Woodstown’s boys come up short on the scoreboard, but everything about the scrimmage left the feeling of a win

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – It’s a good thing preseason scrimmages aren’t about winning or losing – they’re about getting better – or Woodstown coach Phil Campbell might not have been as upbeat when Saturday’s exercise was over.

The Wolverines lost to Brandywine (Del.) both ways – on the scoreboard (55-49) and in the scorebook (47-46) – but Campbell considered the day a win because of what his team got out of it.

The difference in the results reflects the way game was scored. The scoreboard reflected the scoring system used to award points on free throws to reduce delays at the line while the scorebook indicated the points that actually went through the basket.

Regardless how it was counted, the Wolverines got more out of it than not.

“I was just telling them this was a great learning experience for us,” Campbell said. “We’ll see some teams that are similar – they’re fast, they’re athletic, they have a really good point guard – so it’s a good learning experience.

“I thought our offensive execution at times was fantastic. To be able to do that against a team that’s fast defensively, has long arms, and be able to compete really well with teams that are so athletic I think is a really good learning experience for us. I feel like (it’s) a win as far as we’re learning how to play our game and how our execution can affect other teams.”

Campbell was quite familiar with the team Woodstown played. He used to be the Bulldogs’ head coach and their current head coach, Lorenzo Gales, was his assistant. Gales bragged on his point guard, Dadrien Howell in their conversation and Campbell believed it when he saw him. 

Howell had 11 points in the scrimmage. Sincere Miller led all scorers with 16.

“He said No. 50 (Howell) had better court vision than anybody we ever had play for us (there), and now I agree after watching him,” Campbell said. “I was pretty amazed at some of the passing that he did. And he’s good getting to the rim.”

The Wolverines, meanwhile, came out with a hot hand and hit four 3-pointers among their first six baskets – two by Eli Caesar – and jumped out 16-5. Then Howell got involved and the Bulldogs rallied.

Alejandro Vazquez hit a couple 3s and the Wolverines went back up by nine, but the Bulldogs rallied again and wound up winning the first half.

Rocco String got the best of Brandywine big man Shamar Samuel and finished with eight points and 11 rebounds. Garrett Leyman gave the Wolverines seven points and seven boards and Blake Bialecki gave them his usual consistent effort at the point.

Defensively, they’re tweaking their approach and learning to be more aggressive in the half court. If there was any shortcoming it was handling the endgame, but if it were a regular-season game Campbell would have been a lot more strategic.

“I feel good about what we saw today,” Campbell said. “It was a good learning experience for us because our scrimmage against Gateway on Tuesday was a little sloppy.”

The Wolverines are back at it Monday against Maple Shade.

BRANDYWINE 47, WOODSTOWN 46
BRANDYWINE – Jahzier Penn 2 1-2 6, Crisdon Wright 1 2-2 4, Zion Charles 4 0-0 8, Sincere Miller  8 0-2 16, Mohamed Sankoh 0 0-0 0, Shamar Samuel 1 0-0 2, Dadrien Howell 5 1-3 11. Totals 21 4-9 47.
WOODSTOWN – Blake Bialecki 2 0-0 5, Alejandro Vazquez 3 0-0 8, M.J. Hall 1 0-0 3, Garrett Leyman 3 1-2 7, Max Webb 3 0-1 7, Rocco String 4 0-1 8, Zyaire Caesar 0 0-0 0, Eli Caesar 3 0-0 8, Anthony Bokolas 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 1-4 46.

Brandywine	11	15	12	9 –	47
Woodstown	18	12	10	6 –	46