HMHS Boys Basketball: Camden County Tournament

By Lauree Padgett / Special to Haddonfield[dot]Today

This was the third year of the Camden County Tournament. So far, it’s been a mixed bag for the Dawgs. The Dawgs won two out of three games, which was good, but the third game was in the  consolation round. And it’s hard to really draw a lot from these games, since teams are going up against each other from different sized-schools/conferences, and there are no cut-offs. If you’re school is in Camden County, then you’re in the tournament.

Saturday, February 15: Round 1—Gateway at Haddonfield

Although these two teams did not face each other during the regular Colonial Conference season, they did meet up in the first round of the Camden County playoffs. The Gators entered the game as the 26th seed (only higher than Lindenwold, the only team the Gators beat in the Colonial, and Camden Academy Charter), with the Dawgs being the 7th seed. It was not unexpected, then, that the game was pretty much a blowout from the tipoff to the final buzzer.

In the first quarter, Haddonfield put 29 points on the board to Gateway’s 2. Juniors Chris Beane and Michael Douglas led the offensive blitz. Beane had five 2-point field goals for 10 points. Douglas mixed it up a bit. He scored four 2-point field goals, three from the foul line, and one from behind the arc. Sophomore Ryan Guveiyian, with two buckets, outscored the Gators all on his own.

The second quarter did not get much better for the Gators. The Dawgs “only” scored 22 points, while the Gators got 3. In this 8-minute stretch, freshman Ethan Miller (college hoops broadcaster Dick Vitale—and welcome back, Dickie V!!!—would no doubt call Miller a “Diaper Dandy”!) took over the scoring. He knocked in 10 on a pair of field goals and a pair of treys. Guveiyian and Douglas also swooshed in 3’s along with junior John Scipione.. His twin bro Nick also got 3, on a basket and a follow-up foul shot. At the half, the Dawgs were waaaaaaay out in front 51–5. They probably could have gotten one more bucket, but when the Dawgs got possession with a few seconds on the clock, Coach Paul Wiedeman made the “don’t attempt a shot” sign.

The third quarter was the only period the Dawgs didn’t score at least 20 points, settling for 17 to the Gator’s 7. All five starters contributed to those 17 points: Beane had 2 baskets, senior Jake Dewedoff had a 2 and a foul shot, Guveiyian had 2 more buckets, junior Chase Stadler hit one of his signature 3’s, and Douglas got his third trey of the game. Going into the final 8 minutes, the Dawgs were up by 56, 68–12.

None of those starters played at all in the final quarter. However, the Dawgs still added 20 points to their total. Miller got 7 points on a trio of 2’s and a foul shot. Junior Mike Mooney nailed a 3, as did Nick Scipione, who also got a pair of field goals. Bro John hit one from the line, and junior Ben Raus also went up and in for 2. When it was all said and done, the Dawgs had defeated the Gators by 63, 88–25. That was such a huge margin of victory, the Dawgs student section showed some unexpected restraint and did not impose their favorite chant—“Start the buses!”—to a team that was heading home with a loss.

Thirteen players saw action in the game. Ten of them scored. Five finished with double figures.

Quarter scores:

1st: Haddonfield, 29, Gateway, 2

2nd: Haddonfield, 22, Gateway, 3

Halftime: Haddonfield, 51, Gateway, 5

3rd: Haddonfield, 17, Gateway, 7

4th: Haddonfield, 20, Gateway, 13

Final: Haddonfield, 88, Gateway, 25

Player scores:

Michael Douglas: 20

Ethan Miller:17

Chris Beane: 14

Ryan Guveiyian: 11

Nick Scipione: 10

Jake Dewedoff: 4

John Scipione: 4

Chase Stadler: 3

Mike Mooney: 3

Ben Raus: 2

Monday, February 17: Round 2—KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy at Haddonfield

In the middle of January, Haddonfield took on KIPP as part of the Paul VI Showcase, winning rather handily, 54–36. So even though Ryan Guveiyian was very unhappily sitting at home with the flu, I wasn’t overly concerned. I should also note that I had not seen the first matchup between the teams, but knowing that the Dawgs had won by 18 and that KIPP was seeded 10 in the tournament made me feel like the Dawgs had a good chance to come out on top even without the rebounding presence of Guveiyian.

