By Lauree Padgett. Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today.

As the regular season wound down last week, the Haddonfield boys basketball team only had two games, both non-conference matchups at home, on the docket. The first, on Tuesday, 2/22, was Senior Night and saw the Dawgs take on the Panthers of BCIT Westampton. Two nights later, the Dawgs went up against the Dragons of Kingsway Regional High School. Both games were high-volume and entertaining, but did not result in wins. I’ll break both down momentarily.

First, I want to remind everyone that tonight (Monday, 2/28) begins the NJSIAA hoops playoffs. It offers a rare chance to catch both the girls and boys, representing South Jersey Group 2,  at home. The girls, ranked 8th, will be facing 9th-seeded Point Pleasant Boro at 5 p.m. Then, the 3rd-seeded boys will be going head-to-head against Lower Cape May, the 14th seed.  To quote our unmatched play-by-play announcer, Mark Hershberger, I encourage everyone to come out and “make some noise for your Daaaawwwwggggs!!!”

Now, back to last week’s recaps.

Senior Night is always a bittersweet game. It’s not always the last home game of the season, but it’s usually one of the final ones before the post-season. when the motto becomes “Won or done.” Almost always, it’s a chance for the seniors who don’t start or are not in first off the bench to get some well-earned recognition and extra playing time. (The way I look at it, to be willing to be part of a team—attending all the practices, making all those bus rides, and knowing that your playing time is going to be limited—shows just how much you love the game of basketball and being part of something bigger than yourself and your ego.) Also almost always, Coach Paul Wiedeman honors his seniors by having them on the court for the tip-off. This proved a bit trickier than usual, as the Dawgs roster boasts nine 12th graders, meaning Wiedeman had to leave four sitting on the bench to begin with. But he made sure that all this seniors got in the game and had a chance to shine.

Carson Wolff, Matthew Guveiyian, Dante Del Duca, Tom Mooney, and Matt Leming were the five seniors who took to the court for the opening minutes. Guveiyian tipped the ball to Del Duca, who passed it to Leming. He went up and in for 2. At the other end, Guveiyian blocked the shot, but BCIT got the rebound and a bucket to tie it with less than a minute gone in the quarter. After a missed shot by Haddonfield, BCIT got the defensive board and another basket to take the lead, 4–2.

However, a 3 by Leming, which was his first of 5 in the half, and 2 from Mooney at the foul line put the Dawgs up by 3, 7–4, with 5:12 on the clock. A steal by the Panthers made it a 1-point, 7–6, game at the 4:32 mark. Guveiyian’s 2 in the paint pushed the Dawgs’ lead back to 3, 9–6, but a Panther basket and a foul shot tied it at 9 with just under 4 to go in the quarter.

Leming’s second trey broke the tie with 3:47 to go. Neither team scored again for more than a minute, when Leming, who was standing way behind the arc for most of his 3’s, nailed another one to put the Dawgs up by 6, 15–9. This resulted in a timeout called by BCIT. When play resumed, good hustle D from DelDuca caused an out-of-bounds call against the Panthers. An offensive board by Wolff and a feed by Mooney to Leming gave the Dawgs’ their biggest lead, 9 points, of the game, putting them up 18–9, with 1:12 to go in the quarter. BCIT got the last two baskets of the quarter, a 3 and a 2, so it ended with Haddonfield on top by 4, 18–14.

At the outset of quarter 2, sophomore Daire Roddy and junior Teddy Bond entered the game joining Guveiyian, Leming, and Mooney on the floor. BCIT had possession. What looked like a good defensive board to me was called a foul on Bond. The Dawgs also missed their first shot attempt of the quarter, but got it back on a pickoff by Leming. In my notepad, I scribbled, “WOW, ML!” That was my reaction to Leming’s 4th 3 of the game that seemed to be as high-arching as I could recall. (Expert analysis by Vic Wiedeman after the game explained that the further back a player is from the 3-point line, the more of an arc the shot will have.) That high-arching shot made it 21–14, Dawgs, with 6:27 left in the half.

Under the BCIT basket, Guveiyian grabbed the rebound and then, at the other end, dropped in a “mini”-slam off an assist from Mooney. This put the Dawgs out in front again by 9, 23–14. The Panthers could not score, the Dawgs also failed on their attempt, but a steal by Guveiyian put the ball in the hands of Mooney, who was fouled going up and in. He made 1–2 from the line, and with 4:50 on the clock, the Dawgs had a double-digit, 24–14, advantage.

Senior Jon Bucci entered the game for Guveiyian and wasted no time making his presence felt. He bounced into a steal, passed the ball to Leming, and take a wild guess as to what happened next. Yup. Leming hit his 5th 3 of the half to give the Dawgs a 27–14 lead with about 4 minutes on the clock. Meanwhile, Bucci kept on displaying his good defensive moves, blocking a shot and pulling down a board. Bond pulled down a clean offensive board and then followed it up with a 3, adding to the Dawgs’ lead, which was now 16 points, at 30–14.

Senior Sean Beane, who is a good ball-handler and can steal the ball or hit a 3, came in for Roddy with about 3 minutes left in the half. BCIT finally got a shot to drop for its first points of the 2nd, but Mooney got a 3 off the backboard, giving the Dawgs a lead that more than doubled the Panthers’ score,  33–16. That lead was cut by 3 on a behind-the-arc shot by BCIT on its next possession. Senior Evan Rohlfing came in for Bucci and got into the defensive mode immediately, picking up a foul and then blocking a shot. The quarter ended with the Dawgs still keeping the Panthers at bay by 14, 33–19.

The 3rd quarter started with Mooney, Wolff, Guveiyian, Leming, and DelDuca on the court and in possession of the ball. The Dawgs did not score but DelDuca’s “dogged” D at the other end resulted in an out-of-bounds call on BCIT. After Wolff grabbed the ball off a BCIT blocked shot, he passed it to DelDuca, who hit a 3, making it 36–39, Dawgs, with about 70 seconds gone in the quarter. He then pilfered the ball, but the Dawgs could not get a pair of shots to drop. BCIT replied with a 3, but even so, the Dawgs were still up by 14, 36–22. Foul shots by Mooney make it 38–22, Dawgs, with 5:32 left in the quarter.

A lot of action that did not include the ball going into the net ensued for about 90 seconds before Mooney put 3 on the board in one motion, and with 3:53 on the clock, the Dawgs were up by 19, 41–22. About 30 seconds later, Bucci returned to the court and was joined by senior Christian Raymond. I feel inclined to “note” that while I’m not sure if he knows the accompanying floor moves or just the lyrics, I saw Raymond lip-synching to a country line-dance song a few games back at Haddon Heights during a timeout. Whether he has dance moves remains to be seen, but he definitely has 3-point moves, as he swooshed one in, to the great delight of the crowd, especially his fellow students. That made it 44–22, with 2 and change left in the quarter.

The Panthers got that 3 back at the other end, and after a bad pass by the Dawgs that turned over the ball, scored a 2, and with 1:09 on the clock, the lead was “down” to 17, 44–27. What the fans in the stands saw next was hard to describe On my notepad, I said that it resembled a slapstick Keystone Cops routine, as no player on either team seemed to be able to hold onto the ball, even after diving on top of it. Finally, BCIT came up with the ball and finished out the 3rd with a 2, and a mini-run of 7 unanswered points. Despite the run, the Dawgs were still up by 15, 42–27, going into the last 8 minutes of the game.

In the 4th, BCIT outscored Haddonfield by 3, putting 16 points on the board to the Dawgs’ 13. Seven of the Dawgs’ points came from Mooney. Of those 7, 3 came from the line. Guveiyian, Bucci, and Roddy each scored a basket to account for the Dawgs’ other 6 points. Mooney’s 4th quarter offense gave him 18 for the game. Leming, who did all his scoring in the first 2 quarters, finished with 17. All nine seniors played, seven of them scored, and all of them played hard.

That win gave the Dawgs a 17–8 record going into their game versus the Dragons of Kingsway Regional High School, who play in the Tri-County league, 2 nights later. You may have guessed by this week’s recap title that if the BCIT game was the “up” side of the week, the Kingsway game was the “down” side. It was, and it wasn’t. Let me explain.

The Dawgs started off the game down by as much as 6 in the first quarter. But they hung in there thanks to baskets by Guveiyian and Mooney. The quarter ended, in fact, with the Dawgs trailing 6–12. However, the Dawgs kept fighting. In the 2nd quarter, the Dragons only out-scored them by 1 point. Leming and Bond each hit a 3, Beane and Guveiyian each had a basket, and Wolff knocked in 3 on a basket and a foul shot. So, going into the locker rooms at halftime, the Dawgs were down by 7, but had picked up the offense.

The third quarter got the Dawgs back into the game. Although Kingsway had the possession arrow and inbounded the ball, good hustle by DelDuca led to a jump ball and Haddonfield gaining the ball. DelDuca then scored, and his basket was followed by a basket by Guveiyian after the Dragons’ pass went out of bounds. With barely a minute gone, the Dawgs had cut into the Dragons’ lead and were now within 3, 23–26.

Kingsway and Haddonfield exchanged baskets, with the Dawgs’ coming on a drive by DelDuca, and with 5:56 on the clock, it was once again a 3-point game. After Roddy procured the defensive rebound, he handed off the ball to Mooney, who scored. Now the Dawgs were within 1, 27–28, and their fans were urging them on.

Again, the teams scored at either end of the court, with Guveiyian going up and in for Haddonfield. With 4:30 on the clock, Kingsway was holding onto that 1-point, 30–29, lead. The Dragons expanded that lead to 4 on a 3-pointer at the 4:15 mark. The Dawgs lost the ball on an errant pass, but the Dragons also did not score. DelDuca secured the rebound, and Roddy secured the basket, getting the Dawgs to within 2, 31–33. A Haddonfield foul sent Kingsway to the line, where 1 of 2 shots went it. With 3 minutes left in the quarter, the Dawgs were close but needed someone to make a big shot.

On cue, Leming sent a 3 into the net—although for added drama, the ball paused on the rim before slipping in—tying the game at 34. Dawg fans roared their approval. Kingsway decided to try for the last shot of the quarter, but the tactic backfired as they lost the ball out of bounds. Although Roddy’s half-court shot with about 1 second to go hit the backboard and bounced off, the fans still cheered. The Dawgs had overcome a 7-point halftime deficit and were going into the 4th in a dead heat.

The 4th quarter possession belonged to Kingsway, but their shot missed the mark. At the other end, Haddonfield’s shot also did not drop. With 7:07 left in the game, the Dragons pulled ahead on a basket, but their lead was short-lived, as Guveiyian got an offensive board and put the ball up and in. After a Dragon miscue turned the ball over, the Dawgs had a chance to go ahead for the first time. The setup for the shot looked  good, but the ball did not go in the net. At the other end, as the Dawgs’ students were chanting “Air ball, air ball” to a Dragon who had whiffed earlier in the game, he once more obliged.

A steal by Kingsway did not result in a basket, and although the Dawgs got the rebound, they lost it out of bounds before a shot could be taken. The Dragons got their own rebound and scored, and were fouled in the process. They missed the foul shot but again got the rebound before losing the ball out of bounds on an overthrown pass.

Finally, the Dawgs scored on a feed from Guveiyian to Leming, knotting it up at 38 all with 3:29 on the clock. After a timeout, Mooney came back in the game sporting a #44 shirt, so he must have gotten blood on his #11 uni, although how and when that occurred, I am not sure.

With 3:08 left in the game Kingsway hit the first of its back-to-back 3’s; the second put them up by 6, 44–38, with 2:45 showing on the clock. The Dawgs weren’t giving up, and after both teams did not score, Wolff stole the ball and scored. With 1:42 remaining, the Dawgs were back to within 4, 40–44. However, those 2 points would be the last ones the Dawgs managed to put on the board. The Dragons scored the next 6, and when the buzzer sounded, they had won by 10, 50–40, although the game was much closer for most of the quarter. The Dawgs had fought and come oh so close, but in the end, they just could not get that tie-breaking basket to go in when they had the chances. Guveiyian was the only Dawg in double digits, finishing with 10. Leming had 8, and Mooney, 6.

It wasn’t the W that Paul Wiedeman likes to see as the regular season closes out. But it was a gut game; the Dawgs could have let the game get out of reach, but that’s not how they are coached nor how they play. Sporting a 17–9 record as the South Jersey playoff starts, they still have the ability, the tenacity, and the heart to keep on playing—and winning. So come on out tonight and show them some well-deserved support.

By Lauree Padgett. Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today.

At first consideration, going 1-3 for the week would not sound like a good stretch for the Haddonfield boys basketball team, especially as the regular season is winding down. However, even though the last game the Dawgs played this past week, on Saturday, 2/19, turned out to be a 12-point loss, it actually had a lot of positives. In this wrap-up I’m going to take a look at that game, provide a very short summary of the game versus the Pemberton Hornets that took place on Thursday, 2/17, because, well,  it really stung, and spend a chunk of time on the Dawgs’ last Colonial Conference game of the season, which started off the week on Tuesday, 2/15, at Haddon Heights High School versus the Garnets.

The Dawgs entered the game against the Garnets knowing they had, for the first time since 2012, not earned at least a share of the Colonial Liberty crown. In conference play, they were 12–3. In early January, when Heights came to Haddonfield, the game was pretty lopsided, as the Dawgs pulled off an easy, 66–35, W. I’m not sure what other Dawgs fans either in attendance or watching the live stream were thinking just ahead of tipoff, but sitting behind the boys’ bench, I was not anticipating another easy victory. This was in part because there had been a pre-game recognition of Mike Ricci, who had just become the Garnets’ winningest hoops coach, with 240 wins over his 14 seasons, which was sure to rev up his players.

However, as the first quarter unfolded, I started to rethink my pre-game concerns. The Dawgs jumped out to a 6–0 start on a basket from senior Tom Mooney and a pair from senior Matt Leming. After Heights got 2 on the board, Mooney hit a 2, and with 4:48 left in the quarter, Haddonfield was up by 7, 9–2. Mooney would put another point on the board from the foul line before the Garnets got another basket and a foul shot to make it 10–5, Dawgs. A 3 by Leming pushed the lead up to 8, 13–5, before Heights got another combo 3 from the floor and foul line to cut to it 13–8. Mooney would get the Dawgs’ next 6 points on a bucket and a foul shot and then his second 3 of the quarter, sandwiched between a pair of Garnet foul shots. That put the Dawgs’ lead up to 9, 19–10, at the 2:16 mark.

On their next possession, the Garnets had multiple unsuccessful scoring attempts until a foul was called against Haddonfield, but this time, the Garnets came up empty at the line. Senior Carson Wolff made what looked like a sideways shot that still found the net to give the Dawgs their first double-digit, 21–10, advantage, but a Heights bucket got it back down to single digits, 21–12, with about 53 seconds showing on the clock. After a missed shot by the Dawgs, the ball went out of bounds off Heights. Wolff inbounded the ball with 19 seconds to go, and after a good display of passing to run down the clock for the last shot, junior Teddy Bond hit a 3 ahead of the buzzer. That gave the Dawgs a 12-point edge, doubling the Garnets’ score. Those 12 points are what would secure Haddonfield’s win. That’s because for the next 3 quarters, even though it was never by more than 3 points, Haddon Heights outscored their guests.

