VIDEO: Wildwood’s Cunniff goes from role player to 1,000-point scorer

Posted: February 19th 2025

By DAVID WEINBERG

For CapeAtlanticLive.com

WILDWOOD – Perseverance and hard work enabled Wildwood High School basketball player Brian Cunniff to achieve a special milestone Tuesday.

The guard/forward continued a remarkable senior season by scoring his 1,000th career point in the Warriors’ 86-35 victory over Pennsville in a Tri-County Conference Bracket C tournament game.

“To be honest, I never thought it was possible until midway through this season,” Cunniff said. “I could never have done it without the support of my coaches and teammates. Without them, I wouldn’t have scored 500 points, let alone 1,000.”

Cunniff entered the game with 996 career points. He sank a pair of free throws, then reached the magic number with a short baseline jumper with 5 minutes, 39 seconds left in the first quarter.

Officials stopped the game while fans gave a standing ovation. Cunniff received a special basketball commemorating the milestone and was presented with “1,000” balloons while posing with his parents, Brian and Teresa Cunniff and younger brother, Sean.

Brian, who finished the game with 14 points to boost his career total to 1,010, became the 36th basketball player overall and the 23rd boys player in school history to reach 1,000 points.

After the season, his name will be added to the list of top scorers that hangs in the gymnasium. Ironically, the group also includes his mother.

Teresa Cunniff, who is now the Warriors girls basketball coach, scored 1,305 points as Teresa Polini before graduating in 1991.

“I’ve always dreamed of having my name up there with hers,” Brian said. “It’s been a goal of mine ever since I was little and would come to the gym to watch her coach.”

Such an achievement didn’t seem possible for much of Brian’s career.

He scored just 16 varsity points as a freshman and was a role player as a sophomore and junior behind star Junior Hans, a 2024 graduate who scored 1,623 career points.

His role changed in a major way this season. As one of the few seniors, Warriors coach Scott McCracken turned to Brian to serve as both the team’s leader and leading scorer.

Over half of his points – 515 – have come this season. He’s scored 20 or more points in 11 games and topped 30 three times. He’s averaging 22.4 points and 7.3 rebounds for the season.

His biggest output came on Valentine’s Day, when he poured in a school-record 55 points in a 102-100, overtime loss to Clayton.

That smashed the old school record of 48 points set by 2018 grad Kyion Flanders.

“Brian is one of the better kids I’ve coached,” said McCracken, whose three daughters Mackenzie (1,896), Maddie (2,001) and Macie (2,327 and counting) are also on the gymnasium’s 1,000-point board. “As I told the team after the game, Brian is the perfect example of what you can achieve through hard work.

“I always tell the kids that you get out of this game what you put into it. No one has put more into it than Brian. I’m so happy for him.”

The scorers board includes some of the most prolific players in South Jersey history.

Monica Johnson, a 2002 grad, holds the South Jersey record with 3,173 career points. Flanders heads the school’s top boys scorers.

Chuck James, a 1965 grad, was the school’s first 1,000-point scorer, netting 1,112. Lisa Schultz (1979) became the first girls player to reach it with 1,071.

Now it’s Brian Cunniff’s turn to join the club.

“I put in a lot of work, but I had a lot of help along the way,” he said. “Thank you to my coaches, teammates and family. They are the reason this happened.”

NOTES: Sophomore Nolan Mawhinney led Wildwood with 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds in the win over Pennsville. Sophomore Gianni Troiano (11 points) and junior Eric Jordan (10 points) also each scored in double figures. Wildwood (8-15) will play at Gloucester Tech in the second round of the TCC Bracket C Tournament Thursday.