VIDEO: Crusaders fight off late Middle run for signature road victory

Posted: January 28th 2025

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

The Wildwood Catholic Academy boys basketball team did something Monday that doesn’t happen very often.

The Crusaders beat rival Middle Township on their home floor.

Ryan McGrath’s three-pointer with 31 seconds to play gave his team the lead for good as Wildwood Catholic pulled off a 57-55 victory over the Panthers.

The win was Wildwood Catholic’s sixth in seven games and came two days after a one-point upset loss at Holy Spirit. The victory also avenged an overtime loss to Middle earlier this month.

“I went into the game not having a good sense of what might happen,” Wildwood Catholic coach Will Wareham said. “I didn’t know if we’d play well, if we’d play bad, whatever. I was worried about Saturday’s loss kind of hanging over us. But for us to go in there and win on their court after the way we played them the first time and lost I think shows how tough our guys are.”

The victory puts Wildwood Catholic further into the conversation of which teams are contenders for the CAL playoff tournament championship. Wildwood Catholic improved to 12-4 overall, 6-3 in CAL American Conference games. The team’s three conference losses are by a combined seven points total. Wildwood Catholic has now also avenged two of those three conference losses. In addition to the win over Middle, the Crusaders also beat Ocean City in their second meeting. The team has a chance to avenge the third when it hosts St. Joseph – a team they lost to by a point earlier this month on the road – on Friday.

“I think our guys are confident they can win every night,” Wareham said. “I have to keep them grounded and focused to make sure they do the things they need to do to have a chance to win every single night.”

The game was an important one to Wildwood Catholic senior forward Riley Powell, who transferred from Middle Township just prior to the start of the season. Powell, who did not play in the teams’ first meeting due to NJSIAA transfer rules, posted 18 points and 10 rebounds in the win.

“I had no idea what to expect from him,” Warehamn said. “I didn’t know how he’d be. I think it would’ve been totally understandable if he went into that situation and didn’t play well. But all in all, I couldn’t have been happier with the way he showed up there. He did a really, really good job. He scored our first six points and once that happened I knew we were good there.”

Tayshaun Jackson led Wildwood Catholic with 19 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Two of his points came on a critical tip-in off an offensive rebound late in the fourth quarter. McGrath contributed nine points and Alex Daniel had eight points, six rebounds and four assists.

Wildwood Catholic overcame a tremendous performance by Jamir McNeil to get the win. McNeil led Middle (11-6, 8-1) with a game-high 32 points. Chase Moore added seven points, 11 rebounds and four assists.

Wildwood Catholic opened a lead as large as 11 points early in the fourth quarter, only to see Middle Township go on a 22-10 surge to take a one-point lead before McGrath fired the Crusaders ahead for good with his timely three-pointer in the late stages of the contest.