The first points of the game did not come until the 3:54 mark and were made by Chris Beane from the foul line. About 30 seconds later, the Titans tied it at 2, also from the line. With about 2 minutes left in the quarter, KIPP went ahead by 2 on foul shots. The first field goal came with 57 seconds on the clock, as Ethan Miller grabbed an offensive board and went up and in to tie it at 4. The Titans’ first basket came with 33.9 and put them back in front by 2, 6–4, and that’s how the first quarter ended.

Haddonfield had possession to begin the second quarter. Michael Douglas found himself at the line with 7:34 on the clock and made 1–2. After a Dawgs’ blocked shot at the other end, John Scipione grabbed the board and went cross-court to score, putting the Dawgs up by 1, 7–6, with 6:41 left in the half. Although the Dawgs would pull even a few more times in the quarter, they never regained the lead. As the teams left the court for the half, the Dawgs were down by 7, 15–22.

The Dawgs came closer to matching the Titans’ output in the 3rd, as Haddonfield added 14 points to KIPPS’ 17. The Dawgs just couldn’t seem to break through. The Titans were getting rebounds at both ends, even if three Dawgs were under the basket battling for the ball. The KIPP players were tall and big, and unlike other teams the Dawgs had gone up against who looked athletic but didn’t play that way, the Titans could handle the ball well and were making a lot of their shot attempts. And unfortunately, more of the Dawgs’ shots were not finding the net. When the Titans went up by 11 at the 6:30 mark in the 3rd, I honestly started wondering how the Dawgs had managed to beat them by almost 20 points 5 weeks ago.

But there’s also one thing I never have to wonder about: Would the Dawgs just give up? Heck no. Not under Paul Wiedeman’s watch. Although the Titans extended their lead to 15, to up 39–24 with 1:08 to remaining in the quarter, Douglas drove the ball cross court and scored as if the deficit was much smaller. After Beane got a defensive board the Titans’ next possession, John Scipione got an offensive rebound under the Haddonfield basket to score and was fouled. His shot got the Dawgs to within 10, 29–39, which is how the quarter ended.  

John Scipione scored to start the 4th quarter, eliminating that double-digit lead with 7:09 left in the contest. KIPP got that lead back its next trip down the court. Ethan Miller’s basket got the Dawgs back to within 8 at the 6:09 mark. And so it went. The Dawgs would inch closer and the Titans would erase the bucket with one of their own. Meanwhile, during timeouts, our play-by-play man and DJ combo Mark Hershberger was playing ABBA songs for the second straight game. This could only mean one thing: He was plugging the Drama Club’s spring musical, MAMA MIA!, which is happening Friday and Saturday nights March 7–8 and 14–15, with a matinee on 3/9. (And yes, I’m doing it too, as once a Drama Club member, always a Drama Club member!)

Despite their efforts, the Dawgs could never get closer than 8. Their coach was getting a bit irate on the sidelines: not at the team but at the refs. With about 3 minutes remaining, Jake Dewedoff took an elbow in the nose and had to come out of the game, but no foul was called. With 53.2 on the clock, the refs called a ball out on Haddonfield when it seemed to have clearly be last touched by KIPP. This caused more than a few Dawg fans to yell, “Our ball!” To make matters worse, the ref didn’t seem to know where the ball should have been inbounded from and would not listen to Coach Wiedeman, who was trying to tell him where to put it. (The ball, I mean, of course.)

The Dawgs’ last basket of the game came on a pretty floater by Beane. The Titans got 3 more off a field goal and a foul shot. The horn sounded, and KIPP had definitely gotten some “sweat” revenge from their 18-point January loss, beating Haddonfield by 13, 55–43.

