VIDEO: Warriors lead start to finish, claim bracket title

Posted: December 27th 2023

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

WILDWOOD – Bernie McCracken would have been proud of the effort put forth by the Wildwood High School boys basketball team Wednesday evening.

The Warriors won the championship of the bracket memorialized for the former legendary coach of the program and South Jersey Hall of Famer by using pressure defense that forced 21 turnovers, timely outside shooting and brilliant ball control late in the contest to beat Bridgeton, 50-38.

“I thought we did a really good job turning them over,” said Wildwood coach Scott McCracken, who is of no relation to Bernie McCracken. “We did a lot of different things with switching up our defenses. We did a really good job. The kids were confident coming into the game and they really executed.”

If the Warriors were confident going into the game, they must’ve been even more so after the opening quarter. Senior guard Jordan Fusik swished four three-pointers in the opening frame – three of which came on consecutive possessions – to help Wildwood to a 21-9 lead after the first quarter.

“We’ve struggled shooting the ball at times so far this year so that was a really big boost to get all those threes from Jordan,” Scott McCracken said. 

The Warriors held a lead for the remainder of the game, although Bridgeton threw several punches that Wildwood had to fend off. The Bulldogs, after falling behind by 13 points, scored the final seven points of the second quarter to trail by just 27-21 at the half.

Bridgeton eventually whittled the Warrior lead down to three at 33-30, but Junior Hans made a free throw and then later scored off an inbounds play to up the Wildwood advantage to 36-30. Wildwood never led by less than six points the rest of the way.

“When it got close, I thought our kids were really strong with the ball,” Scott McCracken said.

Hans finished with a game-high 23 points for Wildwood (4-2). Fusik added 14, and also made one of the game’s key plays when he stole an outlet pass along the baseline and fed Hans for an open layup that swelled Wildwood’s lead to 10 points with less than three minutes to go.

Earlier, a big three-pointer by Luke Basile also provided the Warriors a boost.

Wildwood limited the athletic and taller Bulldogs to three offensive rebounds in the second half after giving up eight in the first half.

“We tried to keep their key players off the boards,” Scott McCracken said, “and we did a better job of that in the second half.”

Wildwood also got other key contributions. Josh Pintella contributed two blocked shots and had three steals, Brian Cunniff made all four of his free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter and Harley Buscham and Jordan Dozier provided good minutes off the bench.

“All the way around, I thought we played a really good basketball game,” Scott McCracken said. “Junior was obviously great, but we got contributions from a lot of guys.”

Just like Bernie McCracken would have liked.