Ocean City Boys Down Vineland to Qualify for State Basketball Tournament

The Ocean City boys' varsity basketball team is going to the playoffs. 

The Red Raiders clinched a tournament berth with an impressive 47-37 victory over American Conference foe Vineland on Wednesday night. Ocean City pulled off the season sweep of the Clan—they also defeated Vineland, 51-50, on Jan. 4 in a game that saw Matt Bosch hit a lay-up in the final seconds of the game.

“We have definitely exceeded my expectations for this season,” said Bosch, who led the way with 14 points Wednesday night.

Bosch’s late-game heroics were not needed on this night.

Ocean City set the tempo early and pulled away, putting the game away with a solid defensive effort in the second and third quarter that saw Ocean City outscore Vineland, 26-6.

“I liked our effort,” Bosch said. “We played our game. We caused turnovers and got the win. I am a bit surprised because they (Vineland) are a good team. You want to play hard every game, and we did that and got a good win tonight on the home floor.”

“They are a good team,” senior Tom Ballezzi said.  “But tonight we forced turnovers from our pressure. We controlled the tempo, and I think that and our defense were a big reason we got this win.”

The Red Raiders have had an interesting couple of weeks, but can now breathe a bit easier knowing they have qualified for the South Jersey Group III tournament later this month. The win over Vineland gives the Red Raiders a record of 9-8 with a match-up against Absegami on Friday.

Ocean City had gone 4-3 over its last seven games, including a big upset over Atlantic City, a come-from-behind win against Millville, a double-overtime win against Egg Harbor Township and tough victory over rival Mainland.

But even with some impressive wins, they had a couple of tough losses to St. Augustine and Collingswood, plus another to Hammonton.  They knew tonight’s win was imperative to make the playoffs.

“The whole game plan was to get the win,” Ballezzi said. “We knew we had to do everything we could to get a win here tonight.”

The deadline to qualify for the tournament has been moved to Monday, due to some impending weather issues. But teams will not be penalized for losses, only wins will count after Saturday, which was the original cutoff date.

Ocean City is no stranger to the tournament. The Red Raiders were 19-8 and the Cape Atlantic League champions a season ago, and they had high expectations in the Group III field, where they went 1-1. This season, expectations were mixed, with few starters returning. 

Ballezzi is one of just four seniors on this year's team. He says he is happy that he's going back to the playoffs and scored 11 points in Wednesday's game.

“It's going to be different,” said Ballezzi after the big win over Vineland. “Without all the guys from last year, we will do out best, we want to make a deep run.”

Ballezzi is one of the key players on this season's team, which seems to get big games from different players each and every night. One night, junior Chris Turner will score 30 points as he did two weeks ago in a win over Millville; the next, Matt Bosch scored 25 in a surprising win over Atlantic City.

Either way, it's been an up-and-down season for the Red Raiders.

“We know we have been good at home,” Ballezzi admitted. “We knew tonight we had the home-court advantage, with Raider Nation here and we wanted to take care of business and get into the playoffs at home.”

Ocean City never really was challenged in the game. They opened fast and held off a Vineland rally late. The Red Raiders led 43-21 with four minutes left in the game when head coach John Bruno began to empty the bench. Vineland outscored Ocean City 16-4 over the final four minutes to make the final score a bit closer.

Senior Dylan Canova missed the game with a leg injury suffered against St. Augustine. His recovery could take three to six weeks.