VIDEO: Big mid-game run sends Wildwood back to familiar place – the South Jersey title game

Posted: March 4th 2025

The defense of Kiana D'Antuono (left) and the offense of Macie McCracken (right) helped send the Wildwood High School girls basketball team to a victory in a South Jersey Group I semifinal game.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

WILDWOOD – The girls basketball team from one of the tiniest schools in the state is heading back to the South Jersey title game for the sixth straight time.

Wildwood used a massive run in the middle of the game to turn a three-point deficit late in the second quarter into a 16-point lead after three quarters and eventually settled for a 54-38 win over Clayton in a South Jersey Group I semifinal on Wednesday.

Wildwood, the third seed in the section, will travel to top-seeded Haddon Township for the championship game on Friday at a time to be determined. Haddon Township rallied from a five-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat No. 4 Woodstown, 46-44, in the other semifinal.

“I’m so excited,” said Wildwood senior Macie McCracken, who scored a game-high 27 points. “It’s an unreal feeling to be able to play with my teammates in front of a big crowd so I’m super excited.”

Both teams struggled to score for much of the second quarter. Wildwood also turned the ball over a whopping 11 times in the first half. But with the Lady Warriors trailing by three at 16-13 late in the second quarter, McCracken scored back-to-back baskets in the final 40 seconds of the half to give Wildwood a one-point lead at the break.

Wildwood then erupted at the start of the third quarter, scoring the first 10 points of the period to quickly build a double-digit lead at 27-16 to force Clayton to call a timeout. The Lady Warriors eventually swelled the advantage to 42-26 heading into the fourth quarter. Clayton got no closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

“I think we brought our energy up defensively in the second half,” McCracken said. “We hustled more. We got into our press quicker and that helped us get steals and fast breaks.”

McCracken, who went 0 for 6 from the three-point line in the first half, made back-to-back threes during the run and scored 14 of Wildwood’s 25 points in the period.

Wildwood’s offensive explosion brought the crowd to its feet on numerous occasions. But almost unnoticed but equally important was the defensive work of Wildwood junior forward Kiana D’Antuono, who limited Clayton star Rainelle Blocker to six points through three quarters. Blocker entered the contest averaging 19.5 points per game. She finished with 11.

“She did a great job on her,” McCracken said. “The last time we played them Blocker had a ton of points (36 points in a 75-55 Wildwood win) but Kiana really did great against her. She helped prevent her from getting the ball by fronting her and face guarding her so we didn’t have to help off their shooters as much.”

Rebeca Benichou added eight points and Angela Wilber chipped in six for Wildwood. Each hit important three-point shots in the fourth quarter.

The Lady Warriors also took much better care of the basketball in the second half, turning the ball over just once in the final 16 minutes.

Deondria Simon scored 14 points to lead seventh-seeded Clayton (18-9).

Wildwood is now in the sectional title game for the sixth time in seven years. It’s essentially six straight appearances considering the 2021 state tournament wasn’t held due to the COVID pandemic.

Wildwood is 2-3 in the sectional title game appearances over that stretch. Overall, the program is 11-5 in South Jersey title games.

In addition to its run of appearances in sectional championship games, Wildwood (22-7) has also won at least 20 games in a season eight times in the last nine seasons, the lone exception being in 2021 when the schedule was limited to 15 games due to COVID restrictions.