Before I give the quarter and player scores, I hope you will indulge me stepping up on my soap box for a minute. As the disappointed Dawg contingency was dispersing, I heard more than a few comments from longtime fans, many former players and even some who have coached the game on some level or another. The lament seemed to be that this year’s team just isn’t that good. Well, I beg to differ. No, this year’s squad didn’t win their first 21 games like last year’s veteran group did. And we may not get too deep into the NJSIAA’s this year, either. But after the loss to KIPP, the Dawgs were 19–7. To me, that’s pretty darn good without having to wait, as others have said more than once, for next season.

Haddonfield fans, dare I say, can be a bit snobby. We expect to win the Colonial Conference every year. We expect to win more than 20 games a season. We expect to go deep into the playoffs. We expect so much that we can forget that some teams are still in the rebuild mode. This year’s team has no one who played any real minutes at the varsity level last year. That’s because out of the eight seniors who suited up last season, seven played varsity every game. Yes, Michael Douglas got into many games last year as a sophomore. But he wasn’t the first or even the second Dawg off the bench. Unless one of the regular seven was hurt or got into foul trouble, his minutes were limited.

Our other guard, Jake Dewedoff, didn’t even get in that much JV playing time last year mostly due to injuries. While as a freshman Ryan Guveiyian made the JV squad and got into a good number of varsity games, it was mostly at the end of the 4th quarter. That was the same with Chris Beane as well. The “point” here is that the Dawgs are a whole new team this year. Everybody has had to learn how to play together, some at new positions. I’m sure it hasn’t been easy and that the boys have had their share of frustrations. But look at what they have accomplished. They did win the conference. And—spoiler alert—after the next contest, they did win 20 games. It remains to be seen what will happen in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 2 playoffs, but I wouldn’t count them out.

Will they be really good next year? I sure think so. But IMHO, they’ve been good this year too. Thus ends my rant. And with that, we go to …

Quarter scores:

1st: Haddonfield, 4, KIPP, 6

2nd: Haddonfield, 11, KIPP, 16

Halftime: Haddonfield, 15, KIPP, 22

3rd: Haddonfield, 14, KIPP, 17

4th: Haddonfield,16 , KIPP, 22

Final: Haddonfield, 45, KIPP, 58

Player scores:

Michael Douglas: 14

John Scipione: 12

Chris Beane: 11

Ethan Miller: 7

Jake Dewedoff: 1

Wednesday, February 19, 2025: Consolation Round—Haddonfield at Winslow Township

The most frustrating thing about this game was that it kept changing. First, according to the online schedule, it was going to be home versus Pennsauken on Saturday, 2/22 at 11:30 a.m.. Then within a few hours’ time, it switched days, time, team, and venue, with the Dawgs now traveling to Winslow Township on Wednesday, 2/18 for a 5:30 game. That got changed to 5:15 and then, after the JV game was canceled, to 4:30. Good thing I was able to leave work early and that my driving buddy for the day was keeping an eye on that schedule …

Funnily enough, we got to the game ahead of the boys’ bus. The Winslow Eagles and their cheerleaders were doing warmups when we got inside the gym. On the plus side, I had plenty of time to get a snack and set up my scorebook and notepad. I had also gone on NJ.com to get some background on the Eagles. They are in the Patriot division of the Olympic Conference and were 5–3 in conference play, 15–8 overall going into the game against the Dawgs. In the Camden County Tournament, the Eagles had an easy W versus Collingswood but fell to Camden Eastside by 4 points.

No doubt, both teams were looking to shake off their last game, one a close match, the other, not so much. Who would come out the victor?

For the first 8 minutes, the Winslow Eagles looked like they were flying high. They jumped out to a 4–0 lead before Ryan Guveiyian, apparently not suffering any ill-effects from the flu, drove cross court to go up and in with 4:29 on the clock. John Scipione, who started in place of Chase Stadler (I am not sure if he was out with the flu), tied the game from the line after Winslow Township picked up its second foul of the quarter with 4:09 remaining.

The Eagles went ahead again on a ball that bounced in. At the other end, Guveiyian went down hard but no foul was called, and after the Dawgs missed the basket, the Eagles snatched the rebound away from Haddonfield. A Dawgs’ foul sent Winslow to the line, but neither shot dropped in. Both teams were cited for traveling, and then Guveiyian was fouled. He made the first but missed the second, cutting the Eagles’ lead to 1, 6–5, with 2:39 on the clock.