The second quarter offense for the Dawgs dropped by 50%. The Dawgs only put 11 points on the board, on 3’s by Leming and Bond, a foul shot by Wolff, and a pair of drives by senior Matthew Guveiyian. Still, at the half, the Dawgs had a 10-point, 35–25 edge. The Garnets kept chipping away in the third. Although Haddon Heights only put 10 points on the board, Haddonfield managed just 7: 4 more points came off of Guveiyian buckets and sophomore Daire Roddy got in on the 3-point club. As the 4th quarter loomed, the Garnets were lurking, trailing by 7, 42–35.

The Garnets inbounded the ball to start the last 8 minutes of play. What looked like a pickoff by the Dawgs turned into a foul at the 7:31 mark. However, 11 seconds later, Wolff did steal the ball, feeding it to Mooney, who drove in the lane for 2, putting the Dawgs up by 9, 44–35. Heights would slash that down to 5 points on consecutive baskets, and with 6:20 on the clock, it was now a 2 possession game, with the Dawgs on top 44–39.

Wolff’s floater made it 46–39 with 6 minutes and change to go in the game, but Heights answered with a 2 and then after the Dawgs failed to score, nailed a big-time 3 to get to within 2, 46–44, with just under 4 minutes remaining. If I could read minds, I’m sure I would have been seeing a lot of “Oh, no, don’t tell me we’re going to blow another game in the last 4 minutes” types of comments, and I confess, I was having similar thoughts.

After a Heights timeout and play resumed, the Dawgs had another unsuccessful shot, but Wolff was fouled going after the rebound and he made both shots, to inch the Dawgs’ lead up to 4, 48–44, with 2:24 left in the game. What should have been an out-of-bounds call on the Garnets led to a foul on Haddonfield. Luckily, the Garnets missed both shots, and with 1:59 on the clock, it was still a 4-point Dawgs’ advantage.

In a very fluid play, Wolff set Leming up for a basket, giving the Dawgs a 6-point, 50–44, edge with 1:01 to go. Heights answered with a quick bucket at their end, and with 51.6 seconds left, the Garnets were within 4 again, 50–46. After a timeout, the Heights strategy became “foul the Dawgs to stop the action.” This happened four straight times until the Garnets reached their 7th foul, meaning Tom Mooney would have a 1+1 opportunity with 23.6 seconds on the clock. Mooney sank both shots, making it 52–46. That’s how the game ended. The Dawgs hadn’t shown their best offense in the second half, but their defense held of the Garnets’ 4th quarter run and took a little bite out of Mike Ricci’s pregame recognition. Mooney, who had 12 first half points, finished with 16. Leming added 12.

The win against Heights gave the Dawgs a very respectable, if not top-finishing, 13–3 Colonial Conference record for the season.

Next, the Dawgs hosted the Hornets of Pemberton Township for an oddly early Thursday game. Even for a 3:45 tipoff, there were a decent number of Dawgs fans in the stands. Unfortunately, they did not get to see a very pretty 32 minutes of high school hoops. The Pemberton players were very athletic and they used that athleticism to keep the Dawgs out of the paint. Of the 12 baskets the Dawgs made over 4 periods, only 2 were not from behind the arc. While there are plenty of Dawgs who can hit 3’s, they also rely on drives in the paint and under the basket or jump shots. The Hornets kept the Dawgs from penetrating and after a while, it seemed as if no one wanted to try to score unless someone was open for a 3. When the buzzer sounded to end the game, the Dawgs had gotten buzzed 36–56. I would not “bee” surprised if Pemberton makes a deep playoff run in Group 3, where they are the number 2 seed.

Saturday, the Lenape Indians came into Dawg country. After less than 2 minutes of action, the Dawgs were already behind 0–9 and because I am not a mind reader, I don’t know what anyone else rooting for Haddonfield was thinking, but I was pretty sure the game wasn’t going to get much better. I was very wrong. Instead of putting their figurative tails between their legs and letting the Indians run away with the game, the Dawgs got their fight back—their intensity, their determination, their confidence—and made a contest of it.

Matthew Guveiyian got the Dawgs going with a hard drive to the net to put the Dawgs on the board at the 4:46 mark. After the Indians did not score, the Dawgs got another 2 off a basket by Roddy that was set up by two nice passes. A 3 from Lenape made it 12–4, Indians, with 3:07 left in the quarter. The teams then exchanged 2-point field goals, with Haddonfield’s coming off a feed from Mooney to Guveiyian. A drive in the paint by Roddy with 1:50 on the clock got the Dawgs to within 6, 8–14, but at the other end, the Dawgs left the lane open and the Indians were back on top by 8, 16–8, with 1:20 to go.

Guveiyian, who had one of his best offensive and defensive games of the year, went hard into the paint again, and with less than a minute remaining in the 1st, the Dawgs were back to within 6, 10–16. And then on a 3 from senior Dante Del Duca, the Dawgs were within 3, 13–16, with 17 seconds on the board. That’s how the quarter ended, and from being down by 9 after 2 minutes, the Dawgs were back in the game, having closed the gap to 3.

In the 2nd quarter, both teams revved up the offense. The Indians scored 20, but the Dawgs were right behind them with 19. Guveiyian stayed hot. His 3 tied the game at 16 as the 2nd quarter started. When Lenape replied with a 2, Mooney’s 2 tied it again at 18. Leming’s first 3 of the game put the Dawgs up 21–18, with 5:27 left in the half. The Dawg fans were on their feet, cheering.

The lead didn’t last, as Lenape got 2 from the foul line and then hit a 3 to retake the lead, 23–21, with 4:27 on the clock. But a 3 from Mooney tipped the advantage back to the Dawgs, 24–23. The lead shifted by 1 again when Lenape scored another bucket. Guveiyian’s second trey of the quarter made it 27–25, Haddonfield, with 2:42 left in the half. An Indian shot from behind the arc rolled in and out, but after the Dawgs’ shot also missed, Lenape did make a 3 to go back on top by 1. After another scoreless trip down to their basket, the Dawgs committed a shooting foul. Lenape made both shots, and with 1:51 showing on the clock, were now ahead by 3, 30–27.

A resounding slam by Guveiyian got the Dawgs back to within 1, 29–20, but 2 more foul shots from the Indians made it a 3-point game again, with 1:33 on the clock. This time it was a 3 from Leming that knotted the game at 32 with 57 seconds to go in the half. In those 57 seconds, Lenape managed to get one bucket off an offensive rebound and closed out the half with a basket to go back up by 4, 36–32.

The 3rd quarter was more of the same back and forth. The Dawgs only scored 3 baskets from the field—all were from behind the arc by Leming—plus a foul shot by Wolff. But the Dawgs held the Indians to 9 points, so going into the 4th quarter, the Dawgs were still in the hunt, down by 3, 42–45. Lenape scored the first basket to start the last 8 minutes of play, but Leming’s 3 bounded off the rim and in to get the Dawgs to within 2, 45–47, with 5:52 left in the game.

After a pickoff by Wolff, the Dawgs missed a chance to tie it and then Lenape scored to push their lead back to 4, 49–45. Guveiyian answered with a 3, and the Dawgs were now within 1, 48–49, with 4:40 on the board. That was as close as the Dawgs would get the rest of the game. Their shots stopped dropping, and the Indians went on a run, scoring 10 unanswered points to take control of the game. With 2 and change to go, Lenape was now up by 11, 59–48. Mooney would get the Dawgs’ last 2 baskets of the game, with a 3 and then a 2, but when the buzzer sounded, the Indians had prevailed, winning by 12, 65–53. The Matts, Guveiyian and Leming, finished with 18 each.

Somehow, this lost seemed like a step in the right direction for the team, which had been floundering a bit the last few weeks. I heard several longtime fans, some of whom played for the Dawgs way back in the day, talking afterwards, and everyone felt like the Dawgs had gotten some of their bark back. Here’s hoping that leads to wins this coming week to close out the regular season.

Up first is BCIT Westampton on Tuesday night, 2/22, at home. This is Senior Night, so please come out to cheer on our graduating players: Sean Beane, Jon Bucci, Dante Del Duca, Matthew Guveiyian, Matt Leming, Tom Mooney, Christian Raymond, Evan Rohlfing, and Carson Wolff. Game time is 7 p.m. Then, Thursday, 2/24, also at 7, the Dragons of Kingsway Regional High School will be no doubt fired up to go up against the Dawgs. 

Looking ahead, the South Jersey Group 2 playoffs begin on Monday, 2/28. As the number 3 seed behind #1 Camden and #2 Sterling (booo! Oops. Did I type that out loud?), Haddonfield will host Lower Cape May County at 7 p.m. Come out at 5, though, to root on the girls, who are the 8th seed, and taking on Point Pleasant Boro, the 9th seed.

By Lauree Padgett. Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today

The Haddonfield boys basketball team could have won three games this past week. Instead, they finished 1-2, with their only victory coming in a crazy contest against Colonial nemesis Collingswood. I’m going to be focusing on that game, the first one of the week, which took place at home on Tuesday, 2/8, not just because the Dawgs won it but because it truly was a yo-yo match in which both teams were in control—until they weren’t.

The second game, at Sterling on Thursday, 2/10, would decide who was going to win (or at least claim a share of) the Liberty division of the Colonial Conference. If Sterling won, the Silver Knights would spear sole possession, but if Haddonfield won, the teams would both have 12–2 records.

The game could not have started out any better for the Dawgs. Everyone in the starting lineup scored in the first 8 minutes of the game. Senior Matt Leming looked sharp with his two treys; senior Tom Mooney drove in the lane twice for field goals. Senior Matthew Guveiyian went up and in for a basket, and senior Dante Del Duca also scored in the paint. Sophomore Daire Roddy added 1 from the foul line. And except for Leming’s second 3 of the quarter, all the Dawgs’ points came before the Silver Knights made a basket. This was thanks in large part to the Dawgs’ great defensive display, which was causing turnovers and keeping Sterling from setting up plays. In their last possession of the quarter, Sterling had 8 seconds and could not get off a shot.

After putting 15 points to Sterling’s 2 on the board in the first quarter, Haddonfield only got 3 in the second while Sterling got 8. Still, at halftime, the Dawgs were up by 8, 18–10. It’s really hard to explain what happened to the Dawgs in the second half. Maybe they got out of their rhythm; maybe Sterling turned the tables on them and started making it hard for the Dawgs to run their usual offensive plays either in the paint or beyond the arc. But for whatever reason, the team stalled offensively. And instead of trying to make quick scoring attempts, the Dawgs kept passing the ball, looking for the perfect option even when players appeared to be open. If you are up by 10 and you pass the ball five or six times before a shot is made, that’s one thing. But when you are down by 10 and keep passing, it is hard to get the momentum back or cut the deficit.

In the third, Haddonfield managed one 2-point basket while Sterling took charge and put 20 on the board. When the game ended, the Dawgs and their fans looked a bit shell-shocked: Not only had Sterling had decisively won 43–25 in a game they had been trailing by 13 after the first quarter, they had also taken the conference crown for the first time in a long while. It was hard not to appreciate why the Silver Knights and their fans were so excited, but even so, it was a gut-punch loss for the Dawgs.

Saturday, 2/12, the Dawgs headed to Paul VI to go up against the Irish of Camden Catholic. A family matter kept me from the game, but Matthew Guveiyian’s Nanny, aka Debbie Vermaat, who got to the game a little before halftime, kept me posted so well, I felt like I was watching and had the same angst about it as if I were in the stands instead of in my den.

Given how the Sterling game had ended compared to how it had started, it would not have been too surprising if the Dawgs were still reeling and discombobulated. However, that was not the case. The game was close. The Dawgs were up by 4, 23–19, at the half, with the last points coming on a basket by senior Carson Wolff and 3 from the line by Leming, who was fouled behind the arc. At one point (haha) in the 3rd, 3’s by Mooney and Del Duca had the Dawgs up by 10, 34–24, but the Irish were not about to give up without a fight. They hit a few 3’s, including one at the buzzer and going into the 4th, the Dawgs were just up by 5, 36–31.

In the 4th, Camden Catholic kept chipping away. A few Dawg turnovers and another 3 helped the Irish get to within 3, 44–41, with just under 4 minutes left. (Remember, I wasn’t there; this is all from Debbie Vermaat’s texts!!) Another trey from Leming made it 49–43, Haddonfield, but Camden Catholic got the next 5 points to make it 49–46. With 28.6 seconds left in the game, the Dawgs were up by 1, 49–48 and Leming scored to make it 51–48 with 14.5 left. But the Irish swooshed in another 3 to tie the game. With only 2.8 left and having to inbound under the Irish’s basket, the Dawgs weren’t able to score.

Overtime proved the Dawgs’ downfall, as they lost by 2, 55–53. Even with the OT loss, I think this might have been a better bus ride home than the one on Thursday night. The Dawgs stayed in the game and had a chance to win it instead of being totally taken out offensively.

So now that you know how the Dawgs lost two games, let me tell you a little bit about the game versus the Collingswood Panthers that they won. Did I mention how crazy it was?

This game started out with Collingswood scoring the first two baskets. A jumper by Mooney got the Dawgs on the board, but the Panthers struck again to make it 2–6 before Del Duca made 1–2 from the foul line. Collingswood scored again, but a 3 by Mooney got the Dawgs to within 2, 6–8, with 2:54 left in the 1st. Mooney blocked a shot at the other end only to have the Dawgs lose possession on a bad pass. Neither team scored until the 42-second mark, when Guveiyian got an offensive board and went up and in, making it a 2-point game again, with the Dawgs down 8–10. Collingswood got the last basket from behind the arc to go up by 5, 13–8, as the quarter ended.

Mooney started off the 2nd with a basket to make it a 3-point game again, but after missing 2 shots from the foul line, Collingswood took advantage of a Dawg turnover to score on a slam and take that 5-point lead back, making it 15–10, Panthers, with 6:28 left in the half. But then the Dawgs went on a mini-run. Mooney hit a 3 and Wolff scored off a feed from Teddy Bond. With 5:33 on the clock, the game was tied at 15.

After a backcourt violation on Collingswood, Haddonfield gave the ball back, possibly on a travel. Then there was what I wrote down as “wild and woolly ball-handling” by both teams. The Panthers failed to score, got the rebound, and missed again. At the other end, Mooney did not miss and put the Dawgs up for the first time in the game, 17–15, with 4:11 to go in the half. A floater by Wolff after a ball went out of bounds off Collingswood pushed the Dawgs’ lead to 4, 19–15, and after good D by Bond and—hmm, what did I scribble on my notepad?—well, Bond and one of his teammates, the Panthers did not score again. And again, Mooney did, this time sinking a 3 to make it 22–15 with about 2:40 until the half.

At an angle that defied physics, Bond took a shot that somehow went in the net, giving the Dawgs a 9-point, 24–15, lead with 2 minutes on the clock. The Panthers broke their scoring drought to make it 24–17, but sophomore Sam Narducci, who had come into the game a few minutes earlier, nailed a 3 to give the Dawgs a double-digit, 27–17, edge at the half.

So, from being down by 5 after 1, the Dawgs were up by 10 at the half. I relayed this info to Vic Wiedeman, who was “stuck” in 80° weather in Florida, as he and his wife were visiting family. His comment was, “Good. Keep it up.” However, not too long into the 3rd quarter, the Dawgs were doing anything but. That was because in the first 2 minutes of the 3rd, not only did the Dawgs fail to score, the Panthers hit back-to-back 3’s and then with 5:57 on the clock, got a 2. Suddenly that nice 10-point cushion had shrunk to a 1-point, 27–26, advantage.

