CAMDEN — Scoring wasn’t the problem for the Caper Tigers in their quarterfinal game against No. 1 Camden High School March 3. The problem was stopping Camden from scoring.
The Lower Cape May Regional High School boys lost to Camden 85-58 in the South Jersey Group II sectional tournament. That ended the boys season with a 15-12 record.
The Caper Tigers entered the game as the No. 8 seed after beating No. 9 Barnegat High School 59-51 in the opening round of the tournament at home.
Camden is 20-8 so far this season with three victories in which its players have scored more than 100 points and others in the 80- to 90-point range. In the opening round, Camden beat Pennsauken Tech 102-36.
The Caper Tigers were outscored in every quarter, with Camden jumping out to a 21-11 lead in the first stanza. Camden led 40-25 at the half and went on to outscore LCMR 26-19 in the third quarter and 19-14 in the fourth.
John Fernandez had the hot hand for the Caper Tigers, scoring 21 points in the contest. Ty Bonner, who broke the career 1,000-point barrier in the opening round of the tournament, had 17 points.
Mason Cronin added six points, Cole Sederland five and Chris Hawes, Ryan Mallon and Brayden Melo three each.
Fernandez, who had two steals, also led his team with five rebounds; Melo had four, Bonner three and Cronin and Jose Ramos two each. Mallon had seven assists in the game, a team high.
The Caper Tigers began the season with a 6-7 record before rattling off four straight wins against Atlantic Tech, Cedar Creek, Wildwood and Egg Harbor Township. They lost to Holy Spirit in the second round of the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament and nearly knocked off Ocean City to close the regular season, falling 55-54 at home.
The team will graduate some key seniors including Melo and Cronin, who was the team’s tallest player and led in rebounds. The team should return the high-scoring junior Bonner, Fernandez, Mallon and Sederland, among others.
Bonner netted 466 points this season on his way to the 1,000-point mark, Fernandez had 302, Cronin 206, Mallon 159, Sederland 136 and Melo 123. Bonner and Fernandez had 131 and 117 rebounds, respectively, and Bonner dished out 107 assists, a team high.
By DAVID NAHAN/Cape May Star and Wave
