PHOTOS, VIDEO: Boardwalk Classic - Middle to enter new year unbeaten after rolling past Kingsway; OC girls roll; LCM boys check into bracket title game

Posted: December 30th 2025

Abbey Cappelletti scored 19 points to lead Middle Township past Kingsway at the Boardwalk Basketball Classic Tuesday.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

WILDWOOD – The Middle Township High School girls basketball team has been one of South Jersey’s top programs for quite a few years now.

The Lady Panthers have won numerous South Jersey titles and quite a few regular-season and playoff tournament championships within the Cape-Atlantic League.

Despite all that success, Middle hadn’t come out of the Christmas holidays unbeaten in at least 15 seasons.

That changed Tuesday at the Boardwalk Basketball Classic.

Middle finished its three-game stint at the tournament with an impressive 67-39 win over Kingsway that left the Lady Panthers’ record at 5-0 heading into the new year. 

“Yeah, it’s nice,” Middle coach John Leahy said with a laugh. “I can’t remember the last time we were undefeated coming out of Christmas (break). I feel good about it because we’ve played pretty well. I feel like we have nine or 10 people that can contribute and it seems like every different night it’s different people, which is good. We’ve improved in some areas and I’m very happy with the kids’ effort and their attitudes.”

Middle played one of the most exciting games of the tournament in its first Boardwalk Basketball Classic game, defeating Bensalem (Pa.) in double overtime. The team went on to record a convincing victory over Hatboro-Horsham (Pa.) before the win over Kingsway.

Middle used impressive shooting to jump out to a big lead over Kingsway. The team made six first-half three-pointers and had seven different players score in running out to a 40-18 at the half.

Middle finished with 11 three-pointers for the game. Senior guard Abbey Cappelletti made five of them and finished with a game-high 19 points. Senior forward Reagen Powell netted 16 points. Ten different players scored in the contest for Middle. Sarah Farrow had seven rebounds and four assists to go with six points.

Leahy is confident about what his team is going to get out of Cappelletti, Powell and Farrow – Middle’s seasoned veterans – on a consistent basis. But the other players in the rotation have been making their mark so far as well.

“Abbey, Sarah and Reagen are going to do a lot of the heavy lifting for us, but we need contributions from everyone else,” Leahy said. “So far, Mya (Robinson) has had some good stretches. Ella (Leahy) hit some shots for us when we beat Holy Spirit. Hannah (O’Neill) was very good tonight. And Ainsley has made some shots. So everyone’s contributing in different ways. 

“When we get into conference play, everyone’s going to be super familiar with one another, so I’m sure teams are going to sag off certain people so we’re going to need different people to make shots and make plays. We’ve already seen teams go box-and-one on Reagen and we had other people make shots. We’re going to have that going forward, too. The other kids all need to make sure they’re ready.”

Middle is next in action on Saturday at home against Atlantic County Institute of Technology.

In other Boardwalk Basketball Classic games from Tuesday involving Cape May County teams:

Boys - Lower Cape May 72, Brandywine (Del.) 45: Ahead by six points early in the third quarter, Lower finished the period on a 26-11 run to take total control of the game and move into Wednesday’s George Holden Memorial Bracket title game. Ty Bonner scored 16 points, John Fernandez netted 14 points and Cole Sederland sank 12 points for Lower (4-1). The Tigers also got 22 points from players off its bench led by nine from Joey Wareham and eight from Gavin Ridgway. Lower will face St. Michael’s (Md.) in the bracket title game.

Girls - Ocean City 50, Hatboro Horsham (Pa.) 29: Ahead by four points at halftime, Ocean City used a decisive 17-5 advantage in the third quarter to pull away in the second half. Gabby Henry made four three-pointers and finished with 14 points to lead a balanced scoring attack for the Raiders (4-2), who had seven players score at least four points in the contest. 

Girls - Egg Harbor Township 46, Wildwood 36: Angela Wilber posted 11 points and Joelle Murphy added eight points in the loss for Wildwood (4-4).

Girls - Lower Merion (Pa.) 69, Cape May Tech 12: Halyli Estes scored four points for Cape May Tech (2-3).