-6) roared to a 23-4 first-quarter lead and cruised to a third straight victory. Wildwood’s Rebecca Benichou led all scorers with 23 points. Angela Wilber dished 10 assists. Dyaira Anderson led the Rams (8-9) with 16 points.

BOYS BOWLING
SJ GROUP 1 QF
Salem 2, Maple Shade 0: Troy Carey rolled two games of 266 for the day’s high series (532) and Jacob Puni rolled games of 242 and 228 to lead the second-seeded Rams (10-3) into the sectional semifinals. They’ll face sixth-seeded Doane Academy (8-10) Wednesday at Wood Lanes. The winner gets Camden Catholic or Asbury Park in the Feb. 21 finals.

SJ GROUP 2 QF
Lindenwold 2, Salem Tech 1: Second-seeded Lindenwold (14-1-1) won the rubber game 842-789 to reach the sectional semifinals. Cooper Rappa bowled the high game (216) and high series (550) for the Chargers (6-8). 

GIRLS BOWLING
SJ GROUP 1 QF
Camden Catholic 2, Salem Tech 1: The fourth-seeded Irish (14-1) won the rubber game 686-614 to reach the semifinals. Naomi Hess rolled a high-game 181 in Game 3 for the Chargers (9-2-1), but the Irish had four games 145 or better. Hess also had the high series for the match (512).