Spartan girls remain perfect winning Delehanty Bracket

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr. – Friday afternoon the girls’ varsity basketball team from Ocean Township High School kept their perfect season alive with a 50-28 win over Colonia in the finals of the Patty Delehanty Bracket of the Blue Devil Holiday Tournament. Click here to read about the Spartans semifinal win and about Patty Delehanty

Ocean entered the finals with a perfect 5-0 record, and having a well-balanced team for the first time in many years. What is impressive about this squad is that each of them are fast, good dribblers, smart with the ball, can shoot from anywhere on the floor and hit the boards.

That was evident after the first quarter as Ocean had a 16-5 lead over Colonia. Five different Spartans scored in the opening minutes. Eli Clark, junior guard, scored five of her game leading 16 in the first quarter. Sofia Chebookjian, junior forward, had three of her game-high nine, Gamila Betton also had three of her game-high nine, Jineen Ayyash hit a three and sophomore Kayden Clark had two points.

Closing out the first half, Ocean had a swarming defense holding Colonia to four points, their lowest amount during the game. Offensively, Eli Clark was red hot from outside as she nailed three shots from the three-point arch. Chebookjian had two baskets, and Betton made one of two foul shots. Going into the halftime break, Ocean had a comfortable 30-9 lead.

Colonia came out for the second, making the proper adjustments and had their best minutes of the finals. Both school scored 12 points in the third quarter. Five Spartans again hit the scoreboard, Ayyash had four points, Abby Desmarais, Betton, Chebookjian, and Kayden Clark all had a basket.

The final eight minutes of action was very tight. Ocean did take an 8-7 lead in the fourth quarter with Betton and Eli Clark each having a basket. The Spartans went to the foul line seven times to close out the game. They made four free throws, Betton had one, Kyden Clark had two, and Caroline Bariscillo made a foul shot.

Eli Clark had 16 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals. She was named MVP of the Patty Delehanty Bracket of the Blue Devil Holiday Tournament. Chebookjian and Betton finished with nine points each, Betton had seven rebounds and Chebookjian had four. Ayyash finished with seven points, eight rebounds and one block, while Kayden Clark had six points, two rebounds, four assists and one steal.

Ocean is now 6-0 on the season and currently sitting in second place in the Shore Conference C South Division, which has Monmouth Regional in first at 4-0 in division action. The Falcons are 5-1 overall, that one loss occurred in the Blue Devil Holiday Tournament.

Hightstown beat the Falcons 53-33 in the semifinals of the Nancy Williams Bracket of the Blue Devil Holiday Tournament.

Click the photo for the caption.