Marley Wood helps Pennsville keep it together after losing a top scorer, propels Eagles to an OT win over rival Penns Grove, calls it ‘the best feeling ever’

THURSDAY’S GIRLS GAMES
Clayton 63, Salem 33
Pennsville 63, Penns Grove 60 (OT)
Pitman 56, Salem Tech 32
Schalick 38, Overbrook 33
Woodstown 60, Glassboro 36

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – As soon as the horn sounded to signal the end of the game, Pennsville coach Sam Trapp leaped from the bench and made a bee-line towards her players coming off the court.

It was reminiscent of but not quite as frantic as the iconic image of Jim Valvano racing around the floor in Albuquerque looking for someone to hug after his North Carolina State team won the national championship in 1983. Valvano was looking for anyone. Trapp was seeking out a certain someone.

It didn’t take long for the coach to find the object of her search. Shortly after her Eagles had secured their 63-60 win over Penns Grove in overtime Thursday night Trapp located Marley Wood in the sea of blue and white uniforms and wrapped her arms around the sophomore guard in a giant bear hug.

“It was kind of a surreal moment; it was like crazy,” Wood said. “That’s the first time she’s ever hugged me like that. I played really hard and I think she saw I was getting kind of frustrated during the game but I stayed (with it) and I kept working and she was just happy that I kept going.”

Wood was the glue that kept the Eagles together down the stretch when circumstances dictated things could have easily gotten away.

They were without Nora Ausland, the other part of their one-two punch, for the most important part of the game after the junior forward injured her left foot and came out with 4:57 left in regulation and the Red Devils on the verge of seizing the momentum. It was the same foot she broke last year that ended her season at Salem after 12 games, although the extent of this latest injury wasn’t immediately known.

The Eagles have been rocked by injuries this season and shortly after the new year began had to elevate players from the junior varsity just to have enough able bodies to function. Post Bella Farina had just gotten back from concussion protocol and guard Taylor Bass was scheduled to return Friday after getting the cast removed from her broken hand, but the incoming snowstorm likely has disrupted those plans.

At least they’re not playing Friday now.

So with Ausland on the shelf after scoring 17 points, the Eagles needed Wood to step up in a big way. And she did. She kept things together with her ball handling, scoring and defense. She finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds and was the steadying influence down the stretch.

“I just knew that I had to step up and keep scoring so that we had our momentum still,” Wood said. “I had to kind of take her role and my role at the same time and try to coach my other teammates to keep going, too.”

“Why did I hug her; that’s why,” Trapp said. “To step up and remain composed and to continue to work hard through adversity. That girl has continued to lead this team through and through, through injuries and battles and I applaud her because she’s a sophomore, but she demonstrates leadership at such a supreme level, it’s phenomenal. She’s that player who just knows basketball IQ to put her at an advantage above the other kids on the court.”

Of course, Wood didn’t do it alone, but shepherded those who helped.

Farina was a rock in the post, grabbing rebounds, blocking shots and standing her ground, drawing praise from among others Penns Grove athletics director Anwar Golden, who repeatedly called her the best big man in the county’s girls game. Izzy Saulin gave the Eagles several big baskets, Kylie Harris was effective when she subbed in for Farina, and freshman Karsen Cooksey came through with rebounding and defense before fouling out.

Farina had seven points, 10 rebounds and at least three blocked shots in the fourth quarter and overtime. Saulin had 10 points. Harris had the first two baskets in an 8-0 run at the end of the first quarter as the Eagles started to pull ahead.

“I was just really glad that everybody stepped up today,” Wood said. “Sometimes it’s hard but today everyone really showed what they could do. I think everybody played a big part of today’s game.”

The Eagles led by 13 early in the third quarter, but the Red Devils rallied behind RaNiyah Wilson and freshmen JaNiyah Cummings and Arianna Dowe. Cummings was a factor inside and Wilson and Dowe combined for 15 points in an 18-7 run that got their team within two late in the third quarter. It was a dogfight the rest of the way.

Wilson scored 14 of her 17 points in the second half and overtime. Cummings had 13 points and Dowe scored 11 of her career-high 15 points and hit all three of her 3-pointers in the second half. 

“That girl scored 33 against Woodstown, that’s impressive, which is why we chose to go box-and-one on her,” Trapp said of Wilson. “They rely on her a lot. They have plenty of other scorers on that court and I mentioned that to our girls … but when you look at film they rely so heavily on No. 3 that you have to take her out and force the other players to step up and score and they did and did a great job.”

Wilson hit two free throws with 16 seconds left that tied the game at 58. The Red Devils had the last shot in regulation. They ran an inbounds play with three-tenths of a second left and got it in to Wilson, but her tap up didn’t connect.

