HAMMONTON—The Hammonton
High School boys basketball team
continues to show toughness despite its
limitations on the court. The Blue
Devils don’t display the deepest bench
or feature great size, but they haven’t
backed down from any opponent this
season.
Against perennial power, St. Augustine
Prep, the Blue Devils lost 56-41 last
week. It was the second matchup between
the two schools this year, and in both
contests, Hammonton has held its own.
The Hermits opened up a 9-0 lead from
the beginning of the game. That might
have been the difference in the game, as
Hammonton went toe-to-toe with the Prep
for the rest of the contest.
Falling behind early against a team like
St. Augustine is usually tough to
overcome.
“I thought we played pretty poorly in
the first half. We didn’t get back on
defense very well early on. Absolutely
it’s tough to come back when you fall
behind early, and I think our foul
shooting was bad too. If you’re going to
beat the Prep, you have to play your
A-plus game. We played good [in the
second half], it just wasn’t good
enough,” head coach Joe Martino said.
The Blue Devils did struggle defensively
in the first half, and especially in
transition. They got out-rebounded by a
bigger Hermits’ squad, as well. However,
holding center Austin Johnson to just
five points and four rebounds was a big
accomplishment.
Doubling the stronger Johnson was no
easy task, but Hammonton got him into
foul trouble and frustrated him
throughout.
“He [Johnson] is a very good player;
he’s very physical. We got some tough
kids and they are going to battle. In
that situation we just tried to contain
him. I think we had to get out on the
guards more because we let them loose a
little bit,” Martino said.
After a sluggish second quarter of play,
Kyle Darby’s three-point heave at the
first half buzzer cut the Prep lead to
33-25.
The Blue Devils didn’t execute in the
half court for most of the night, but
hung in there because of solid
man-to-man defense in the final 16
minutes of play. The inability to go on
a big run prevented them from making any
sort of comeback.
Despite holding the Hermits to 23 points
in the second half, Hammonton had no
answer on the offensive end. Christian
Mortellite led the Blue Devils in
scoring with 18 points and six rebounds
while Bobby Barbieri and Darby had seven
points each.
St. Augustine iced the game from the
foul line to go up double-digits late,
as the Blue Devils were held to seven
points in the final period.
The Hammonton High School boys
basketball team is now 7-8 on the
season, with two of those wins coming in
league play.
It is a crucial week for the Blue
Devils, as they play league foes,
Bridgeton and Oakcrest, with a solid
chance to still make the South Jersey
Group III playoffs.
“Next week is big. We just got to take
it one game at a time, as the old cliché
goes,” Martino said.
They played Bridgeton on the road on
Tuesday. That game ended too late for
this edition. On February 2, the Blue
Devils play Oakcrest at home. On
February 4, they go on the road to face
off against non-league opponent,
Overbrook.
Bridgeton and Oakcrest are the two teams
the Blue Devils have beaten in the Cape
Atlantic League National division this
season.