The Dawgs missed again, got the rebound but remained scoreless. A turnover by the Panthers gave the Dawgs back the ball and finally on a nice hesitation move off a pass from Mooney, Guveiyian got Haddonfield 2 points, making it a 4-point, 29–25.point game with 4:48 on the clock.

After a Dawg foul sent the Panthers to the line, where both shots were made, it was 29–27, Haddonfield. But not for long. The Panthers went on a run. After scoring a basket to tie it at 29 with 3:48 to go in the quarter, they scored another 2 and then a 3. In a little over a minute’s time, they had come from behind to take a 5-point, 34–29, lead. A floater from Guveiyian cut that to a 3-point, 34–31, lead, but Collingswood would get the last basket of the quarter, and going into the 4th, the Dawgs were now trailing by 5, 31–36.

Before I break down the last minutes of the game, let’s review the first 24 minutes. At the end of the 1st quarter, Collingswood was up by 5, 13–8. After putting 19 on the board in the 2nd while holding the Panthers to 4 points, Haddonfield was ahead by 10, 27–17. But by the end of the 3rd, Collingswood had literally returned the favor, adding 19 points to their total and only allowing the Dawgs, that is, Guveiyian, to score 2 baskets. As Haddonfield inbounded the ball to begin the final segment of the game, the only thing that seemed certain was that nothing was certain.

On that first possession, the Dawgs took a chunk out of that 5-point Panther lead thanks to Leming’s first basket of the game—a 3, making it 36–34, Collingswood, with 7:45 left in the quarter. And that score held for about 90 seconds before the Panthers scored off a Dawg turnover. So now the Dawgs were behind by 4, 34–38, with 6:15 to go. Another 3, this time by Mooney, with 5:50 on the clock cut the lead once more to 1, 37–38. Then another 2 by the Panthers made it a 3-point, 37–40, deficit again.

After picking off the ball, Wolff went all the way to the other end and scored. With 4:25 to go, the Dawgs were back to within 1, 39–40. Collingswood scored 2 but Wolff answered with another basket, so with 3:37 showing on the clock, the Panthers’ lead was once more down to 1, 42–41. A Haddonfield foul sent Collingswood to the line and resulted in 1 point going up on the board. However, Wolff (referred to by his initials, i.e., CW in my notepad, which is also my shorthand for Collingswood, which means things can get a bit confusing) scored his third straight basket. That meant with 3 minutes and change to go in regulation, the game was tied at 43.

After a timeout on the court, Roddy drove in the lane for a basket and was fouled. His shot from the line put the Dawgs out in front 46–43 with 2:23 to go. About 30 seconds later, Leming picked up his 5th foul, meaning he had fouled out of the game. (I don’t ever remember him doing that before. )Del Duca came in as Leming left the court. The foul sent the Panthers to the line for a 1+1 opportunity, but the first shot did not drop and Del Duca quickly got into the action by pulling down the defensive board.

After a missed shot and an offensive board, Coach Paul Wiedeman called a full timeout with 54.8 seconds left in the 4th. When play resumed, Wolff threw the ball inbounds to Guveiyian, who passed it to Mooney. He went driving into the basket and was flattened underneath. Not only was the play by Collingswood not deemed an intentional foul by the refs, it was not called a foul at all. Nobody in the Haddonfield contingency could believe that Mooney wasn’t going to the line for two shots.

Play stopped and started a few times as the Panthers had fouls to give. With 31.7 seconds left, Mooney went to the line for a 1+1. His first shot did not drop. Haddonfield committed a foul going for the rebound. Collingswood had another 1+1 opportunity and this time, made both shots. With 14.7 left, the Dawgs were now clinging to a 1-point, 46–45, edge. The Dawgs had to inbound the ball under the Panther basket. Guveiyian was set to pass the ball in, except he tossed it to Mooney, who had stepped to the sidelines as well, and then raced down the court as Mooney made a football pass. Guveiyian and the ball hooked up under the basket and he scored, putting the Dawgs up by 3, 48–45, with 3.5 seconds left. The Dawgs fans erupted. That celebration was then cut short as Collingswood hit a 3 ahead of the buzzer.

It was time for overtime, which starts with a tip-off at center court. The ball went to Collingswood, but Wolff, whose first sport may be football, but who is a tenacious presence on the hardwood, hustled and caused a jump ball, with the possession arrow favoring Haddonfield. The Dawgs gave the ball back after losing it out of bounds, only to have Collingswood do the same, and with a 1:20 off the clock, Mooney got the first basket of OT, a 3, putting the Dawgs up 51–48, with 2:40 left.

Collingswood tied it right back up with a 3 at its end, but Roddy, who had the big basket and foul shot in the 4th, got a 3 this time in one fell swoosh, and with 1:53 remaining, the Dawgs were back on top by 3, 54–51. Mooney and Roddy combined for a pickoff and Collingswood was called for a foul on Wolff, who was not able to convert the first end of a 1+1. However, he stole the ball at the other end and Mooney was fouled, which sent a Panther to the bench. Mooney also missed the front end of a 1+1, so with 19.4 left in OT, the Dawgs were still up 54–51. Wolff pulled off another steal and was fouled. He made both shots, making it a two possession, 56–51, game with 9.7 seconds left. Collingswood committed another foul to stop the clock with 3.8 remaining. Wolff inbounded the ball, sending another long pass to Guveiyian, who was on the court this time. He went up and in for a basket—but in a great display of good sportsmanship, chose not to slam the ball in the face of the Panther who was at the rim with him.

The OT buzzer sounded. After 36 minutes of a seesaw game, the Dawgs had prevailed 58–51. Tom Mooney, who had 15 of the Dawgs’ 19 2nd quarter points, finished with 21. Wolff had 12, 6 of which came in the last 12 minutes of the game. Guveiyian added 10, 8 of which came in the second half.

With the 1 win and 2 losses, the Dawgs are now 14–6 overall and 11–3 in the Colonial Conference. They have 3 games this week, all of them taking place in the afternoon. Tuesday, 2/15, they head to Haddon Heights for a 5:30 matchup against the Garnets, which will be the final Colonial Conference game of the season.  On Thursday, they host Pemberton Township for an extra early 3:45 game. Saturday, Lenape comes in for a 1 p.m. game. Looking ahead to next week, the Dawgs will host BCIT Westampton on Tuesday, 2/22, which will be Senior Night, at 7 p.m. and will close out the regular season at home on Thursday, 2/24, when they take on Kingsway Regional High School.

By Lauree Padgett. Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today

As the late, great Meatloaf once sang, “Two out of three ain’t bad.” It also sums up the past week of Haddonfield boys basketball. After dropping a tough home game on 1/27 to the Red Raiders of Paulsboro, the Dawgs had good wins versus Colonial Conference opponents Haddon Township and West Deptford to start off the month of February. However, in what sounds like an exciting game on Saturday at Holy Cross Academy against Cherokee, the Dawgs fell a bit short and lost by 4. I did not make it to the Cherokee game, as I was busy meeting the newest members of my family, Gwen and Ana, who debuted on 2-2-22. However, my courtside reporter Mike Guveiyian and my videographer Bill Tourtellotte, with an assist from NJ.com,  provided me with some details to share.

But first, Haddonfield played host to Haddon Township on Tuesday, 2/1. This was a rematch of the Dawg’s first 2021–22 game and in some ways, it was quite similar to that game on Dec. 17. More on that shortly.

In what has become a fairly routine tipoff to start a contest, senior Matt Guveiyian jumps and tips the ball to a teammate; this time that tip went to sophomore Daire Roddy. He passed the ball to senior Tom Mooney and after a nice hesitation under the basket, Mooney went up and in to put the Dawgs on the board. A steal by senior Matt Leming prevented Haddon Township from even getting a shot off, but the Dawgs couldn’t take advantage and the Hawks got possession of the ball again. During their second possession, they were having a hard time penetrating the perimeter thanks to good D from the Dawgs and ended up turning over the ball on a travel.

This time junior Teddy Bond hit a 3 to put the Dawgs up by 5 with 5:51 on the clock. At the other end, Guveiyian blocked a shot and grabbed the ball, but the Dawgs had a miscommunication on a pass and lost the ball out of bounds. The Hawks answered with a 3 to make it 5–3, Haddonfield, with 3 minutes left in the first quarter.

Haddonfield’s next score came on a drive by Bond. Then, after a steal by Guveiyian, Leming took a step back to get beyond the arc and nailed a 3 to put the Dawgs up by 6, 9–3, with 2 and change left in the quarter. The Hawks would get the last points of the quarter on a field goal at the 55-second mark; they had a chance for more after the Dawgs had another turnover off an errant pass, but after holding the ball to wind down the clock, the shot didn’t drop.

Seniors Dante Del Duca and Carson Wolff entered the game to start the second quarter. It took more than 3 minutes before either team got a shot to go in the net, and when that happened, it was Mooney going up an in off an inbound pass. Another minute-plus ticked off the clock before another ball dropped. This time, it was the Hawks who scored, and with 1:43 left in the half, the Dawgs were up 11–7. It would be Haddon Township’s only basket—from the field or foul line—in the quarter.

The Dawgs’ next bucket came off a Guveiyian slam at the 1:14 mark. Wolff’s tenacity on defense caused a jump ball to give possession back to his team. After an off-the-mark shot under the Haddonfield basket, Mooney secured a loose ball and got fouled with 43.3 seconds to go. It was non-shooting, so play continued. The Dawgs were also working for a good shot as the seconds ticked off the scoreboard. Mooney sent off what looked like an off-balance floater that nevertheless found the net, which pushed the Dawgs’ lead to 8, 15–7, with 25 seconds to go. The Hawks had the possession and kept it after another jump ball was called. After the ball went out of bounds off Haddonfield, Mooney stole it and went cross-court for 2. When the buzzer sounded seconds later, the Dawgs had a 10-point, 17–7, advantage as they headed to the locker room.

In the third quarter, the Dawgs picked things up a bit offensively, putting 13 points on the board while holding the Hawks to 4. In these 8 minutes, Mooney powered to the basket three times and also hit a foul shot. Roddy hit a 3, Leming made a 2, and Guveiyian went 1–2 from the foul line. Heading into the last quarter, the Dawgs were up 30–11.

In the 4th, Haddon Township actually outscored Haddonfield by 7, putting 16 on the board to Haddonfield’s 9. Once again, Mooney provided most of the Dawgs’ offense, scoring another 2-point basket and sinking 4 from the line. Del Duca swooshed in a 3, and Roddy converted a foul shot. When all was said and done, the Dawgs had once again prevailed against the Hawks, winning by a score of 39–27. As the astute young man sitting next to me, who happened to be Coach Paul Wiedeman’s youngest offspring Matt, noted, this was the exact same score as the matchup in December. Also similarly, Tom Mooney accounted for most of the Dawgs’ points. In December, he put 18 on the board; this time, it was 19.

Thursday, 2/3, the Dawgs traveled down to West Deptford. It was a 5:30 game and neither I nor my travel buddy really wanted to be on 295 in the midst of rush hour when the game was being streamed by West Deptford. I know last year I gave kudos to the Eagles for providing great video and play-by-play, and I want to do it again. The added feature this year was that once I brought up the West Deptford YouTube feed, a countdown appeared showing how soon the game would start. Since I often have anxious moments ahead of games I am going to live stream when I bring up the feed and there is nothing happening on the screen, it was great to know that the game feed for the Eagles–Dawgs game was all set up and ready to go. A few minutes before the countdown clock hit 0, I pressed play and was able to see the end of the warmups (although the camera only focused on the Eagles—go figure!).

I also found out that the two men doing the play-by-play were not students, as I assumed last year. One was a former Eagle basketball player and the other was a former coach. Both did nice commentary throughout the game and weren’t afraid to talk about the kinds of teams Haddonfield always has thanks to their coaching staff. At the outset, both men said that while it had been a rough year for the team, which was going into the night with a  4–11 record, there were signs of progress. They agreed that goal in their rematch with Haddonfield was not to get blown out this time, as in their December meeting, the Dawgs had won by 58 points.

In the first quarter, thanks in part to Leming, who scored four times—on three 2’s and one trey—the Dawgs put 15 on the board. Roddy and Guveiyian each had a basket, and Mooney made 2 foul shots. The Eagles got 7 points, which was a 4-point improvement over the first quarter of their previous contest versus Haddonfield, and as the quarter ended, the Dawgs were up 15–7. As I usually do when Haddonfield is on the road, I texted Mark Hershberger, who was getting ready to call the girls home game against the Eagles. His reply was, “What??????”

If he thought that first quarter score was a bit unexpected, he hadn’t seen anything yet. In the second quarter, the Dawgs’ stifling defense held the Eagles scoreless. However, the Dawgs only got 2 baskets. One came off a nice pass from Guveiyian to Bond at the 3:12 mark; the other came off a Wolff pickoff and pass to Mooney, who went up and in. So when the halftime buzzer sounded, the Dawgs were up by 12, 19–7, even though they had not exactly lit up the scoreboard.

I’m not sure if the Dawgs just needed some extra time to warm up—it had been a pretty cold week!—or if their coaching staff gave them a pep talk and changed strategies a little, but when the 3rd quarter started, the team looked more focused under their own basket, which translated into a lot more shots being taken and going into the net. West Deptford also seemed to shake off the cobwebs and started getting shots to drop, for after Mooney got things going with 2 in the paint to start the Dawgs’ 2nd half scoring, the Eagles answered with a basket. So, with only 45 seconds gone, both teams had made shots and it was 21–9, Haddonfield.

Leming got the next bucket from behind the arc, and West Deptford ended up on the foul line their next possession, making 1–2. Guveiyian went down hard trying to score and also made 1–2 from the line. (My one minor complaint about the West Deptford feed was that while it showed the running score at the bottom, the scoreboard clock was only visible from one side of the court, so I was often having to wait until the action moved to the other basket to get an approximate time a basket was made at the other end. Sometimes, I didn’t get a chance to do the math—subtracting 3–4 seconds from the clock for the previous basket—because too much was happening.) After Guveiyian’s foul shot, Leming stole the ball and took it all the way to the hoop. He was also fouled, and with 5:47 showing on the clock, his foul shot made it 27–10, Dawgs.

The two teams exchanged buckets, with Haddonfield’s coming on a 2 by Mooney, and with 4:50 to go in the quarter, the Dawgs were up 29–12. After a Haddonfield pickoff, Leming scored on a feed from Mooney to make it 31–12 with just under 4 minutes on the clock. The next basket came from the Eagles at the 2:41 mark, and was followed by a 3 from Del Duca on the Dawgs’ next possession, which pushed the Dawgs’ lead to 20, 34–14. Sophomore Sam Narducci had not been long in the game when he knocked down a 3 off a pass from Wolff.

With 1:08 left in the period and Haddonfield up 37–14,, a ref called a timeout after a West Deptford player got an inadvertent poke in the eye. While it definitely wasn’t intentional, it still had to hurt. When play resumed, the Eagles would get one more basket, and as the quarter came to an end, they were trailing by 21, 37–17. However, since they had been down 67–18 after 3 in their previous game against Haddonfield, this definitely was an improvement.

In the 4th quarter, the Dawgs only outscored the Eagles by 4, just like in the 2nd. However, this time, they put 15 points on the board to their host’s 11. Mooney scored 6 on a trio of buckets and Narducci nailed another 3. Senior Evan Rohlfing made a pair from the foul line and senior Christian Raymond scored 4, 2 on a basket and 2 from the foul line.