Penns Grove scored first in overtime, but Wood hit a runner with 2:04 left to put Pennsville up for good and after Farina blocked a shot on the next possession she scored on the other end to make it a three-point game. Farina blocked another shot a short time later to keep the Eagles in front.

PENNSVILLE 63, PENNS GROVE 60 (OT)
PENNSVILLE (6-6) – Nora Ausland 8 1-3 17, Sofia Belitsas 0 0-0 0, Karsen Cooksey 1 0-1 3, Bella Farina 3 1-4 7, Kylie Harris 2 0-0 4, Izzy Saulin 5 0-1 10, Marley Wood 6 9-10 22. Totals 25 11-19 63.
PENNS GROVE (6-5) – Meely Horace 4 1-2 9, JaNiyah Cummings 6 1-4 13, RaNiyah Wilson 5 6-11 17, Brianna Robbins 1 0-0 2, Amani Taylor 0 0-0 0, Arianna Dowe 6 0-0 15, Zoe Caesar 2 0-1 4, Rolande Delva 0 0-0 0, Syanna Robbins 0 0-0 0, Semijah Hines 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 8-18 60.

Pennsville	16	14	15	13	5 –	63
Penns Grove	8	13	18	19	2 –	60

WOODSTOWN 60, GLASSBORO 36
WOODSTOWN (9-2) – Talia Battavio 7 1-2 19, Megan Donelson 8 2-2 20, Gianna Maiorini 3 0-0 6, Alyssa Baber 1 1-3 4, Shannon Pierman 3 1-2 7, Lauren Hengel 2 0-0 4, Emma Perry 0 0-0 0, Brae DiGregorio 0 0-0 0, Jala Thomas 0 0-0 0, Lizzy Daly 0 0-0 0, Kendall Young 0 0-0 0, Talia Guardascione 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 5-9 60.
GLASSBORO (6-4) – Tamia Smith 3 4-4 12, Kezia Brackett 4 1-2 9, Kimora Miles 3 0-0 7, Anye Davis 1 0-0 2, Sianna Wedderburn 3 0-0 6, Sanaa Thomas 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 5-6 36.

Woodstown	10	16	27	7 –	60
Glassboro	10	7	4	11 –	36

CLAYTON 63, SALEM 38
CLAYTON (6-6) – Rainelle Blocker 9 4-5 22, Jordyn Jones 4 3-3 11, Rosalina Pereira 0 1-2 1, Deondria Simon 1 0-0 2, Ava Delaney 7 2-6 18, Janice Blair 1 0-0 2, Indian Williams 3 0-0 7. Totals 25 10-16 63.
SALEM (4-7) – Ameriyona Hunter 2 0-0 5, Marjziah Bundy 1 1-2 4, Madison Dizon 1 1-4 3, Ava Rodgers 1 4-6 6, Ryann Foote 2 1-2 5, Carlysia Pierce 2 1-2 5, Marissa Bower 4 1-4 12. Totals 13 9-20 38.
3-point goals: Clayton 3 (Delaney 2, Williams); Salem 4 (Hunter, Bower 3).
NOTES: Rodgers grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked four shots. Foote dished five assists. Hunter had seven rebounds and four steals. The loss snapped Salem’s two-game winning streak.

PITMAN 56, SALEM TECH 32
PITMAN (7-2) – Anna Fisicaro 14 2-6 32, Miya Villari 1 3-4 6, Evelyn Wisely 0 0-0 0, Audrey Duffield 6 0-2 12, Colette Rollins 1 0-0 3, Adriana Collman 1 1-4 3. Totals 23 6-16 56.
SALEM TECH (0-9) – Hanna DeWitt 2 1-3 5, Demajae White 3 1-2 7, Kaylin Beardsley 5 0-0 12, Drummond 1 1-6 3, Rylee Doerr 2 0-0 4. Totals 13 3-11 31.

Pitman	5	18	17	16 –	56
Salem Tech	4	3	11	14 –	32

SCHALICK 38, OVERBROOK 33
OVERBROOK (2-8) – Jael Pressley 2 1-6 5, Kaylee Burkhart 0 0-0 0, Sarah Evans 1 0-0 3, Leiani Knight 0 0-0 0, Alani White 0 0-0 0, Zahaisha Nevius 10 0-3 23, Gianna Simon 1 0-0 2. Totals 14 1-9 33.
SCHALICK (3-6) – Ava Scurry 1 1-2 3, Cali Fisler 1 0-1 2, Carly Vicente 0 0-0 0, Cianna Gaines 5 3-4 13, Taylor Sparks 3 4-4 12, Abby Willoughby 2 0-0 6, Katie Little 1 0-1 2. Totals 13 8-12 38.

