HMHS Boys Basketball: South Jersey Group 2 Playoffs – NJSIAA Tournament  

By Lauree Padgett / Special to Haddonfield[dot]Today

Well, it’s nearly 7:15 Sunday night, March 9. I have put off writing this article as long as I possibly can, so now it’s time to buck up and do the job I am (not) paid to do: detail how the Haddonfield boys basketball season came to an end this past Monday, March 3 in Round 2 of the South Jersey Group 2 portion of the NJSIAA state tournament.

Ranked # 6 out of a field of 16 (no surprise, Camden got the top seed), the Dawgs’ first game was a rematch with a member of the Colonial Conference Patriot division, Gloucester City. Round 2 put them up against Burlington County Institute of Technology (aka BCIT)–Medford, ranked #3. I’ll highlight both games below.

February 27, 2025: South Jersey Group 2, Round 1—Gloucester City at Haddonfield

These two teams had quite the battle in the beginning of the month, Feb. 4 to be exact. It was without question the most exciting game of the season for two reasons. First, junior Chase Stadler drained a 3 just ahead of the buzzer to push the Dawgs past the Lions on their “den” 37­35. Even bigger, it gave Paul Wiedeman his 600th victory as Haddonfield’s head coach.

So, going into this first-round game, the big question was whether the four quarters to come would be as intense as the previous four. One thing was clear from the outset: Haddonfield would not be able to count on Stadler for any last-second heroics this time. Stadler was benched with an ankle injury and, in fact, was unfortunately done for the season.

Junior Michael Douglas tipped the ball to sophomore Ryan Guveiyian to start the game and then after a good amount of passing (about 40 seconds’ worth), knocked down a 3. At the other end, Douglas secured the defensive board, and under the Dawgs’ basket, picked up an assist, passing the ball to junior Chris Beane, who went up and in for 2 with 6:48 on the clock. The Lions were held scoreless again, and this time Beane grabbed the board.

Senior Jake Dewedoff, who was playing his last game on the Dawgs’ home court, set up Douglas, who drove in for a bucket, and with Haddonfield now up 7–0, Gloucester City called a t timeout at the 6:27 mark. That seemed to help, as in their next possession, the Lions got their first field goal. Beane’s next shot, a 3-point attempt, did something pretty rare: it got stuck between the back of rim and the backboard. After a near Dewedoff pick-off, the Lions got their second straight 2. And with 5:03 on the clock, Gloucester City wase back to within 3, 4–7.

The Dawgs and the Lions traded missed shots before Guveiyian drove hard into the lane and put the ball in the net. Now the Dawgs were back up by 5, 9–4. After a bit of a pileup on the court, Gloucester City picked up its first foul of the quarter, nearly stole the ball back, but Haddonfield’s shot did not go in. At the other end, Beane pulled down another rebound and dribbled cross-court to score, making it 11–4, Dawgs, with just under 3 to go in the first.

The next basket of the quarter came on a 3 by the Lions that bounced in off the backboard and brought them back to within 4, 11–7. After Haddonfield did not score, Guveiyian stole it back, dishing it to Douglas, who got his third basket of the quarter. Now with 1:55 left in the quarter, the Dawgs were in front by 6, 13–7. The pair combined for a block shot (Guveiyian) and rebound (Douglas) under the Lion’s basket, then continued to work in tandem, with Guveiyian setting Douglas up for a 3. This gave the Dawgs their biggest lead, 9 points, with 1:14 on the clock. The Lions drove in the lane for the last basket of the quarter with 22 seconds remaining. So heading into quarter 2, the Dawgs were up by 7, 16–9.

Gloucester City inbounded to start the second quarter and not only had a shot blocked, was assessed with a quick foul. Beane did one of his spin moves under the Dawg basket for 2, making it 18–9 with 7:21 on the clock. The Lions roared back with a 3 and a 2 to close the gap to 4, 14–18, with 6:39 left in the half. Douglas’ offensive board gave the Dawgs a second chance at the other end. What was initially ruled a 3 by junior Mike Mooney was eventually changed to a 2, which made my usually messy notepad and scorebook even messier. To simplify things here, I’ll just make it 20–14 from the get-go.

Gloucester City responded with a 2, Haddonfield got called for a travel, and after the Lions’ shot missed, Beane grabbed the board. This time, Mooney passed the ball to Douglas for a clear 3-pointer, making it 23–16 with 5:11 on the clock. The Lions got the next two field goals, the second off an offensive rebound, and with 4:52 remaining in the half, had made it a one-possession game and were only trailing by 3, 23–20, with 4 and change to go. After the Dawgs didn’t score, the two Mikes combined for a steal, but this proved fruitless, as the Dawgs didn’t capitalize on it.