The final score was still a bit one-sided: Haddonfield won by 25, 52–27. But you got the feeling the Eagles may have gotten a moral (or maybe a morale?) victory, knowing they had put up more of a fight on both ends of the court this go-round. Matt Leming led the Dawgs with 19 and Tom Mooney added 12.

These two wins put the Dawgs at 14–3 overall and 10–2 in Colonial Conference play.

While I was waiting for my two great nieces to arrive at my sister’s (their nana’s) house in Haddon Heights on Saturday, the Dawgs were doing battle with the Chiefs of Cherokee High School. From what I heard, it was a close all four quarters. The Dawgs were up after 1 by a point, 10–9; by the end of the second, the Chiefs had flipped that to a 1-point 23–22 advantage. In the 3rd, the Chiefs had edged out to a 3-point, 33–30, lead.

Mike Guveiyian gave me the last few minutes of the final quarter in short updates. While the Dawgs were trailing by 6, 35–41, with 4:13 left in the game, they had whittled that down to 3, 38–41, with 1:38 left. That was as close as the Dawgs could get, however, and when the horn sounded, the Dawgs had suffered only their 4th defeat of the season, losing 43–39. Mike said that Cherokee was “lights out” with 3-point shots, and added that he wasn’t sure they’d missed one the whole game.

Bill Tourtellotte, whom I have known since the second grade, echoed that the Chiefs hit a bunch of 3’s during the game when he emailed me videoclips of almost all the Dawgs’ scoring. He is no doubt trying to hone his camera skills since his oldest son, Ryan, is now a member of the frosh b-ball team. I watched all the clips and tallied points. When I was a few points short, I resorted to checking the box score off NJ.com to figure out what I was missing. It looks like Leming and Mooney did most of the scoring for Haddonfield, knocking in 13 and 12 points, respectively. I will also note that the box score caused me some mental agitation, as the quarter scores it gave didn’t add up correctly to the final score. From Mike’s quarter scores, I was able to deduce that instead of each team putting 9 on the board in the 4th, as the box score indicated, Cherokee had outscored the Dawgs by 1.

Looking to the week ahead, the Dawgs have another trio of games lined up. Tuesday, 2/8, is a 7 p.m. home game versus Collingswood. Thursday, 2/10, the Dawgs will head to Sterling for a 5:30 contest and try to do what the Silver Knights did to them last month: beat them on their home court. Finally, on Saturday, 2/12, the Dawgs will go up against Camden Catholic in a tournament at Paul VI.

By Lauree Padgett. Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today

After what was, from all reports, an exciting game on the court, with some additional excitement in the stands, Sunday, 1/9, when the Dawgs pulled out a 50–46 OT win against St. Joseph’s High School (Hammonton) in the Seagull Classic, the team had no time to savor it. Monday night, 1/10, they were back on the (home) court hosting their Colonial nemesis, the Garnets of Haddon Heights. It would be the first of the week’s trio of games, which also included another Colonial home matchup Wednesday, 1/12, versus Lindenwold and a nonleague contest Friday, 1/14, at Gloucester City High School.

No matter where the teams are in the conference standings, games between the Dawgs and the Garnets are always highly anticipated. Monday night, that may have been the case at the outset, but by the end of the first quarter, the outcome seemed pretty apparent. Senior Matthew Guveiyian got the offense rolling with a nice drive up and in to put the Dawgs on top 2-0 a minute and 40 seconds into the game after both teams had not scored during their first possessions. Heights quickly tied the game at 2, but after senior Tom Mooney picked off the ball after Haddonfield’s next shot had not gone in and Heights pulled down the rebound, he was fouled in the act of shooting. His two shots from the foul line were good and put the Dawgs back up by 2, 4–2, at the 5:28 mark.

The Garnets did not score, Mooney secured the board, and senior Matt Leming swooshed the ball into the net for 3, pushing the Dawgs’ lead to 5, 7–2, with 4:35 on the clock. Mooney and Leming combined for a pickoff, but the ball went out of bounds off Haddonfield. This time Guveiyian pilfered the ball and took it cross-court for a slam. The Dawgs were now on top 9–2 with just about 3:30 left in the quarter.

The Garnets lost the ball again, this time on a steal by senior Dante Del Duca. Leming’s shot did not find the net, but he stole the ball before the Garnets could get a shot up and was fouled on his scoring attempt. His two foul shots made it 11–2, Dawgs, with 2:40 showing on the scoreboard. The Garnets finally did get a basket—from the foul line—to put another point on the board. A nice defensive shot block by the Garnets gave them back the ball, but they were still cold from the field. Guveiyian grabbed the board, passed it to senior Carson Wolff, who had come in a few plays earlier for Del Duca. Wolff made a nice move to give the ball back to Guveiyian, who got his second basket of the quarter, which gave the Dawgs’ a double-digit, 13–3, lead with about 90 seconds remaining in the first. Still, Heights could not hit a shot, and this time on the Dawgs’ end, Mooney got fouled. Both his shots dropped in, making it 15–3, Haddonfield, with 1:24 to go.

Heights’ drought from the field ended on a 2-pointer at the 1:15 mark, but the Dawgs would score two more times off a pair of foul shots by Leming after another steal, and a basket by Del Duca after Heights had turned the ball over on a double dribble. After 8 minutes, it was all Dawgs, who were up 19–5.

In quarter 2, the Dawgs’ scoring (12 points) slowed a bit and the Garnets’ (9) picked up. The Dawgs’ 12 came on an outside 3 and two foul shots by Guveiyian, a 3 by sophomore Daire Roddy, a field goal by Roddy’s fellow “soph” Sam Narducci, and a pair of foul shots by Leming. When the teams trapsed off to the locker rooms at halftime, the Dawgs were up 31–14.

The third quarter proved to be the most competitive 8 minutes of the game, as Heights put up 14 to Haddonfield’s 19. However, the Garnets were doomed by the fact that they were down by 17 when the second half began. The Dawgs would have had to have gone bone dry from the field in order for the Garnets to make up enough to get back into the game. Still, it was a fun quarter to watch, as the teams traded baskets much more evenly. Even so, after 3 and then a 2 by Heights, at the 4:26 mark, the Dawgs had twice as many points—42—as their opponents’ 21.

The play of the quarter, probably of the game, came right before the Garnets’ 3. It began with a poach of the ball by Del Duca and ended with Guveiyian stunning the crowd—my travel buddy Vic Wiedeman was still talking about it on the drive home—with a 360-degree reverse slam. Guveiyian would have another reverse layup with 2:07 left in the quarter that gave the Dawgs a 47–24 lead. Also in the 3rd, Mooney hit a pair of treys, Roddy hit one, as did Leming, who also got 2 from the foul line. At the end of the quarter, the Dawgs were taking the shine away from the Garnets and were up by 22, 50–28.

It was more of the same in the 4th. The Dawgs’ held the Garnets to 7 points while adding 16 more to their total. Guveiyian had 2 more under the bucket, Narducci got a 3 and a 2, as did senior Sean Beane, and Mooney and Leming each got another pair from the line. When the final buzzer sounded, the Dawgs had tarnished the Garnets by a score of 66–35. Guveiyian finished with 20, Leming had 16, and Mooney had 12.

In this odd Monday–Wednesday week of conference play, the Lindenwold Lions next came into the Dawgs’ den. It should be noted that the visitors seemed to be missing several players from the varsity squad. Haddonfield has been without Teddy Bond for a few games, but the other 14 Dawgs all made it into the 1/12 game. That being said, the Lions managed to get 9 points compared to the Garnets’ 5 in quarter 1. The Dawgs, got 22, with four out of their five starters contributing. Dante Del Duca got the Dawgs rolling with a 2. Matthew Guveiyian followed with a bucket under the basket, and his fellow Matt, Leming, hit a 3. When he stole the ball down at the other end, it led to a 2 by Tom Mooney, and with not even 3 minutes gone in the 1st, the Dawgs had jumped out in front 9–0.

Leming would get another 2 off a nice bounce pass from Guveiyian before Lindenwold got its first bucket of the game. At the 3:42 mark, the Dawgs were up by 9, 11–2. Leming hit another 3, the Lions got another basket, and then Mooney hit one from behind the arc. After a blocked shot by Guveiyian, Leming cut loose with another 3, and with 1:53 on the clock, the Dawgs were having no trouble keeping the Lions at bey and were on top by 16, 20–4. Lindenwold would get 5 in a row on a 3 and a 2 before the Dawgs’ scoring for the quarter ended as it had begun: with a 2 from Del Duca. The Lions put one more up and in, and when the quarter ended, it was a 22–9 lead for Haddonfield.

The Dawgs defense kicked into a higher gear in the 2nd, and the Lions only “mane”-aged to get two field goals in the next 8 minutes. Haddonfield coach Paul Wiedeman began inserting his non-starters into the game in the 2nd as well. Senior Carson Wolff, who is almost always first in off the bench, began the quarter on the court and finished with 5 points and added a lot of intensity into the mix. Sam Narducci and senior Jon Bucci also made their presence felt on the court, as the two each contributed a pair of field goals. Mooney had the hot shot in the 2nd, with 3 2’s and 2 from the foul line. At the half, the Dawgs had 44 points, twice as many as the Lions.

The third quarter was the last time any of the five starters saw any action. Guveiyian got three buckets in the paint plus a foul shot, and Mooney kept up his scoring with 3 more buckets as well. Leming got one more 3 and one more from the line. Wolff got his third field goal of the night and Daire Roddy got his first. This nice, even display of offense added up to 21 points, so going into the last quarter, the Dawgs were up by 43, 65–22

Even though the Lions were losing by quite a bit, it is worth noting on their behalf that they did not roll over and play dead. Instead, the team played as if the score was much closer, and they showed off some nice moves throughout the game. It would have been interesting to see how much more competitive the game would have been if Lindenwold had been sporting a full bench.

In the 4th, while the starters cooled their paws, their teammates kept up the offense and defense. Eight different players got the ball in the net. Narducci and Beane added 4 apiece. Sophomore Patrick Ryan hit 1-2 from the line and scored in the paint after an offensive rebound. Sophomore Jack Walters nailed a 3, Bucci and fellow senior Evan Rohlfing each hit 2, as did sophomore Zack Langan. And another soph, Nate Rohlfing, added 2 from the foul line. When it was all over, the Dawgs had kept the Lions out of the hunt with an impressive 87–30 victory.

Despite the very lopsided score, only Tom Mooney, with 18, and Matt Leming, with 15, reached double digits for the Dawgs This was due in large part to the way Paul Wiedeman, like his dad Dave before him, coaches. He wants his players to excel, to play hard, to learn from and help each other every game. If he had kept his five starters in and just interspersed his other few players who often come in off the bench, the Dawgs could easily have reached 100, probably more. Losing by 57 was not a fun experience for the Lindenwold Lions, but Paul Wiedeman made sure it wasn’t a humiliating one either. That’s one of the reasons he is such an exceptional coach and so well-respected in and out of the Colonial Conference.

Friday, 1/14, the Dawgs left the confines of their court to travel to Gloucester City High School to take on another pack of Lions. I watched from the comfort of my desk, but was having trouble getting the stream to come up, so I missed the initial possessions of both teams. When I joined the game, it was tied at 2. My sideline reporter, Mike Guveiyian, told me that Haddonfield got its first two points from the foul line courtesy Dante Del Duca. The Dawgs got another basket from the foul line by Mike G’s kid Matthew to take a 1-point, 3–2, lead with about 5:20 on the clock.

Both teams seemed a bit flat—and for the Dawgs, that was understandable, as this was their fourth game in 6 days. Almost 4 minutes went by before anyone got the ball in the net again. Luckily for Haddonfield, it was Del Duca’s shot, which made it 5–2, Dawgs, with 1:47 to go. The Lions answered with a basket at their end to tighten the game back to 1-point, 5–4, at 1:28. The Lions then picked-off the ball and went up and in to take the lead, 6–5, with 1 minute remaining in the quarter. Haddonfield did not score, and Gloucester City ran down the clock before taking and making another basket. However, they left just enough time for Del Duca to hit a 3 ahead of the buzzer, tying the game at 8.

Gloucester City inbounded the ball to start the 2nd quarter and did not score. The Dawgs missed at the other end but got the offensive board. The Lions almost got a steal but instead were charged with a foul, which sent Tom Mooney to the line. He made both shots to break the tie and put the Dawgs up by 2. Good “D” got the Dawgs back the ball and Guveiyian went up and in on a feed from Mooney to make it 12–8 with 5:46 on the clock. The two teams traded buckets, with the Dawgs’ coming on a nice drive by Mooney, which made it 14–10, Dawgs with 5 and change left in the half.

At the other end, Guveiyian and Carson Wolff applied good pressure but the ball went out of bounds off the Dawgs, and the Lions were able to get a basket to cut the Dawgs’ lead down to 2, 14–12, with 4:14 left in the half. Another ball that went out of bounds off Haddonfield gave Gloucester City possession. This time, the Lions hit a 3 to retake the lead 15–14, but a nice move by Mooney en route to the hoop flipped the edge back to Haddonfield, 16–15, with 2:45 on the clock. Under the Lions’ basket, Haddonfield blocked a shot but then failed to score.

Matt Leming elevated enough to just tip a shot from the Lions that was behind the arc, keeping it from going in. Haddonfield had two chances at their end but couldn’t get the ball in the net; Gloucester City had no better luck and then lost the ball out of bounds. Mooney’s shot did not drop, Wolff pulled down the offensive board, passing the ball back to Mooney, who this time hit a 3 with 55 seconds left in the half, which put the Dawgs up by 4, 19–15.

More tight defense from the Dawgs prevented the Lions from scoring, but the Lions returned the favor under the Haddonfield basket, causing the Dawgs to lose the ball out of bounds with 2.3 seconds left. Gloucester City ran a quick, effective play off the inbounds to score, so the half ended with the Dawgs only out in front by 2, 19–17.

The 3rd period possession arrow favored the Dawgs. Their first shot attempt was no good, Guveiyian tipped the ball back out to a teammate, but the Dawgs could capitalize on the second chance to score. However, a loose ball sent the teams diving to the floor, and Haddonfield came up with it. Del Duca got his own rebound after a missed basket, handing it off to Mooney, who drove in for a bucket. His shot made it 21–17, Haddonfield, and Mooney would add 2 more points from the foul line a few plays later. (One play featured a backcourt violation being called on Haddonfield that absolutely was not.) With 5:28 left in the 3rd, the Dawgs were up by 6, 23–17.

The Lions were playing stall ball because they were having a difficult time moving past the perimeter into the paint. However, a ball from behind the arc found the net, which made it a 23–20 game with 4:26 on the clock. Although the Dawgs did not answer with a basket, they got a group effort steal and Leming hit a 3 to get that 6-point lead back, 26–20, with 4:02 remaining in the period. Del Duca got a defensive board, Haddonfield did not score, then got a non-shooting foul assessed on them. The Lions got off another shot that did not drop, and Leming snatched the rebound, then helped to prevent a near-steal by the Lions. That allowed Del Duca to sink a 3, and with 2:04 to go in the 3rd, the Dawgs had their biggest lead of the game, at 29–20.

The Dawgs were caught off-guard thanks to a very nice backdoor drive by the Lions to make it a 7-point, 29–22, game with 1:22 on the clock. Haddonfield lost the ball on a bad pass, but Del Duca and Guveiyian combined for a pick-off with 37 seconds left. The Dawgs kept moving the ball until the clock was almost wound down, when Mooney hit a 2 to reclaim that 9-point lead and put the Dawgs up 31–22 as the 3rd ended.