Overbrook	11	2	16	4 –	33
Schalick	14	4	6	14 –	38

Penns Grove outlasts Pennsville in a game that had a little bit of everything, a lengthy delay and a player going over 1,000 points

THURSDAY’S BOYS GAMES
Glassboro 55, Woodstown 47
Overbrook 58, Schalick 31
Penns Grove 75, Pennsville 65
Pitman 101, Salem Tech 44
Salem 90, Clayton 52

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNS GROVE – For all the highs and lows that were going on in the Pennsville-Penns Grove game Thursday night, there were three big takeaways that should have followed the crowd back out into the cold night.

Penns Grove coach Damian Ware picked up another win over his Carleton School teaching colleague, planning period partner and Pennsville coaching buddy Joe Mecholsky. The Red Devils collected a bunch of South Jersey Group I power points and some serious county cred by beating their rivals. And Pennsville’s Luke Wood became the latest member of the 1,000-Point Club.

And, oh, Penns Grove’s floor Zamboni works just fine.

First the highlights:

The Red Devils took down the Eagles 75-65 for their ninth win in the last 10 meetings between the two coaches. They led virtually wire-to-wire largely by hitting 3s and ruling the boards (18 offensive rebounds) and placed three scorers in double figures.

Freshman KaRon Ceaser, riding the high of receiving his first college football scholarship offer from Syracuse earlier in the day, led the Red Devils with 20 points. Giomar Conrad had 18 points and Mehki Ballard, who seems to have found his shooting rhythm just in time for the second half of the season, had 14 with a couple 3-pointers.

Wood became the 17th member of Pennsville’s 1,000-Point Club and second in his family when he drained a 3-pointer from the left corner with 5:45 left in a game the Eagles had climbed back into contention for. He needed 19 points coming into the game and finished with a season-high 28, going 11-of-25 from the field. He hit the magic number on his 18th shot of the game.

It was hoped he would reach the milestone at home this weekend, where his sister Ryane, the most recent player to join the club (1224 points ending in 2022), could have been on hand to watch. Instead, he had to settle for reaching the milestone against the same team his coach did against in 1992.

“I don’t know if there’s any other emotion other than it feels good, it’s great,” Wood said. “That’s something you come into high school trying to get and you finally hit it, it feels good.”

Now for the lowlight:

The game was delayed 28 minutes late in the first quarter as a custodian cleaned the gym floor after it had become dangerously slippery from the de-icing salt on spectators’ shoes mixing with the chemicals used to clean the floor. It made for hazardous footing along the sidelines and players from each team fell hard as a result.

Mecholsky threatened to pull his team from the game after Peyton O’Brien slipped along the baseline for a second time in the opening minutes of play. The game was halted at 7:28 p.m. local time – with 36.9 seconds left in the first quarter and Penns Grove leading by 10 – after the Red Devils’ Camren Thompson crashed into the bleachers.

“We’re here with kids, we’re here just trying to play a game and conditions are disastrously … I’ve never even seen that before in my life,” Mecholsky said. “We were going home. We were going home. What am I going do, have a Pennsville kid break his clavicle over there? No. We were leaving. We were leaving. That was an embarrassment. But they did fix it.”

The players from both teams said it was only slippery in the corners and around the sideline. The playing area was not affected, they said.

“The court was fine, but once you went out of bounds it was scary,” O’Brien said, “but we fought through it and they fixed it after a while so we were good.”

“I tried to stay away from the sidelines,” Wood said. “I was playing it smart. I tried to stay in the middle of the floor.”

A custodian made four laps around the court on the cleaner during and went back-and-forth three times along the baselines before the game resumed at 8 p.m. local time. The custodian went around the court twice more at halftime.

The teams hung out in their bench area until the clean-up was finished.

“It was something that was out of any of our control,” Ware said. “For precaution and safety of the kids (the delay) was the best thing to do. You never know, somebody could have slipped, rolled an ankle, fell, bust their elbow up. It was the best thing we could do at that point.”

There were some rumblings the game could be suspended at halftime and resumed at a later date, but the three-person all-female officiating crew indicated at halftime the second half would proceed as scheduled. Ware said he would have not been in favor of a stoppage. The second half proceeded without incident.

The delay didn’t seem to bother the Red Devils’ game. They were leading 24-14 at the time of the delay and wound up winning by that margin. They hit six of their eight 3-pointers after the delay. They led by 20 in the third quarter before Ware subbed in his reserves and Pennsville rallied.

“I was actually kind of tired in the beginning of the game so the delay actually kind of helped me,” Ballard said.

Wood’s milestone 3-pointer got the Eagles to within 10. The junior guard looked a lot more relaxed once he reached 1,000 and he scored the Eagles next seven points. His next 3-pointer got them within six with 3:34  to play, 65-59, but that was as close as they got.

“There’s definitely a little bit of pressure when you’re about to score 1,000 points,” Wood said. “I think definitely after I scored it today everyone could tell the pressure got lifted and that I was back to my normal self.”

Thompson answered with a 3 and the Red Devils kept the margin between eight and 10 for the time that remained.

