VIDEO: Crusaders get past Middle to set up massive conference showdown with Mainland

Posted: January 26th 2024

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE – The Wildwood Catholic Academy girls basketball team has an incredibly important Cape-Atlantic American Conference game scheduled for Tuesday.

The upcoming contest only has major conference title race implications, however, because the Crusaders were able to get past one of their biggest rivals in another key conference contest on Friday.

Wildwood Catholic used hot early shooting from the outside to jump out to a 21-4 lead before settling for a 48-44 victory over Middle Township.

Eliott McCabe and Kaci Mikulski each made two three-pointers and Lola McGonigle sank one over the game’s first 12 minutes as Wildwood Catholic built an early 17-point lead from which Middle could never recover.

“We came out on fire,” Wildwood Catholic coach Steve DiPatri said. “Everyone’s better when shots go in. Making outside shots is a big key to our success. We hit some of those good early looks and that helped propel us to a very good win on the road.

“This is our rival and year in and year out, they’re always great games. To come in here and take care of business was big for us. I think we needed to play them tonight. I feel like we’ve been in a midseason lull emotionally. We needed to get back to what we do best. Our girls always get up to play Middle.”

McCabe led the outside shooting attack for WCA (16-1 overall, 9-1 CAL American), making four for the game from three-point range to account for all 12 of her points.

“It’s really important to hit shots in a game like this,” McCabe said.

Wildwood Catholic is set to play Notre Dame at the Ocean City Girls Shootout on Saturday. But it’s the league game with Mainland on Tuesday that matters more.

Mainland, which went into this weekend at 16-0, handed Wildwood Catholic its only loss to date earlier this month, a 50-40 result in Linwood.

“We need to keep them out of the lane, garner every loose ball and every rebound and hit key buckets,” DiPatri said of the upcoming game with Mainland. “We’ve played them tough the last couple of years but we haven’t gotten over the hump. Hopefully our kids are ready to take that next step.”

McCabe believes she and her teammates will be ready for the challenge.

“It should be a really good game,” McCabe said. “I’m really excited for it.”

Kaci Mikulski scored a team-high 14 points for Wildwood Catholic in the win over Middle.

McKenzie Palek scored 16 points and Hanna Cappelletti added 12 points for Middle (12-6, 6-4), which made several charges at Wildwood Catholic in the second half but could get no closer than the four-point margin represented by the final score.