Clearly this had not been exactly an offensive barrage for the Dawgs, who had beaten Haddon Heights by 31 and Lindenwold by 57. After scoring 8 in the 1st, 11 in the 2nd, and 12 in the 3rd, the Dawgs only got 5 points, all by Mooney, on the board in the 4th. After his opening basket to start the 4th, Mooney would get 3 from the foul line, going 1-2 in three trips. It was also the lowest-scoring quarter for the Lions, who got all 4 of their points from the foul line. When the buzzer (mercifully) sounded, the Dawgs had come away with a 10-point, 36–26 W.

Mooney accounted for 20 of the Dawgs’ 36 points. Del Duca knocked in 10. Guveiyian and Leming were the only other Dawgs to score, and each had 3.

Haddonfield will not play again until they travel to Audubon on Thursday, 1/20, for a Colonial Conference game against the Green Wave. It’s good that they have some extra days between games, as the team is looking, you guessed it, Dawg tired. Their other game of the week will take place at home, when they host Overbook on Saturday, 1/22, at 1 p.m.

By Lauree Padgett. Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today

If you added up the Dawgs’ points and their opponents’ points for the two games Haddonfield played this past week, the first against Clearview Regional High School in the Haddonfield Invitational, the second versus Egg Harbor Township in the Haddons Showcase, and divided the totals in half, the Dawgs would have come out on top in both contests. Alas, that is not how it  works. So after pummeling the Pioneers on Tuesday, 12/28, 73–39, the Dawgs never really got airborne in their matchup against the Eagles on Thursday, 12/30, and suffered their first loss of the early season, 42–59. They are now 4–1 overall and 2–0 in Colonial Conference play.

It isn’t too exciting to write up either a blowout, which the first game clearly was, nor four quarters when the Dawgs were just not getting it done offensively or even defensively. Hence, this is not going to be one of my longer articles. Instead, I’ll share the highlights of the 34-point victory that sent the Pioneers packing and then take a look at the best part of the Dawgs’ 17-point defeat against the Eagles.

The Dawgs got off to a very hot start in Tuesday’s game. Their first five baskets were from behind the arc (aka 3-point line), and I honestly can’t remember that happening very often, if at all. Teddy Bond got the 3-point barrage started after both teams missed their first scoring opportunities. After another Dawgs’ miss, Tom Mooney stole the ball and went cross-court and put up his first 3 of the game. Clearview got 2 points back from the foul line before Matt Leming nailed a 3 to put Haddonfield up by 8, 12–4 with 4:35 left in the quarter.

Another Dawg foul put the Pioneers back on the line, where both shots were again made, but Mooney’s second 3 made it 15–6, Dawgs. The Pioneers finally got a 3 of its own, and Haddonfield finally had to “settle” (think about it a second and you’ll get it) for a drive up and in by Matt Guveiyian, and with 3:31 on the clock, the Dawgs were leading by 8, 17–9. Clearview got its second 3 to cut the lead to 17–12 before Daire Roddy joined the 3-point fun to give the Dawgs back their 8-point cushion at 20–12. A pickoff by Roddy led to a 2 by Mooney, which would be the final basket by either team. When the buzzer sounded to end the quarter, the Dawgs had a double-digit, 10-point edge up 22–12.

The second quarter wasn’t as offensively explosive as the first, which had seen the Dawgs put 6 3’s in the net. However, Bond put on his own little 3-point show to start it off, hitting back-to-back-to-back 3’s while the Dawgs kept the Pioneers scoreless. After 3 number 3 dropped in, the Dawgs had gone from being up by 10 to being up by 19, 31–12, after only 2 minutes.

Clearview’s mini-drought ended with a 2 and then the Pioneers got 1 from the foul line, hitting the front end of a 1+1, to make it 31–15 with 5 and change left in the half. Another Roddy 3 and a foul shot by Jon Bucci pushed the Dawgs’ lead to 20, 35–15. Clearview would get the last 2 baskets of the half, and when the teams headed off the court, the Dawgs were still up by 16, 35–19. Ten of those 35 points came off 3’s.

Clearview had its best 8 minutes of offense in the 3rd, putting 13 points on the board to Haddonfield’s 17. This time, more 2’s (five) went in than 3’s (two). Guveiyian got three baskets in the paint and one from the foul line, while Mooney and Leming each added in a 2 and 3. That gave the Dawgs back a 20-point lead going into the last quarter of action.

In the 4th, the Dawgs saw some more action on the foul line; 7 of their 21 points were made there. Mooney and Leming again each got a 3 and a 2, with Mooney knocking in 2 from the line and Leming, 3. Roddy got a basket, and sophomore Patrick Ryan hit 2 from the line as well. When it was all over, the Dawgs had not given a very friendly welcome to the Pioneers, taking them down 73–39. Bond, who racked up 6 of the Dawgs’ 14 3’s, finished with 20 points. Leming followed with 16, and Mooney, 15.

Haddonfield went into Thursday’s game missing one of its starters and one of its first-off-the-bench players. However, it would be a discredit to Egg Harbor Township to say that’s why the Dawgs lost the game. The truth was, the Dawgs’ shots were not finding the net nearly as easily as they had two days earlier. That was due in part to how well the Eagles played defensively, as the Dawgs weren’t getting the same open looks. But when they did, not enough of those shots swooshed in.

The Dawgs fell behind by 4 to start the game, but got a bucket by Roddy before the Eagles got another basket to go up by 4 again, 6–2. A drive by Mooney and a basket by Leming tied the game at 6 with 1:41 left in the 1st. However, Egg Harbor would get a trio of 3’s to a pair of 2’s by Mooney and Bucci, giving them a 15–10 lead to finish the quarter. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t get any better the next 8 minutes. In the 2nd quarter, the Dawgs only put 7 points on the board compared to the Eagles’ 14, so at the half, they were trailing by double digits, 17–21. 

But remember I said there was something to cheer about in this game. It happened in the 3rd quarter with the Dawgs behind by 24, 19–43 with just under 3 minutes left. Leming hit a 3, Egg Harbor didn’t score; then Leming hit another 3. Again, the Eagles did not score. Mooney drew a foul going up and in and hit both of his shots from the line. With 1:38 left in the quarter, the Dawgs were now within 16, 27–43. And they weren’t done their scoring run. After Egg Harbor lost the ball out of bounds, the Dawgs didn’t score, but Mooney’s steal set up Leming for another 3, and with 47 seconds to go, it was now a 13-point game, with the suddenly cold Eagles’ lead cut down to 43–30. This time Roddy picked off the ball and scored and with 8 seconds remaining in the 3rd, the Dawgs had rattled off 13 straight points to cut the deficit to 11, 32–42. A 3 on the buzzer by Egg Harbor stopped the bleeding and put them back up by 14, 46–32.

While the rally fell short and the Dawgs ended up only getting 10 more points in the last 8 minutes, losing 42–59, it still reminded the fans—and the team—that the Dawgs never give up, even when they are getting outplayed. That “keep on fighting” mentality is the reason the Dawgs won back-to-back state titles in 2018 and 2019 and how they went 25–5 in 2020, winning the Colonial Conference in what was to be a rebuilding year, and gave Coach Wiedeman his 500th career victory in the South Jersey Group 2 semi-finals versus Haddon Heights, which the Dawgs won on a steal and basket by Connor Fell 35–33.

So, you can bet that the team will have learned some valuable lessons that might just pay off as the season progresses and the playoffs loom.

COVID (and snow forecasts) notwithstanding, Haddonfield is scheduled to travel to Collingswood Tuesday, 1/4, for a 7 p.m. game and to host Sterling on Thursday, 1/6. Right now, the Collingswood school district is staring 2022 virtually, and as of this writing, I have not been able to confirm if Tuesday’s game will be played, and if so, whether fans will be allowed in the gym. You can check the Dawgs’ online schedule for updates (https://haddonfieldathletics.org/main/teamschedule/id/3589622/seasonid/4623182) and also check to see if Collingswood will be live-streaming the game by going to its YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwg3lU6Eo6oija4v2y9sDDQ. Also currently on the slate is a game on Sunday, 1/9, which is a 3 p.m. game at Holy Spirit High School versus St. Joseph High School, Hammonton, as part of the Seagull Classic.

By Lauree Padgett. Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today             

There are few similarities so far between the 2021–22 Dawgs season and last year’s. The biggest difference is that the season kicked off last week on Friday, Dec. 17, when the Dawgs traveled to Haddon Township High School to go up against the Hawks. Last season, which skipped the months of December and January completely due to COVID and then COVID protocols, did not commence until Feb. 6. This contest was still an away game versus Haddon Township, but this time, instead of losing by 8 points, 30–38, which hadn’t happened in literally decades, the Dawgs prevailed 37–30.

That win in and of itself is a good sign, but it also shows what happens when a team isn’t literally interacting with each other for the first time when stepping onto the court for the season’s opening game, which is what happened in the February outing against the Hawks. Paul Wiedeman, who is entering his 23rd season as the Dawgs’ head coach with a more than impressive record of 512–102, noted in an email exchange a few weeks ago what a difference it was to have practices going in full swing and knowing that there would be fans in the stands from that initial tip-off and hopefully moving forward.

Even though this season’s squad had had many practices and some scrimmages prior to the 12/17 game at the Hawks’ home court, the Dawgs still weren’t totally in sync. There were more turnovers than what would normally be expected along with a higher number of bad (not to be confused with missed) shots. Hence, quarter one did not prove to be a rousing display of offense by either team and ended with the Dawgs up by 1, 7–6. Moreover, for most of those 8 minutes, the Dawgs were trailing the Hawks. It was senior Tom Mooney’s pair of foul shots with just under a minute to go that put Haddonfield on top. The only other baskets of the quarter came from a bucket by junior Teddy Bond (little bro to Richie and Will) and a 3 by senior Matt Leming.

Both teams picked up the scoring in the second quarter. The Hawks got to inbound the ball and wasted no time going back on top by a point, 8–7. That edge was short-lived thanks to a 3 by sophomore Daire Roddy, which put the Dawgs up by 2, 10–8, with not even a minute gone in the 2nd. The Hawks would bring the contest even at 10 a few possessions later, but Tom Mooney (sorry, but in the stands, I’m still calling him Tommy) again stepped to the foul line and again put the Dawgs ahead, 12–10, at the 5:12 mark.  A pickoff by Roddy led to a drive up and in by Bond, giving the Dawgs a 4-point, 14–10, lead with 4:39 left in the half. The Hawks answered with a basket to briefly cut the lead to 2, however, sophomore Sam Narducci pushed the lead back to 4. Although two straight 2’s by Haddon Township evened things at 16 with 2:30 on the clock, Haddonfield would get the last 5 points of the game off a 3 and a 2 by Mooney, and as the teams headed to the locker rooms, the Dawgs had stretched the lead to 5, 21–15.

The third quarter scoring dipped a bit again on both sides. The Dawgs only scored three baskets, a bucket in the paint by senior Matt Guveiyian, a 2 and a 3 by Mooney, and a pair of foul shots by Leming. The Hawks matched the Dawgs with a pair of 2’s and a 3 but didn’t get any points from the foul line, so when the period ended, Haddonfield had added 2 points to their halftime lead and were up by 7, 30–23.

In the 4th, the Dawgs would again put up 9 points in the exact same way: a pair of 2’s, this time by senior Carson Wolff and Mooney, a 3 by Leming, and 2 from the line by Mooney. The Hawks would only muster two baskets, coming back to back within a 10-second span. When the buzzer sounded, the Dawgs had won 39­–27. Mooney led all scorers with 18.

The second game was the next day, 12/18, at Cherokee and was part of the Jimmy V (North Carolina State head coach and later ESPN commentator Jim Valvano, who founded the V Foundation for Cancer Research just before his death in 1993 from adenocarcinoma) Classic. The Dawgs played Timber Creek. I was unable to attend, but Vic Wiedeman, my fellow 1980 HMHS grad and bro to the head coach, texted me the halftime (27–10, Haddonfield) and the final (52–30) scores.

On Tuesday night, 12/27, I was back in the Haddonfield gym in “my” spot—about 4 rows up across from the Haddonfield bench—for the first time since March of 2020. While I had been one of the lucky fans (as a member of the press) to attend home games in the 2020–21 season, I had been assigned the corner section by the gym entrance, across from the visiting bench, out of COVID protocol. It was great to be back at center court again!

The Dawgs were hosting the Eagles of West Deptford, and the game was in essence over within the first 8 minutes, if not sooner. The Dawgs started their scoring with a 3 from Tom Mooney and built up a 13–0 lead before the Eagles landed a basket in the net with less than 3 minutes to go in the quarter. When the first quarter was over the Dawgs were up by 14, 17–3; Matt Guveiyian provided 8 of those 17 points, and the other Matt, Leming, knocked in the other 9 on a pair of 3’s, a 2, and a foul shot.

If the Eagles had looked shaky in the first quarter, the Dawgs really clipped their wings in the second. Mooney got hot and hit a trio of treys plus a pair of foul shots. Leming got two more 3’s, and Sam Narducci hit one from outside the arc as well. Senior Jon Bucci added 4 points, and  Teddy Bond also got a basket. When the halftime buzzer went off, the Dawgs were in total command of the game, up 35 points, 45–10.

Even in the second quarter, Coach Wiedeman had started bringing in players off the bench, but he also let his starters and first subs get a decent amount of playing time. The Matts combined for 13 of the Dawgs 22 3rd quarter points: Matt G. had 3 buckets in the paint, and Matt L. had a 2, a 3, and a pair from the line. Daire Roddy got 2 baskets, and Mooney got his 4th from the field. At the end of 3, the Dawgs had put 22 on the board and were cruising, 67–17.

Even though none of the starters scored in the final 8 minutes, the Dawgs still added 15 points to their totals on 2’s by seniors Evan Rohlfing and Bucci and sophomores Sam Narducci and Jack Walters. Seniors Sean Beane and Dante Del Duca each made a basket from the foul line.

When all was said and done, the Dawgs had sent the Eagles limping back to their nest, or at least their bus, with a very lopsided 82–24 victory. Matt Leming was high scorer with 22 points. Matt Guveiyian finished with 14 points, and Tom Mooney had 13.

Now let’s take a look at the week ahead. On Tuesday, 12/28 and Thursday, 12/30, Haddonfield will be hosting two events: the Haddonfield Invitational and the Haddons Showcase, respectively. The boys and girls will be playing both days. On Tuesday, the girls take to the court first at 1 p.m., going up against Moorestown High School. At 2:30, the boys match up against Clearview Regional High School. On Thursday, the boys play Egg Harbor Township at 1 and are followed by the girls taking on Moorestown Friends at 2:30.

Anyone planning to attend any Haddonfield boys or girls games this season needs to know that each host school will decide how many fans can be admitted into the host’s gymnasium. Right now, Haddonfield is not putting a cap on attendance (more on that below), but that may not be the case at all other schools. So, before you head off to any away games, you should make sure you will have access to the gym. For example, Haddon Township, which has a small gym, limited attendance; each player on both teams was allowed to have four people attend the game. I checked ahead of time and found out I would not have been able to gain access through my press pass, but that may vary with each school as well. I got into the gym because Gary Vermaat, grandfather of Matt Guveiyian, graciously gave me his ticket, as going to the first game of the season was supposed to be part of my birthday celebration with his wife Debbie, Matt’s “Nanny.”

