Lower Cape May Regional girls 2-2, injury-depleted entering the new year
WILDWOOD — There was a telling detail on the stat sheet for Lower Cape May Regional High School’s girls basketball game Dec. 28 — a lot of black ink.
More than half of the names were crossed out.
The team suited up just six players against Cumberland Regional High School’s team at the Wildwoods Convention Center. With just one sub, there was little rest for any of the players.
Whether that was a factor was unclear, because the Caper Tiger girls had a tough time finding the range. They were able to get their shots off during their second game at the Boardwalk Basketball Classic that weekend, but they just wouldn’t fall.
The depleted LCMR team was down 11-5 at the end of the first quarter and 16-8 at the half, after scoring only three points in the second quarter. (For its part, Cumberland had only five points in that defensive quarter.)
With less than three minutes to go in the game, the girls were down by 10 points, 32-22, but they managed to slowly come back to make it a two-point game, 38-36, at the end.
The Caper Tigers had the final shot just before the buzzer, but that one wouldn’t fall. With just over a second on the clock, they had the ball on an inbounds pass, but couldn’t get a shot off.
The girls lost, 38-36, but that 14-point surge showed they didn’t give up the fight.
“They battled at the end,” head coach Scott Douglass said. “Their effort in the fourth quarter was what we tried to get out of them. They were a little slow in the first half.”
As for shooting, he said, “We weren’t very good.”
Asked about the roster, the coach said a few girls were injured, the team was waiting for a transfer student to be eligible and a few multi-sport athletes had other commitments.
“You know, we’ve got to play with what we have. Nobody feels sorry for you,” he said. As for the shooting, that is something the team has to work on. “Right now,” he added, “we’re struggling to shoot the ball.”
One more thing that didn’t help was Brooke Robinson leaving the game with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter.
“Brooke Robinson is key to us. She has to get going offensively so we can compete,” Douglass said.
Savannah Wareham “handles the ball 95 percent of the time,” sophomore Leks Domanowski “continues to get better” and he has seniors Ainsley Reed and Meredith Lutjen.
“Everyone brings something to the table,” the coach said. “We just have to figure out when they can all play well together.”
Wareham led the team in scoring with 9 points, Reed had 8 and Domanowski 7. Lutjen had 5, Aubrey Gamble 4 and Robinson 3.
(Robinson led her teammates with 9 points the day before in a 64-31 loss to Methacton at the Boardwalk Basketball Classic.)
The girls are 2-2 coming into 2026. They had a season-opening win, 47-36 against Barnegat, and a 36-27 victory over Atlantic County Institute of Technology.
Avery Hansen had 14 points in the win over Barnegat, Domanowski 9 and Lutjen 7, plus points from five other players.
“We are better than we were last year. Some girls individually have gotten better,” Douglass said. “We just want to come out and compete in every game. For three games, we’ve been OK, but the one Saturday got away from us.”
The coach said the goal for the team this season is to be competitive in every game.
When the girls return from the holiday break, they were traveling to Ocean City on Jan. 6 for a 5:30 p.m. game.
The girls are at Atlantic City at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 8 and then at Mainland Regional on Saturday, Jan. 10, for an early 11:30 a.m. start. Their next home game is 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 12, against Hammonton.
By DAVID NAHAN/Cape May Star and Wave