Under the Gloucester City basket, Mooney knocked the ball out of bounds. Tough D by Beane altered the next Lion shot, and enabled Beane to also secure the ball. Mooney was fouled attempting to score and stepped to the line with 2:52 on the clock. He made both, pushing the lead back to 5, 25–20. The Dawgs upped their defense a notch for the end of the half, holding the Lions scoreless. The Dawgs added 5 more points. One came off a foul shot by Guveiyian and 4 were from baskets from Mooney and Beane, whose shot went in just ahead of the buzzer. When the teams walked off the court, the Dawgs had a double-digit, 30–20, advantage.

The Dawgs blew the game open in the third quarter, scoring 19 points. Douglas and Beane each swooshed in 3’s. Bean also had a 2, while Douglas had a pair of field goals. John Scipione, who saw playing time in three quarters, also had 2 baskets. Guveiyian was fouled scoring a hard drive in the paint and finished the play at the line. The Lions only managed 9 points and going into the final quarter were trailing by 20, 49–39.

The fourth quarter was more competitive, with Haddonfield outscoring Gloucester City by 3, 15–12, but overall, it didn’t make much difference. When the final horn sounded, the Dawgs had beaten back the Lions by 23, 64–41. That was a 21-point differential on the plus side from their previous meeting. Douglas and Beane were a big part of that, finishing with 20 and 19 points, respectively.

Quarter scores:

1st: Haddonfield, 16, Gloucester City, 9

2nd: Haddonfield, 14, Gloucester City, 11

Halftime: Haddonfield, 30, Gloucester City, 20

3rd: Haddonfield, 19, Gloucester City, 9

4th: Haddonfield, 15, Gloucester City, 12

Final: Haddonfield, 64, Gloucester City, 41

Player scores:

Michael Douglas: 20

Chris Beane: 19

Ryan Guveiyian: 8

Mike Mooney: 8

John Scipione: 5

Ethan Miller: 2

Nick Scipione: 2

March 3, 2025: South Jersey Group 2, Round 2—Haddonfield at BCIT–Medford

As I compared the records of the two teams ahead of time, it seemed like this matchup had the makings of a tight game. And it sure turned out that way. However, the first quarter play of the Dawgs both offensively and defensively made their fans hopeful that the Dawgs could pull out a win.

Michael Douglas tipped the ball to Ryan Guveiyian to start the game. After some nice passing by the starters—which included John Scipione for the still-injured Chase Stadler—Guveiyian fed the ball to Chris Beane, who went in for 2. Jake Dewedoff got the defensive board at the other end, but the Dawgs failed to score. But the Dawgs applied pressure and picked off the ball, which then went out of bounds off the BCIT–Medford Jaguars, from here on in referred to as the Jags. The Dawgs did not score, but John Scipione’s steal gave the ball back, and this time Douglas found the net, putting the Dawgs up 4–0 with 6:01 on the clock.

The first basket by the Jags was a 3, but Douglas answered, off handoff by Jake Dewedoff, with a trey that was waaaay out there, making it 9–3, Haddonfield with 5:19 left in the first. Douglas got the defensive rebound, and then Beane set Dewedoff off for a fast break. With 4:50 on the clock, the Dawgs were up by 6, 9–3. The Jags got 2 back from the foul line, the Dawgs missed two scoring chances the next possession, but a steal by Beane led to a basket by John Scipione. The Dawgs’ 6-point lead was cut in half when the Jags nailed a 3 with 3:03 to go in the quarter, which made it 11–8, Haddonfield.

Haddonfield got a second shot its next possession after a hustling Guveiyian grabbed the ball off a missed basket and knocked it out of bounds off a Jaguar. Keeping possession, the Dawgs were able to score off an assist from Beane to Douglas. Now it was 13–8, Haddonfield with 2:07 on the clock. The Dawgs got a defensive board bur lost it and then picked up a shooting foul. The Jags made both shots and were now within 3, 13–10, with 1:32 to go. Neither team scored for more than a minute before Dewedoff hit a trey with about 15 seconds showing on the clock. The quarter ended with the Dawgs on top by 6, 16–10.

The second quarter would prove to be the Dawgs’ downfall. The team could only muster 3 points total. The first came off a basket by John Scipione at the 6:37 mark—the sole field goal of the quarter for Haddonfield. The other point, from the foul line by Guveiyian, came more than 3 minutes later. The Dawgs played hard those 8 minutes, but could not take advantage of turnovers by the Jags, often giving the ball right back after a steal or defensive rebound. The Jags didn’t exactly have an offensive barrage, once again putting 10 on the board, but those 10 were enough for them to take a 1-point, 20–19, edge at the half.