During the Haddon Township game, the student doing the play-by-play announced multiple times that masks were to be worn by everyone in the gym. (Players not on the court are required to wear masks as well.) I was not pleased to see that several students behind the Haddonfield bench were flagrantly ignoring this safety measure, and instead of having their masks covering their nose and mouth, had them around their neck.

Haddonfield AD Lefty Banos addressed the mask mandate before the start of the West Deptford game. He went on the court, mic in hand, and told the crowd that in order for Haddonfield to allow open attendance at home games throughout the season, fans had to keep their masks on at all times. Anyone who did not do so would be removed from the gym. Some students either didn’t hear this announcement or didn’t take it seriously and were not properly wearing the masks. Fairly quickly, they were approached and told to mask up or leave. They masked up. I hope Haddonfield keeps close watch on adult and student fans for the safety of all who are at the games, both on the court and in the stands, and that fans respect and comply with the mask mandate when they are at other gyms to cheer on the Dawgs. As COVID has shown, it is still capable of upending NBA, NFL, and NHL contest even with the majority of players vaccinated. Last year, Haddonfield’s normal schedule was cut to 15 games. For the sake of the team and its coaches and all who support them, I sincerely hope all will wear their masks to ensure that this season can continue all the way into March and the NJSIAA tournament.

By Lauree Padgett Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today

I was going to start off this last weekly wrap-up (I’ll do a short season overview next week that I’m hoping will include comments by Coach Paul Wiedeman, among others) by saying I’d never seen the Haddonfield boys basketball season end on a winning note, but then I remembered I had seen that once before: on March 17, 1973, when the team won its first state championship, upsetting Orange 76­–67. Since this was in the pre-Tournament of Champions era, that last game was, indeed, a thrilling victory. In all the ensuing years—or should I cringe inwardly and type “decades”?—every game that has finished off a Dawgs’ season, even the ones that culminated in six more state titles that proceeded the inaugural one on St. Patrick’s Day, ended in defeat as the Dawgs lost in a Tournament of Champions matchup.

So, I have to tweak what is now not my lede to note that it has been 48 seasons since I last witnessed Haddonfield players walking off the court with a W and still having their season come to an end. But, the home game on Saturday, 3/6 against the Glassboro Bulldogs was the fourth game the team played in this last week of competition. So, let me back up and start with the first game on March 1 against the Red Devils of Rancocas Valley Regional High School.

The Red Devils blazed to a 4–0 lead at the outset of Monday night’s game on the Dawgs’ court before Matt Guveiyian got the offense rolling for Haddonfield with a 3, and after a Dawg steal, Justin Kasko showed nice hustle to pull down an offensive board. Matt Leming was fouled in his resulting shot attempt, and he made 1–2 from the line to tie the game at 4 all with 5:24 left in the first quarter. After few trips up and down the court with neither team able to break the tie, Leming hit his first 3 of the game to put the Dawgs up 7–4 with just over half the quarter remaining. Leming would pull down the defensive board at the other end, then with 3:19 on the clock, Kasko knocked down a 3 to make it 10–4, good buddy. (If you’re too young to get that reference, you can always Google it or ask Siri.)

Rancocas Valley got back in scoring mode with a trey to get to within 3, 10–7, with 2:01 left in the quarter, but Guveiyian swooshed in another 3 to push the Dawgs back in front by 6, 13–7 with a minute and change to go. After Haddonfield did not score in its next possession and Rancocas Valley turned over the ball, the Dawgs had one more shot to finish out the quarter. Of course, it was a 3, this time from Leming on a feed from Guveiyian 3.1 seconds ahead of the buzzer, to put the Dawgs up by 9, 16–7 going into quarter 2.

It would take more than 2 minutes for a point to go on the board in the second. This was due to a few missed shots by Haddonfield and Rancocas Valley’s difficulty in getting any shots off thanks to their opponent’s stifling defense. Finally, at the foul line with 5:44 showing on the scoreboard, Kasko got 1–2 to drop, giving his team a double-digit, 17–7 edge. That did not last long as the Red Devils finally got a shot off and into the net. At the other end Dante Del Duca hit one from behind the arc, making it 20–9 with 3:45 left in the half. The offense on both sides largely shut down for the next 3-plus minutes. The Red Devils would only get 1 more point from a foul shot, but the Dawgs only mustered 2 more points off a nice jumper by Tom Mooney a few seconds ahead of the half-time buzzer. This gave the Dawgs a 12-point, 22–10, advantage as the teams headed off the court.

As was mostly the case all season, it was quarter 3 when the Dawgs had their biggest offensive output. Thanks to Carson Wolfe, Haddonfield finally got their inside game going. Aside from the jumper by Mooney that finished off the first half, all of the Dawgs’ scoring in the first 2 quarters had come from 3’s or foul shots. Wolfe went up and in four times, including a nice cross-court maneuver that kicked off the Dawgs’ third quarter. Haddonfield did get two more baskets from behind the 3-point line from Leming as well, and he and Guveiyian also dropped in a pair of free throws. When the quarter was over, the Dawgs had double the points of the Red Devils and were in control 40–20 going into the 4th.

Mooney got hot in those last 8 minutes, knocking down a 2, a 3, and then 2 from the foul line. Matt Kouser, who as a freshman has seen quite a bit of court time, also hit a 3 and a 2, and at the end of the quarter, when Coach Wiedeman had taken all the regulars out, another freshman, Darragh Roddy, ended the Dawgs’ offense with a 3. When the final horn sounded, the Dawgs had bedeviled Rancocas Valley, beating them by 28 points, which was 1 point more than the Red Devils scored themselves. The final was Haddonfield, 55, Rancocas Valley, 27. With his four 3’s, Matt Leming led the Dawgs with 15 points. Although Leming was the only Dawg in double digits, eight players contributed to the team’s offense.

A night later, the Dawgs were at Collingswood. No matter what kind of team Collingswood has, I think longtime Haddonfield fans get an uneasy feeling when the Dawgs and Panthers meet up, especially when it’s on the Panthers’ turf. Even though the Dawgs had won their first matchup versus the Panthers by 16, I wasn’t expecting it to be that easy this go-round. And it definitely wasn’t.

The game started off well enough, with Matt Leming getting one of his trademark corner 3’s barely 15 seconds into the match. Messy passing and out-of-bounds calls resulted at both ends of the court before Collingswood got its first 2-pointer at the 4:37 mark to make it 3–2, Haddonfield. Leming pulled down an offensive board and sent the ball back up and in for 2, and it was 5–2, Dawgs. Good “D” caused a Panthers’ turnover, but the Dawgs were unable to score, and then with 3:19 left in the first, the Panthers knocked down a 3 to tie it at 5. A drive by Tom Mooney off a feed by Matthew Guveiyian pushed the Dawgs back in front 7–5 with 2:47 to go.  After a missed shot by Collingswood, Carson Wolfe got a bucket in the paint also off a pass by Guveiyian to give the Dawgs a 9–5 lead. A Dawg foul sent the Panthers to the line. One shot dropped. Mooney was fouled under the Dawg basket, and he also made 1–2, so when the quarter ended 51.9 seconds (I’m all about the details) later, the Dawgs were still up by 4, 10–6.

The second quarter did not start off as well for the Dawgs, who had possession, as the Panthers notched a steal and a bucket, and with only 14 seconds gone, they were within 2, 10–8. Second verse, same as the first: 20 seconds later, the game was tied at 10. And while Collingswood’s third straight basket did not come off a steal, nevertheless, with 6:41 on the clock, the Panthers had gone ahead 12–10. Then, after another Dawg turnover, Collingswood hit a 3 to go up by 5, 15–10, at the 5:42 mark.

A pickoff by Haddonfield got the Dawgs the ball back after a bad pass temporarily gave possession to Collingswood. An offensive board by Guveiyian gave Leming a chance to nail a 3, making it a 2-point game, with the Panthers still on top 15–13 with 4:48 left in the half.

Play resumed after a timeout by Haddonfield. Unfortunately, Collingswood would get the next 4 points of the game, 2 from the foul line and one off a basket. With 2:45 remaining in the quarter and the Dawgs down by 4, Guveiyian launched a 3, and it was now a 1-point game, with the Dawgs trailing 18–19. Again, Collingswood got a basket, and the Dawgs found themselves in the hole 18–21 with 2:27 left. A scramble for the ball resulted in an out-of-bounds call against the Dawgs after a missed Dawg shot. After a few kick-ball calls (and Dy Heine nowhere to be seen), Guveiyian stole the ball, and a 3 from Leming tied the game at 21 with 1:10 left in the half. After another pickoff by Haddonfield, the Dawgs were going for the final shot, but waited a tad too long, and when the ball finally went up, it was off. So, the teams left the court with the game still tied at 21.

The second half made me glad I was not at the Collingswood gym, because I started getting very wound up, to put it mildly, from my seat in front of the computer screen. What had been somewhat annoying attempt in the first half of the game by Collingswood to slow its tempo became beyond exasperating in the second. After Haddonfield got a basket thanks to Leming after its first possession ended in a turnover, the Dawgs were back in front 23–21 with about 5:41 on the clock. A steal from Mooney and his subsequent 2 made it 25–23, Haddonfield, about 40 seconds later. When more than a minute ticked off the clock without Collingswood even attempting to make a shot, I wrote in all caps in my notepad, “SHOOT THE BALL!!!”

Before that happened, Collingswood got charged with a foul, but the Dawgs did not score, and a rebound attempt went out of bounds off the Dawgs. The Panthers didn’t eat up too much clock before attempting to score their next possession, but the shot did not go in. Leming got the board and Mooney took a shot. The contrary ball went up, rolled on the rim, and went in the wrong direction at the 2:34 mark. Collingswood went into ball hold mode for about 20 seconds and then caught the Dawgs napping, as they got 2 on a nicely set up shot with 2:14 on the clock to get back to within 2, 25–23. The Dawgs missed a chance at the foul line to get those points back, and even after getting the offensive rebound, could not get a shot to drop.

Wolfe had an aggressive steal, Collingswood got charged with its second foul of the half, a jump ball kept possession with the Dawgs, but again, nothing came of it on the scoreboard. With about a minute left, Collingswood tried something a little different—NOT—and held the ball, going for the last shot, and luckily, did not score either. So, going into the last quarter, it was still 25–23, the same score it had been at the 2:14 mark of the third quarter.

The game and the ball went back and forth for almost 2 minutes before Collingswood’s 2 tied it up at 25 apiece with 6:04 left in the game. A nice cut going into the paint by Justin Kasko gave the Dawgs back the lead 27–25 with 5:49 on the clock. At the Collingswood end of the court, the Panthers were lurking, lurking, lurking and not doing much else. When a shot was made, it did not go in the net, and Kasko and Mooney pulled down the rebound. Collingswood got charged with its fourth foul of the quarter with 4:17 to go. Guveiyian went up and in and did not score. No foul was called, but at least he stayed upright and in the game. (That comment will be expanded upon shortly.) With just under 4 minutes to play, the Panthers scored and tied the game at 27.

A Haddonfield turnover prompted Coach Wiedeman to call for a timeout with 2:30 remaining. After Collingswood inbounded the ball to resume play, Kasko picked off the ball after good overall D by he and his teammates. Haddonfield turned the tables on Collingswood and took some time off the clock by working for an open shot. Their patience paid off as Mooney drove in for a 2 off a feed from Wolfe, and with 1:37 left in regulation, the Dawgs had gone back up 29–27.

A near pickoff by the Dawgs turned into a 3 by the Panthers, who reclaimed the lead for the first time since the first quarter, even if by the slimmest of margins, 30–29, with 1:11 to go. Mooney made a good effort to put the Dawgs in front again. Even though his shot did not go in, he was fouled. He made 1–2 from the line to tie it at 30 with 56.6 seconds to go.

Haddonfield committed its third foul of the game with 41.0 on the clock; 13 seconds later, a jump ball call kept the Panthers holding onto the ball, but their coach called a timeout. I was expecting a play that would have Collingswood whittling down the clock, but instead, there were still 17.9 seconds showing when the Panthers attempted a shot that did not go in. Kasko secured a big defensive board and Wiedeman called a timeout. Haddonfield inbounded the ball, and since Collingswood still was under the limit, committed a foul to force Haddonfield to inbound the ball again with 12.6 seconds to go. The Dawgs and the ball were in motion, and when time was almost out, Guveiyian drove in under the basket. His shot did not go in, but everyone was expecting a foul call. Instead, the buzzer sounded rather than a whistle being blown. I wrote down on my pad. “No foul?? Paul [Wiedeman] is livid. Me too.” As the live stream focus cut to Wiedeman taking the refs to task, I didn’t notice how gingerly Guveiyian got up off the floor (the collision initiated by the Panther guarding him sent both players sprawling onto the hardwood). As it turned out, Guveiyian went back to the trainer, not the huddle.

When the game went into a 4-minute OT, Guveiyian was sitting with ice on his ankle and knee area, and Dante Del Duca was on the floor in his stead. Haddonfield had possession and inbounded the ball. Wiedeman called out his instructions, and with 3:33 on the clock, Kasko executed a nice reverse layup, making it 32–30, Dawgs. The Dawgs were riled up after the last play of regulation and seemed determined to make sure the game did not need a second OT. They pressed Collingswood at the other end and the Panthers lost the ball. Del Duca went up and in for 2 and the Dawgs were now leading 34–30 with 2:52 left in OT.

Kasko pulled down a defensive board but the Dawgs turned it over. This time, Kasko got the ball back to his team by taking an offensive charge with 1:47 on the clock. With 1:08 on the clock, Weideman called a timeout. Haddonfield did not score, and with 42.5 seconds left, Haddonfield was charged with its 7th foul of the half, sending Collingswood to the line for a 1-1 opportunity. The first shot did not drop in, and the Dawgs got the board, but with 20.5 seconds left, Collingswood stole it back. There was then a scramble for the loose ball, which Haddonfield won with 12.3 seconds left. Before a second even had time to tick off the scoreboard, Del Duca was fouled. He also stepped to the line with a 1+1 opportunity. His first shot swooshed in. So did his second, putting the Dawgs up by 6, 36–30.

Even though Collingswood had basically run out of time, a timeout was taken. After Haddonfield got charged with a foul, another timeout was called for with 10 seconds to go. The Panthers’ shot did not go in, not that it would have mattered. This time when the buzzer sounded, there was a winner: Haddonfield. In the 4-minute OT, the charged up Dawgs had put 6 points on the board when in the 8-minute 4th, they had only managed 5. And equally as important, they held the Panthers scoreless.

Matt Leming finished the game with 15 points. Thanks to the low score, no one else on the Haddonfield squad reached double digits. I had been getting updates about Matt Guveiyian while the game was still in action (it pays to be close friends with a player’s Nanny, aka Debbie Vermaat), so I knew he was headed for an X-ray. The good news came back that he had suffered a sprain and nothing more serious, but it still resulted in a deep bruise that kept him in the stands watching his teammates play the last two games of the season.

As if that were not enough excitement, word came Thursday afternoon (3/4) that the away Sterling game had been canceled. In fact, the frosh, JV, and varsity games had all been canceled. It turned out that the Silver Knights were shut down for the rest of the season due to COVID exposure. The rematch (Sterling had won round one 64–55) was supposed to determine the outcome of the Colonial Conference Liberty division. If Sterling had won, they would be the sole winner. Had the Dawgs come out on top, the teams would have shared the crown. Probably back in the day when snow was more likely to upend a would-be title game, rules were established that should this kind of cancelation occur without the game able to be rescheduled, the teams would still share the crown. I’m sure this upset Sterling more than Haddonfield, since the best outcome for the Dawgs would have a split, not sole possession of first place.