“They made more 3s than I anticipated and we didn’t rebound like them,” Mecholsky said. “Great game by coach (Ware). His players made shots tonight and they rebounded. They weren’t special, but they outrebounded us and we lost.”

PENNS GROVE 75, PENNSVILLE 65
PENNSVILLE (5-7) – Luke Wood 11-25 2-3 28, Peyton O’Brien 7-9 2-5 18, Daniel Saulin 2-3 0-0 4, Jayden Thomas 3-8 1-2 7, Malik Rehmer 1-4 0-0 2, Cohen Petrutz 1-3 1-2 3, Mason O’Brien 1-2 1-2 3, Logan Hitt 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-54 7-14 65.
PENNS GROVE (5-6) – Brandon Robbins 0 0-0 0, Giomar Conrad 7 2-4 18, Karon Ceaser 5 8-10 20, Willie Slocum 3 3-4 9, Mehki Ballard 5 2-4 14, Camron Thompson 2 0-0 5, Khiry Higgs 0 0-0 0, Mr Peterson 0 0-0 0, Dameon Wilson 3 0-1 6, Neziah Spence 1 0-2 3, Will Roy 0 0-0 0. Totals 26 15-25 75.

Pennsville	17	12	14	12 –	65
Penns Grove	24	16	22	13 –	75

SALEM 90, CLAYTON 52
SALEM (7-4) – Jabez DeJesus 18 0-0 41, Paul Weathers 5 0-0 10, Tymear Lecator 4 2-2 10, Donovan Weathers 2 2-2 6, Xavier McGriff 2 1-2 5, Antwan Rodgers 5 0-0 10, Cole Sayers 1 0-0 2, Joseph Tunis 2 0-0 6, Anthony Farmer 0 0-0 0. Totals 39 5-6 90.
CLAYTON (3-10) – Dillon Jones 2 1-2 5, Princeton Sackor 6 3-4 17, Nazir Davis 5 0-0 11, Demetris Williams 1 2-4 4, Jon Cox 1 3-4 5, Cristan Scott 1 0-0 2, Ashaud Hines 4 0-0 8. Totals 20 9-14 52.

Salem	21	25	22	22 –	90
Clayton	8	14	12	18 –	52

GLASSBORO 55, WOODSTOWN 47
GLASSBORO (5-7) – Charles Graves 5 12-13 22, Xavier Sabb 5 4-8 14, Clinton Suggs 4 2-3 11, Jayce Grays 1 0-0 2, Josh Buff 1 1-1 3, Michael Dougherty 1 0-2 3. Totals 17 19-27 55.
WOODSTOWN (6-5) – Blake Bialecki 4 0-0 11, M.J. Hall 3 0-0 9, Max Webb 3 3-4 10, Garrett Leyman 2 0-0 5, Rocco String 3 0-2 6, Alejandro Vazquez 1 0-0 3, Anthony Bokolas 1 0-0 2, Manny Ortega 0 0-0 0, Elijah Caesar 0 1-2 1. Totals 17 4-8 47.

Glassboro	16	4	21	13 –	55
Woodstown	15	6	11	15 –	47

OVERBROOK 58, SCHALICK 31
SCHALICK (4-5) – Reggie Allen 19, Dan Lis 4, Jordan Johnson 2, Nylan Sutton 4, Jase Volovar 2.
OVERBROOK (9-3) – Jaden St. John 2 0-0 4, Lamar Little 4 0-0 11, Chris Grier 2 1-3 5, Amare Kee 2 1-1 6, Maki Ortiz 1 0-0 2, Angel Bermudez 0 0-0 0, Shaun Mills 4 0-1 9, Tory Scott 1 0-0 2, Zair Green 3 1-1 8, Kevin Satchell 0 1-2 1, Elvin Santiago 1 2-2 4, Nic Johnson 2 2-5 6. Totals 22 8-15 58.

Schalick	5	0	14	12 –	31
Overbrook	26	7	9	16 –	58

PITMAN 101, SALEM TECH 44
PITMAN (10-3) – Porter Kostiuk 2 6-6 10, Stephen Devanney 1 2-4 4, Hudson Rue 1 0-0 2, Elijah Crispin 8 2-2 19, Trey Tinges 1 1-2 4, Colin Ambrosius 1 0-0 2, Chris Wyllie 3 0-0 7, Michael Fisciaro 12 3-3 32, Sonny Myers 5 1-4 11, Greg Petersen 1 4-4 8, Jake Epting 2 0-0 4. Totals 37 19-25 101.
SALEM TECH (0-10) – Haneef Frisby 12, Joseph Hayes 4, Daviontae Russell 6, Josh Muntz 4, Tyler Zampino 8, Antoine Robinson 8, Chase Ayers 2.

Pitman	34	23	28	16 –	101
Salem Tech	12	14	12	6 –	44