In the first few minutes of the third, the Dawgs and Jags traded baskets, with the Jags holding onto that 1-point advantage. After a drive by Guveiyian made it 24–23, Jags, the Jags lost the ball out of bounds, and a drive by Beane gave the Dawgs back the lead, 25–24, with 5:34 on the clock. A lot happened the next 60 or so seconds except for scoring by either team. Then in a confusing chain of events that left me missing that a basket counted, the Jags scored but then were assessed a technical. (I mistakenly thought the technical had negated the basket.) Douglas stepped to the foul line alone, made both shots, and with 4:17 remaining in the quarter, the Dawgs were up by 1, 27–26 (instead of what I initially thought was being up by 3, 27–24). The Dawgs would only get 1 more point, on a foul shot by Guveiyian, while the Jags got 9, including 3 from the foul line with 1:05 left in the quarter, which put them up by 7, 35–28 and finished the scoring for the quarter.

With Guveiyian leading the charge, the Dawgs fought back in the last 8 minutes. After the Jags got a basket to go up by 9, 37–28, Guveiyian got the next 5 points. The first 3 came off a basket and a foul shot, which he followed with another field goal. With 6:26 left in the game, the Dawgs were back to within 4, 33–37. The Jags got a basket, but Douglas answered for the Dawgs to maintain that 4-point differential. It looked like the Dawgs were going to get the ball back on a travel, but one of the refs instead called a foul on Haddonfield. This ended up being a 3-point turnaround, as the Jags scored and got a shot from the line. Now they were back up by 7 again, 42–35, with 5:04 on the clock. Needless to say, this turn of events did not sit well with the Haddonfield contingency.

Douglas missed his shot but got the rebound, and Beane scored, closing the gap to 5, 37–42, with 4:35 left in the game. The teams exchanged 2 points once more, with the Jags getting a field goal and the Dawgs getting 2 from shots at the line by Beane. After a near-pick-off by Douglas, there were bodies on the floor, but the Jags retained possession. But then John Scipione did pilfer the ball, and Guveiyian scored and was fouled. His shot from the line got the Dawgs to with 2, 42–44, with 3:10 remaining, and the Dawg fans were cheering their approval.

The Jags went into stall mode (we probably would have done the same if we had been on top), passing and passing and passing. Haddonfield was called on a questionable foul, but neither shot dropped, so with 1:44 on the clock, it was still just a 2-point game. The Dawgs could not score, instead losing the ball out of bounds a few seconds after getting the rebound. At the Jag end, the Dawgs were assessed a technical foul. (A day later, when checking with the dad of one of our players as to what happened, he told me no one really knew why the ref had called it.) This time, both shots went in, and now the Dawgs were down by 4 with about 83 seconds left in the game.

The Jags retained possession after the foul shots, but did not score. The Dawgs lost the ball, got it back after a timeout, but could not score. After another timeout, I think this time by the Jags, the Jags scored to go up 48–42. With 1.8 seconds left, Douglas got the Dawgs’ last basket, but to no avail. Despite their efforts in the final 8 minutes, the Dawgs could not rally past the Jags, losing by 4, 44–48. It was a hard loss, as the few times the momentum seemed to switch back to the Dawgs, the team just couldn’t make that big shot. But as they left the court for the last time in the season, the Dawg fans showed their appreciation with loud applause and cheers. And well they should have, as the Dawgs finished with a 21–8 record, no small feat with no returning starters from the previous season.

Quarter scores:

1st: Haddonfield, 16, BCIT–Medford, 10

2nd: Haddonfield, 3, BCIT–Medford, 10

Halftime: Haddonfield, 19, BCIT–Medford, 20

3rd: Haddonfield, 9, BCIT–Medford, 15

4th: Haddonfield, 6, BCIT–Medford, 13

Final: Haddonfield, 44, BCIT–Medford, 48

Player scores:

Michael Douglas: 12

Ryan Guveiyian: 11

Jake Dewedoff: 8

Chris Beane: 5

John Scipione: 4

Final Thoughts

I’m going to share my reflections of the season in a few weeks’ time. It will probably be after the boys banquet on March 23, so I can also include Coach Paul Wiedeman’s remarks as well. But until then, I’ll just say how proud I am of all the Dawgs accomplished this season and I can’t wait until it’s December again!