So, there was no game at all on Thursday. Instead, I was nearly simultaneously getting contradictory reports about the remainder of the Dawgs’ season—if there was even one left. One source was telling me the scheduled Saturday game had been canceled and the Dawgs’ season was over. However, my other source told me the Dawgs were going to now host Winslow Township at 4 on Friday afternoon (varsity only) and the game on Saturday was still at home but the opponent was going to be Glassboro not Bordentown. Source number 2 proved to be more reliable. The funniest part of all this was the two people who were providing me with conflicting information are related!

With the schedule seeming to be in constant upheaval, I decided if I wanted to make sure I saw one more home game, I’d better go to the Friday game in case the Saturday game was nixed at the last minute. The gym was even emptier than usual, as some parents were not able to get there because of the one-two punch of it not being set up until Thursday afternoon and the early start of 4 p.m. I did not know anything about the Winslow Township Eagles (who had very green unis). In the first quarter, it seemed that the teams might be fairly well-matched. After Carson Wolfe got the first point for Haddonfield from the foul line, Winslow got a bucket to go up 2–1 with just less than 2 minutes gone. And that’s how the score would stay for the next 3-plus minutes until Tom Mooney’s feed to Wolfe resulted in a bucket, putting the Dawgs—briefly—out in front 3–2 with 3:17 to go in the quarter. But a basket and a foul shot added 3 to the Eagles’ score, putting them on top 5–3 with 2:33 on the clock.

A jumper from Matt Leming tied it at 5 with 2:16 left. Justin Kasko stripped the Eagles of the ball about 12 seconds later, and after some nice ball movement under the Haddonfield basket, Wolfe scored off a twofold feed that went Kasko to Mooney to Wolfe. With 1:44 to go, the Dawgs were ahead again by 2, 7–5. But the Eagles landed a 3 with 47 seconds left to retake the lead by 1, 8–7. About 11 seconds later, the lead swung back to Haddonfield’s favor as Mooney went up and in to make it 9–8, Haddonfield, and that would be the final basket of the quarter for either side.

In the second quarter, Wolfe continued his nice driving into the lane for baskets. His first came off a Del Duca assist and put the Dawgs up by 3, 11–8, with 6:47 on the clock. A Haddonfield steal put the ball back into Wolfe’s hands, and this time, not only did he score, he got fouled. His shot from the line when it, and with 6:30 to go, the Dawgs were now up by 6, 14–8. The Dawgs got their third 2 of the quarter as Matt Kouser got into the act to push the Dawgs’ lead to 8, 16–8, with 5:11 left in the half. After a timeout, the Eagles still were having trouble finding the net, and the Dawgs went a bit cold as well thanks to a few turnovers that resulted from some passing miscues. Winslow Township got its first—and only—basket of the second quarter with less than 2 minutes remaining in the half. It was a 3 and make it 16–11, Haddonfield.

In the final 1:53 of the half, the Dawgs went on a mini run, putting 10 points on the board. Kouser got things started with a 3. After a traveling violation was called on the Eagles, Tom Mooney glided up and in for 2, and it was 21–11, Haddonfield, with 1:02 left. This time the Eagles lost the ball out of bounds and it was Kasko who drove into the lane for 2. He was fouled as well, and his free throw increased the Dawgs’ advantage to 24–11 with 48.2 seconds left. The Eagles didn’t turn the ball over their next possession, but their shot did not drop in, and Kasko secured the rebound. The Dawgs handed the ball back to the Eagles on a 5-second call, but it was still Haddonfield who got the last basket, this one by Del Duca, just ahead of the buzzer. As the teams left the court, the Dawgs were in command of the game, up by 15, 26–11.

After putting 17 on the board in the second quarter, the Dawgs upped it to 24 in the third. This was due in large part to the cluster of 3’s Haddonfield knocked down. Leming did a hat trick while Del Duca and Kouser each added one. Mooney contributed 7 on two buckets and three foul shots. So while the Eagles offense kicked in a bit, going from 3 in the 2nd to 13 in the third, the Dawgs had twice as many (and 1) on the board—50 to 24—when the third quarter came to an end.

Before Coach Wiedeman cleared the bench in the 4th, the Dawgs added 16 more points to their total. Mooney put up another 7, this time on a 3, a 2, and two foul shots. Kasko, Del Duca, and Jack Deegan each got a 2-point bucket, and Kouser got this third trey of the game. The final score was Haddonfield, 66, Winslow Township, 34.  Four Dawgs hit double digits: Mooney led the way with 18; Leming and Kouser each had 11; Wolfe finished with 10 points, all coming in the first half.

About 18 hours later, the Dawgs were back on their home court for their final game of the shortened season. Their record was 11–3, and they had won 11 of their last 12 contests. Hoping to keep them from making it 12 out of their last 13 games were the Bulldogs of Glassboro. Worth noting was that Dawgs’ coach Paul Wiedeman had both his senior captains, Justin Kasko and Jack Deegan, starting the game.

For the first 8 minutes of the game, the Bulldogs were outpacing the Bulldawgs. They scored the first 5 points of the contest, starting with a 3 and the following it with a 2 at the 5:17 mark. After Justin Kasko pulled down an offensive board, Matt Leming began his 3-point shooting spree to make it 5–3, Glassboro. I say “spree” because about 30 seconds later, his second trey put the Dawgs up by a point, 6–5, with 4:14 on the clock.

The Dogs made 1-2 from the foul line to tie it at 6 with 3:44 to go in the first. Although Deegan  pulled down an offensive board, the Dawgs lost the ball on a steal that resulted in a bucket for the Dogs, and with 3 and change in the quarter, Glassboro was back on top 8–6. This time Kasko pulled down an offensive rebound and then made a nice move to go up and in, tying the game again at 8 with 2:27 to go.

Kasko dove for a loose ball and got it, but the Dawgs were called for traveling. Tom (oh, heck, it’s the last game I’m writing up), Tommy Mooney got it right back on a steal. He passed it to Dante Del Duca, who had just come into the game. Dante Del Duca gave it back to Kasko, who scored, flipping the lead back to Haddonfield, 10–8, with 1:07 on the clock. The teams exchanged turnovers, then Haddonfield failed to score its next possession. A 3 by Glassboro put the Dogs in front by 1, 11–10, and Haddonfield’s shot ahead of the buzzer did not find the net.

The second quarter began with the Dawgs and the Dogs exchanging 3-pointers. Leming got his third and then Glassboro hit a bomb from way behind the arc, keeping the Dawgs behind by 1, 13–14, with a little more than a minute gone. The Dawgs got called for a moving violation and the Dogs got a shot off that did not go in. Mooney’s shots from the foul line edged Haddonfield back to a 15–14 lead with 6:30 to go in the half, but a 2 by Glassboro put the Dawgs behind the Dogs 16–15 with just under 6 to go in the half.

After a missed Dawg basket and a Dog timeout and turnover, Leming hit his fourth 3 of the half, which was the result of some nice ball movement. That made it 18–16, Haddonfield. That was followed by a nice steal by Del Duca. He was fouled en route to the basket. He made 1–2, and with 4:21 on the clock until halftime, the Dawgs were up by 3, 19–16 … but not for long. The Dogs got a field goal to cut that lead down to 1, 19–18, and then retook the lead, 20–19, off a Dawg turnover.

Haddonfield failed to score, but Mooney got the offensive board and Del Duca nailed a 3, and with 3:07 left in the half, the Dawgs had once again seesawed back in front, 22–20, with 3 and change left in the 2nd. Neither Dog nor Dawg scored for a few trips up and down the court, but thanks to a pickoff by Matt Kouser, Carson Wolfe was able to go up and in, giving the Dawgs a 4-point, 24–20, lead at the 2:04 mark. That was fleeting, as the Dogs answered with a basket to pull to within 2, 24–22 and then with 1:20 on the clock, Glassboro pivoted back on top 25–24 on a 3.

Kouser answered with a trey of his own, and with exactly 60 seconds remaining in the half, the Dawgs had regained the edge, 27–25. After Haddonfield missed two chances to score, a non-shooting foul was called on Glassboro, giving possession back to the Dawgs. Just ahead of the buzzer, Mooney let the ball fly and it sailed into the net, putting the Dawgs up 29–25 as the teams left the court.

That tight, exciting game disappeared in the third quarter, as the Dawgs put up 18 points to the Dogs’ 9. Kasko led the way with 9 points: Four came from the foul line, one from behind the arc, and one in the paint. Leming got his 5th trey of the game, Kouser got his second, and Leming also hit one from the foul line. When quarter 3 came to an end, the Dawgs had added some space between them and their opponents and were ahead by 13, 47–34.

For the first time all season, I believe, the Dawgs really went to town in the last 8 minutes. They poured 29 points into the net, 18 of them coming off 3’s. Mooney had a pair, Kouser got his third of the game, and Del Duca got his second. Leming finished his trey-fecta by hitting his 6th and also got a 2-pointer. When Mooney’s second 3 of the quarter, which was waaaay out there, made it 68–39 with less than 3 minutes remaining in the game, Wiedeman started to clear the bench, but he left his two seniors, Kasko and Deegan, on the court. Deegan got fouled with 2:35 on the clock and stepped to the line with a 1+1 change. He sent both shots into the net, making it 70–39, Dawgs.

Even the substitutions kept the scoring going. Freshman Darragh Roddy sank 1–2 from the foul line, and junior Sean Beane went in the lane for a basket, making it 73–45, Haddonfield with 1:01 left in the game. After Kasko pulled down a defensive rebound, his coach called a timeout so he and Deegan could exit the game to a standing ovation as their careers as Haddonfield basketball players came to an end. It was a shame more fans weren’t in the gym, but those who were let Kasko and Deegan know how much their Dawg days on the court had been appreciated.

The last points of the game came, like the first points did, on a 3, this time by Beane. In between Leming’s first and Beane’s, there were 13 other baskets from behind the arc. The final score of the final game was 76–45. Nine players contributed to that tally. Leming, aided by his 6 3’s, led the way with 21 points. Mooney knocked in 14, and Kasko finished with 13.

I’ll write more about this unusual and shortened season next week, but for now, I’ll close by saying after losing their first two games, the Dawgs got into a groove and ended the season 12–3. Well done, Dawgs!

By Lauree Padgett Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today

The Haddonfield boys basketball team had another busy week, playing four games, three of them against Colonial Conference opponents and one a last-minute switch. I’m not sure how the players are doing it, as I’m getting a bit tired just watching them and filling up my scorebook and notepad. Maybe it has to do with the fact that they are all 40-plus years younger than I am!

This past week began with a Monday home game versus the Red Raiders of Paulsboro. Because Dawgs and the Raiders are in different Colonial Conference divisions (Haddonfield is in the Liberty and Paulsboro belongs to the Patriot), the teams only face off once a season. Since the matchup is always toward the end of conference play, it’s usually a big game as far as the standings go. In this pandemic-altered season, the game didn’t have quite the same impact, but I expect no one tuning in to the live stream or watching from the nearly empty benches in the Haddonfield gym was taking it lightly.

The action began with the Dawgs and Raiders exchanging 3’s, with Haddonfield’s coming from Matt Leming. The Raiders would take a quick lead after a Dawg turnover, but the game would be tied at 5 at the 5:15 mark on a slam by Matt Guveiyian. After a pickoff by Carson Wolfe and a jump ball that went Haddonfield’s way, Guveiyian had another dunk to put the Dawgs up 7–5, but the Raiders got 2 to knot it again, 7 all, at the halfway point of the quarter.

After Haddonfield missed two chances to score, Paulsboro hit another 3 to go back in front 10–7. I thought Leming got his second trey with the help of a friendly bounce, but the shot was called off, and I was never sure if Haddonfield was charged with a foul or a travel. But after a block shot and rebound by Guveiyian, Leming did get his second 3 to make it 10–10 with 39 seconds on the clock. No doubt Paulsboro’s coach wanted the Raiders to hold the ball and go for the last shot, but Justin Kasko’s tough “D” caused a Raiders turnover, giving the Dawgs the chance for the last basket. With 4.2 left, Guveiyian went up and in for his third bucket in 8 minutes, putting the Dawgs up by 2, 12–10, as the quarter ended.

The big story of the second quarter was that the Dawgs upped the pressure and the defense and held the Raiders to a single basket, which wasn’t scored until the 4:32 mark. That made it 17–12, Haddonfield, which had already gotten 5 from Matt Kouser: The 2 came off on a nice bounce pass from Dante Del Duca and the 3 came just ahead of the Paulsboro field goal. For the rest of the quarter, it was all Haddonfield at both ends. The rest of the 13 points the Dawgs put on the board came from a feed Tom Mooney to Kasko and then another pair of 3’s from Leming. When the teams headed off the court at the half, the Dawgs had a 13-point, 25–12, lead.

The Raiders found their offensive mojo in the third quarter and scored 14 points, more than their first half total. However, the third quarter was also the best offensively for the Dawgs, who put 19 points on the board. After Paulsboro hit 3 on its second possession to make it 25-15, Kasko got two straight baskets for Haddonfield to make it 29–17, Dawgs. A 3 by the Raiders got the Dawgs’ lead down to single digits, 29–20, but Kasko answered with a 3 to get that double-digit advantage back, making it 32–20 with 4:19 left in the quarter.

Guveiyian, who had an impressive game offensively and defensively, made an amazing save of a ball that the Dawgs almost lost, and after Kasko pulled down an offensive board, he got his third 2 of the quarter, pushing the Dawgs’ lead up to 14, 34–20. Haddonfield got the ball back after a bad pass by Paulsboro, which set in motion a nice piece of ball movement: Leming to Guveiyian to Del Duca, whose drive upped the Dawgs’ lead to 16, 36–20, with 2:23 remaining in the quarter. Kasko’s 5th and final basket of the quarter made it a 38–20 game before Paulsboro managed to get a foul shot.

A full timeout by the Paulsboro coach did not help much, as the Raiders came out of it only to throw up an air ball. Mooney grabbed the ball and dished it to Guveiyian, who went up and in. After picking off the ball, Del Duca went coast to coast and scored, and with 1:28 to go, the Dawgs had doubled the Raiders’ input and were cruising 42–21 with about 90 seconds on the clock. Neither team scored until Carson Wolfe drove in after another display of sharp, tight passing to make it 44–21, Dawgs, with about 16 seconds left, and that is how the quarter ended.

As has been the case a few times, the Dawgs were outscored, only by a point this time, though, by their opponents in the 4th quarter. The Dawgs, thanks to a pair of threes by Del Duca and one by sophomore Teddy Bond, as well as buckets by Guveiyian and Leming, plus a foul shot by Wolfe, put 14 on the board to the Red Raiders’ 15. That made the final score Haddonfield 58, Paulsboro 36. Four players finished in double digits: Leming led with 14, Kasko had 13, and Guveiyian and Del Duca each had 10. I try to keep up with other stats as I go along, such as rebounds, steals, and blocked shots, but I know I’m not as accurate with them as I am with points. I’ll defer to the Courier Post recap, which reported that in addition to his 10 points, Guveiyian pulled down 10 rebounds, six assists, and five steals. I also credited him with four blocked shots.

