DELSEA HS 2021 BASKETBALL HIGHLIGHTS
By Angelo Teti – School Sports Writer for the Sentinel of Gloucester County – Published in the 3/11/2021 Print Edition
It was a huge week in Delsea Boys basketball between the TCC Tournament, records being broken and overall great basketball games being played. Delsea Boys won their tournament going 3-0 throughout the bracket and the girls finished 3rd in their bracket.
The boys opened up against Glassboro on Monday March 1st and won a close one 57-53. Jimmy Reilly led Delsea with 20 points, eight rebounds and a few assists. Cole Parks and Landon Burns each had 12 points as well. Reilly this week had the week of a lifetime. Sadique Powell also added nine points and seven rebounds for the Crusaders.
Delsea played Clearview in the second round of the tournament on March 3rd and won this game 61-59. Last time these two teams met, Cole Parks hit a game winning three pointer as time expired to give Delsea the win. Clearview would soon start to have deja vu as the game winded down with neither team going up by more than ten points. Cole Parks led Delsea with 21 points, also hitting three 3 pointers. Enrico Barnett had 13 points and six rebounds, and the man of the hour Jimmy Reilly had 11 points and three rebounds. With 2.7 seconds left in the game that was tied at 59-59 Delsea had possession of the ball under the basket and what happened in the next two seconds shocked the entire gym. The Clearview defender turned his back to the inbounder which was Reilly. When he did that Reilly threw the ball off his back, got his feet back into play, caught the ball off the defender and scored as time expired. If the gym was at full capacity the place would have gone bonkers; but it was a great ending to the game regardless.
Delsea would play Kingsway in the championship game on Friday March 5th. Delsea won the game 67-65 led by Cole Parks with 18 points and six assists. Sadique Powell had 16 points and four rebounds. Enrico Barnett had 12 points and eight rebounds, Landon Burns and Jimmy Reilly each had ten points as well. Delsea trailed by one point with around 25 seconds left in the game before Jimmy Reilly ended another team’s season. Reilly hit a deep 3-pointer with ten seconds left to give Delsea the lead 67-65. Delsea held Kingsway on defense and closed out the season 4-0. Delsea finished 10-5 on the year and considering all of the adversity they went through, to win this tournament was just the icing on the cake.
Delsea Girls basketball also had a special week as they opened up against Penns Grove and won pretty easily 55-38. Peyton Gilmore led the Crusaders with 28 points, nine rebounds, and ten steals. Lexi Harkins had twelve points, seven rebounds, and four steals. Emma Afflerbach had ten points and thirteen rebounds for Delsea. The girls led by fourteen at halftime and the lead never got any smaller as they played great defense and moved the ball extremely well.
On March 3rd, the girls would host Williamstown in the second round of the TCC tournament. The girls lost a tough one in overtime 59-53 to the Braves, a team they beat in overtime earlier in the season. Gilmore led Delsea with 22 points, five rebounds and six assists. These 22 points also brought her high-school career total to 989 points. She would need 11 more in the next game to become the second Delsea athlete with 100 goals in soccer and 1000 points in basketball. Lexi Harkins finished with 13 points, seven rebounds, and five steals. Zhoei Travis had nine points and five rebounds. Tori Kanuck also added five points. Williamstown led by four at halftime, eight at the end of the third quarter, but Delsea scored 24 points in the fourth quarter to tie it up. Williamstown outscord Delsea 12-6 in overtime to seal the win.
Delsea played GCIT on Friday March 5th for 3rd place in the tournament and they won 44-35. Lexi Harkins led Delsea with a 19 point, 11 rebound double – double to end her basketball career. Gilmore scored 16 points and got her 1000th point, a huge accolade she also added 9 rebounds! Zhoei Travis also added five points and seven rebounds in the win. Gilmore has played fantastic on both sides of the ball this year and has totally earned her name on the wall in the gym with some of the great players in Delsea history. It was a great year even though it was a shortened season for both teams. There is a lot to finish next year and this was just the start.