Mike Mooney got the rebound off the missed foul shot, but the Dawgs turned it over and then got another foul called on them. This time the Eagles landed both shots in the net to go back in front by 3, 8–5. A pass from Guveiyian set Mooney up for a 3, which tied the game at 8 with just under 2 minutes to go. A few plays later, Winslow hit a 3 to again go up by 3, 11–8 with 55 seconds on the clock. The Dawgs would get one more basket in the quarter by Michael Douglas, so going into the second, they were down by 1, 10–11.

Although Winslow would get the first bucket to make it 13–10, Eagles, Jake Dewedoff answered with a 3 to tie the game at 13 with 6:37 on the clock. He then almost stole the ball but ended up on the floor instead—that kid hustles! Instead, the Eagles scored to retake the lead 15–13 with 6:18 left in the half. A few back-and-forths up and down the court later, Dewedoff was fouled in the act of shooting. Both shots were good and with 5:23 on the clock, the game was even at 15.

After Winslow was called for a travel (the refs were calling this left and right but at least seemed to be consistent with what they were IDing as moving violations), the Dawgs did not score, but neither did the Eagles. Next Dawg possession, Dewedoff was fouled yet again, this time making 1–2 to give the Dawgs their second lead of the game, both coming from the foul line, with 4:52 to go.

And then a switch was flipped. The Dawgs upped the offense and the defense simultaneously. John Scipione stole the ball and scored. A few plays later, Mooney fed the ball to John Scipione, who this time hit for a 3. This put Haddonfield up by 6, 21–15, with about 3:30 left in the half. Dewedoff stole the ball, but the Dawgs would lose it off a bad inbound pass. The Dawgs were pressing the Eagles, who got out of a bad spot only to throw the ball into the stands. The Eagles in fact would not score for the rest of the quarter, but the Dawgs got one more basket from, yes, John Scipione off a steal and pass from Douglas. At the half, the Dawgs were ahead by 8, 23–15.

The 3rd quarter saw a lot of points going up on the board, with the Dawgs outscoring the Eagles 22–13. Douglas, who only had one field goal in the first half, added 9 in the third on two foul shots, two baskets, and a 3. Beane had two baskets, as did Guveiyian, with one of his coming from behind the arc. John Scipione also scored one more bucket. Going into the 4th the Dawgs had increased their lead to double digits and were ahead by 17, 45–28.

In the 4th, the Dawgs held the Eagles to 10 points, which was their lowest quarter total of the game. The Dawgs almost doubled that, putting 19 on the board with seven players scoring, including Nick Scipione and Ben Raus off the bench. When the buzzer sounded to end the game, the Dawgs had shaken off the dust from the game before to give themselves win #20 for the season, defeating the Eagles 64–38.

Quarter scores:

1st: Haddonfield, 10, Winslow Township, 11

2nd: Haddonfield, 13, Winslow Township, 4

Halftime: Haddonfield, 23, Winslow Township, 15

3rd: Haddonfield, 22, Winslow Township, 13

4th: Haddonfield, 19, Winslow Township, 10

Final: Haddonfield, 64, Winslow Township, 38

Player scores:

John Scipione: 14

Michael Douglas: 13

Ryan Guveiyian: 12

Chris Beane: 8

Mike Mooney: 7

Jake Dewedoff: 6

Ben Raus: 2

Nick Scipione: 2

NJSIAA Tournament

The South Jersey Group 2 playoffs start on Thursday, 2/27. The Dawgs are seeded 6th and will host Colonial Conference compatriot Gloucester City, who the Dawgs beat on the buzzer just a few weeks ago to give Paul Wiedeman coaching win 600. The Lions are seeded 11 and I am sure would love to invoke some payback for that snatched-away win. The game is at 7:00 p.m., but you can come out and cheer on the Lady Dawgs, seeded 5, as they take on Lower Cape May, seeded 12, at 5:00 p.m.

GO DAWGS!!!