Next up was a rematch against the Eagles of West Deptford the next night, 2/23. If it feels like these two teams just played each other, it’s because they did: On 2/19, Haddonfield won by 27 points, 64–27. Believe it or not, the outcome was almost exactly the same on the Eagles’ home court. Read on to see what I mean.

One aspect of this version of Haddonfield vs. West Deptford that deviated from the first script was that although the Dawgs jumped out to a 6–0 lead on 3’s by Tom Mooney and Matt Leming, the Eagles hung in there, scoring the next 6 points on a basket and a 1-point conversion from the foul line and then a 3 of their own, tying the game at 6 with just under 2 minutes left in the quarter. Carson Wolfe got in on the 3-point act to make it 9–6 at the 1:26 mark, and neither team scored again before the first quarter buzzer sounded.

West Deptford would get the first bucket of the second quarter, but Wolfe rattled in a nice jumper, was fouled in the process, and made his foul shot, making it a 12–8 game with just a minute gone. Wolfe was just getting warmed up, as he would score again after a pickoff by Mooney and a quick reaction by Justin Kasko to secure the ball. This basket would boost the Dawgs’ lead to 14–8. The Eagles lost the ball on a foul, the Dawgs didn’t find the net, but a backcourt violation by West Deptford returned possession to Haddonfield, who again got off a shot that didn’t drop.

This time, Mooney took matters into his own hands, stealing the ball and then swooshing in a 3, giving the Dawgs a 17–8 advantage with just under 5 minutes to go until the half. At the other end, Matt Guveiyian pulled down a board, passed it to Wolfe, who fed it to Mooney, who this time went into the paint for 2, netting the Dawgs their first double-digit lead of the game, 19–7, with 4:21 on the clock. West Deptford broke their drought with a basket, but a few plays later, the Dawgs got the double-digit lead back on a 3 by Matt Kouser, making 22–10 with 3 minutes and change remaining in the quarter.

After West Deptford was called for a travel, Kasko went up and in with a well-executed reverse layup on a feed from Dante Del Duca. Good pressure defense, which the Dawgs exhibited all game, caused another Eagle turnover, and with just under 2 minutes left in the game, Kasko delivered again, this time from behind the arc, making it 27–10, Dawgs. The Dawgs stole the ball again, but this time failed to score. At the other end, the Eagles got only their third basket of the quarter, but after Haddonfield’s shot did not go in, Wolfe got the ball back and went in for his 7th point of the quarter. When the buzzer sounded at the end of the first half, the Dawgs had the Eagles up a tree, ahead by 17, 29–12 after putting 19 points on the board.

In the third period, the Dawgs did even better offensively, although so did the Eagles. Led by Leming’s 3-point barrage—he knocked down a trio of them—2’s by Guveiyian, Mooney, and Kasko, and a pair of foul shots by both Mooney and Kasko, the Dawgs entered the 4th quarter up by 23, 48–25. Even though Dawgs’ coach Paul Wiedeman cleared the bench before the game was over, his subs put the ball in the basket, with sophomore Teddy Bond again showing off his 3-point range and junior Jon Bucci getting his first varsity bucket of the season.

The final score was 63–37, which was a point off from round one, which Haddonfield won 64–37. Nine players contributed to those 63 points, and four of the five starters reached double digits: Wolfe and Mooney had 14; Leming had 12, all from 3’s; and Kasko had 11. After starting off the season 0–2, the Dawgs had won 7 straight and were now 7–2, an impressive turnaround.

Before I move onto the Dawgs’ third, and toughest, game of the week, one more note about the West Deptford game: I want to give two thumbs up to the pair of high school students who did the play-by-play of the matchup. I didn’t write down their names, but the young men behind the microphones not only did a nice job overall describing the action on the court, they had a lot of good things to say about how Haddonfield played as a team and the abilities of individual Dawgs. Sometimes when you get the “home” feed, the announcers fawn over their own players and have nothing good to say about the opposition. Kudos for these two, who acknowledged the talents of Haddonfield while being supportive and encouraging of their own team.

In this odd season of ever-changing dates and teams, the Dawgs were originally set to have a 4:15 away game versus who I think was supposed to Burlington Reginal High School. Or was it Northern Burlington? I can’t say for sure, as that game was canceled, and it’s now off the schedule altogether. Instead, the Dawgs headed to Woodrow Wilson to take on the Tigers. It was a “Grrrrr-eat” game, although I would have preferred a different ending.

Unlike the West Deptford game, the two people calling the game were adults, who represented the D2 Sports Network and had not called a Woodrow Wilson, or obviously a Haddonfield, game yet. So that put them a bit in a disadvantage from not knowing the players on either squad. I actually thought the Eagles’ duo did a better job, but what was bugging me most throughout the contest was the D2 pair taking turns ever so often to say, “This is shaping up to be a good game.” OK, during the first quarter, or even the second, this was a fair assessment. But at the 2-minute mark of the last quarter, enough! Everybody watching knew how great a game this had become …

But I am getting ahead of myself. In the first two quarters, it was a close contest, but the Dawgs stayed ahead of the Tigers for most of those 16 minutes. In the initial quarter, the Dawgs did this by relying largely on the 3. Matt Leming tied the match at the 5:59 mark with a trey. Tom Mooney put the Dawgs up by 1 hitting 1–2 from the foul line, and after the Tigers went up 5–4, Carson Wolfe’s 3 made it 7–5, Haddonfield with 2:38 left in the first.

Mooney’s floater put the Dawgs back up by 2, 9–7, after the Tigers had evened it up on a basket. Then, after a pickoff by Justin Kasko, Mooney nailed a 3 (I love that he made a 1, a 2, and a 3 in that order) to make it 12–7, but Woodrow Wilson hit a 3 at the buzzer to make it a 2-point, 12–10, game.

By the end of the half, the Dawgs had increased that edge, but only by a point, and only added 8 total to their score, which came on a pair of baskets by Matt Guveiyian, a 3 by Matt Kouser, and a foul shot by Kasko. When play started in the 3rd, it was 20–17, Haddonfield, and everyone watching (except apparently the two men doing the commentating) knew the Dawgs and Tigers were in a tooth-and-nail battle that was liable to go down to the last few possessions. Or maybe even the last shot …

 In the third, Woodrow Wilson upped its offensive play, putting 19 on the board to Haddonfield’s 12. The game was going back and forth for most of the third quarter, as the teams traded buckets of the 2 and 3 variety. After a 2-pointer by Leming nudged the Dawgs back in front by 1, 26–25, with 3:15 showing on the clock, the Tigers rattled off a pair of unanswered treys, making it 31–26, Woodrow Wilson, at the 1:49 mark, which was the biggest lead either team had had all game. A big 3 by Guveiyian made it 31–29, Tigers, with 1:40 left in the quarter. Good defense on the sideline by Kasko and Guveiyian forced Woodrow Wilson to call a time-out with 1:28 left. That worked, as the Tigers nailed another 3 to go back up 34–29.

The Dawgs did not score during their next possession, but with 35 seconds to go, the Tigers lost the ball out of bounds, and Leming got his second 3 of the game to make it 34–32, Woodrow Wilson with 18 seconds showing on the clock. Right ahead of the buzzer, the Dawgs got charged with a foul, and unfortunately, it was called on a Tiger who had been shooting behind the arc, meaning he stepped up to the foul line with 3 shots to take. He made two of them, which was a bit deflating for Haddonfield, as it put Woodrow Wilson back up by 4, 36–32, going in the final 8 minutes of the game.

For most of the 4th, Woodrow Wilson kept Haddonfield at bay. Every time the Dawgs would start to rally, as when Kouser’s 3 got the Dawgs to within 3 again, 38–35, early in the 4th, the Tigers would answer with a few buckets in a row. One off a steal at the 6:00 mark gave Woodrow Wilson its biggest lead of the game, at 42–35. While a pair at the line from Kasko made it 42–37, a basket at the other end made it a 7-point, 44–37, Woodrow Wilson advantage again.

After a few possessions in which neither team scored, a scramble for a loose ball sent Woodrow Wilson to the foul line with 4 and change left in the game. Neither shot dropped, and that’s when the game started getting really intense. Leming hit a 3, cutting the deficit to 4, 44–40, with 3:35 on the clock. Another Haddonfield foul sent Woodrow Wilson to the line with a 1+1 opportunity (make the first, get a second shot), but again, the ball did not make it into the net. Haddonfield picked a bad time to turn over the ball, but Wolfe got a defensive board and Leming hit another huge 3, this time cutting the gap to 1, 44–43, with 2:11 left in the game.

Woodrow Wilson’s coach called a time-out seconds later. Thanks to pressure D by Guveiyian and Wolfe, the Tigers lost the ball with 1:57 on the clock. After a non-shooting foul was called on the Tigers, Leming made Dawg fans go nuts with his third 3 of the quarter, putting the Dawgs back on top, 46–44, for the first time since midway through the third quarter, with 1:05 left. The Tigers had an immediate response with a 3 of their own, putting them back on top by 1, 47–46. With 35.1 seconds to go, the ball went out of bounds off Woodrow Wilson. Mooney’s clutch 2 gave the lead back to Haddonfield, 48–47, and with 21.4 left in the game, Woodrow Wilson called another time-out.

To no one’s surprise (not even the commentators), the plan was for the Tigers to run the clock down before going for that last shot. The Dawgs were doing their best to keep them from having any outside or inside pathway to the basket while at the same time not committing a foul. With the clock winding down to a few seconds, a shot was finally made, and it did not go in. But it ricocheted to the right of the basket, into the hands of one of the Tigers’ best shooters. Off balance, just ahead of the buzzer, and somehow managing to eye it between the looming arms of several Dawg defenders, the shot hit the rim, paused on it, and rolled in. The Tigers had fought off the Dawgs to claim a 1-point, 49–48 thrilling victory.

I can never decide if it’s worse to lose a game by 10 or 20 or at the buzzer. And knowing that Haddonfield has hit more than its share of buzzer beaters (Mike DePersia, Camden. Need I say more?), it’s hard not to give a tip of the cap to the Tigers for almost letting the Dawgs steal a game away that it looked like they were going to win without nearly as much drama.

Leming’s 3 onslaught (he had five) made him high scorer for Haddonfield with 17. Mooney was also in double figures with 10. This game snapped the Dawgs’ seven game win streak and put them at 7–3 for the year.

Next up was an away game on Saturday, 2/26, at Lindenwold, a member of the Patriot division of the Colonial Conference. I am sure both Dawg and Lion fans were quite dismayed to tune into Lindenwold’s YouTube channel to find out no one was there streaming the game. Thanks to the High School Sports page on NJ.com, I can give you some of the particulars. The Dawgs started a new winning streak, beating the Lions 52–41. Tom Mooney and Carson Wolfe led the Dawgs’ offensively, with 17 and 11 points, respectively Matt Guveiyian pulled down 7 boards, and Justin Kasko, 5. Wolfe had three assists and Guveiyian, 3. I also heard from a reliable source that the refs called in the vicinity of 40 fouls, which made the game not a lot of fun to watch for those who were in attendance, which is a small consolation to those of us who did not get to watch it live-streamed.

Believe it or not, the Dawgs have their last four games of the season this week, beginning tomorrow, 3/1, with a home game against Rancocas Valley Regional High School at 7. Then it’s back-to-back Colonial Conference away games, both at 5:30. First up are the Collingswood Panthers on Tuesday, 3/2. Then it’s the Silver Knights of Sterling, one of the two Colonial teams to have beaten the Dawgs this season, on Thursday. Let’s hope both those games are shown live. The last game of the season is back at Haddonfield on Saturday, 3/6. It’s a 1 p.m. matchup against Bordentown Regional High School.

Go Dawgs!

By Lauree Padgett Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today

When last we left the Haddonfield boys basketball team, they had pulled their record to .500 with a solid win against Collingswood on 2/13. Due to the COVID-delayed start of the season and then more COVID-related setbacks, that game was only the team’s fourth of the season.

This past week, the Dawgs played three home games versus fellow Colonial Conference teams. I’ll provide the highlights for each. Spoiler alert: The Dawgs are now on a 5-game winning streak.

With the shortened season, the Dawgs hosted Haddon Heights on Tuesday, 2/16, only 5 days after earning their first win of the short season against the Garnets on the Garnets’ court. What would the rematch look like?

Well, to be blunt, it was an ugly first quarter. Haddonfield did not put a single point on the board, not even from the foul line. The Garnets didn’t do much better. After knocking in a 3 within the first minute, they also went scoreless for the next 7-plus minutes.

I’m sure most of the smattering of parents and others in the gym, including yours truly, were thinking that the game from the Dawgs’ end had to improve in the next 8 minutes. But after Heights scored a 3 and a 2 to go up 8-0, I was looking down at my scorepad wondering what had happened to the team that had looked so much more in sync versus Collingswood 3 days earlier. Turns out, they were there, but it took them a while to warm up.

Junior Dante Del Duca entered the game as the 2nd quarter started and proved to be the spark that got the Dawgs going. He gave Haddonfield its first point of the game from the foul line at the 5:29 mark, but that still meant the Dawgs were trailing by 7, 8–1. Coach Paul Wiedeman thought this was a good time for a timeout, and whatever wisdom he must have imparted verbally or on his handy whiteboard, it worked. Junior Matt Guveiyian and senior Justin Kasko pressed the Garnets into a travel, and at the other end, Del Duca swooshed in a 3. Now it was an 8–4 game.

After a blocked shot by Kasko, Del Duca continued his scoring ways, going up and in for a layup after stealing the ball off the Haddon Heights inbound play. Now the Dawgs were only down by 2 with just over 4 to go in the half. Neither team scored for the next few minutes, but when a shot finally made it into the net, it was a 3 from the Dawgs’ freshman, Matt Kouser, who also had come in off the bench, and with 1:39 on the clock, the Dawgs finally had a lead, albeit 1 point, 9–8.

Again, neither team scored for a few plays, and with less than a minute to go, Haddon Heights was in possession of the ball and running the clock down, hoping to get the last shot of the half and retake the lead. However, the best laid plans of mice and Garnets … led to a turnover with 3.7 showing on the clock. (Speaking of the clock, if anyone has been wondering, yes, Jeff Holman is that masked man behind mission control again, although his partner in crime, Dawgs’ play-by-play man Mark Hershberger, is not sitting in his usual position beside Holman. Instead, Hershberger is calling the shots, so to speak, a few rows back, but has had to put his trademark catch phrase, “Get ‘em while they’re hot, … Dawgs” on simmer.)

Back to the action. After giving up two fouls and whittling the clock down to 1.0, Heights called a timeout, and it seemed unlikely the Dawgs would have time to get off a shot from the inbound. Unlikely or not, Kouser got the ball and let it loose. As the buzzer sounded, it went into the basket for his second 3 of the quarter, putting the Dawgs up by 4, 12–8, as the teams headed off the court for halftime.

From putting up a big 0 on the board in the first, the Dawgs exploded for 25 points in the third quarter. Fifteen came off five 3’s: three by Guveiyian and one each by Del Duca and junior Matt Leming. Guveiyian, Del Duca, and another junior, Carson Wolfe, all had 2’s. And Leming and junior Tom Mooney each made a pair of free throws. (Speaking of Mooney, our versatile point guard, although our announcer has dropped the “my” off his first name, perhaps at the behest of the player himself, I’m still calling him “Tommy” out of habit. Well, mostly out of habit.)

Along with finally getting the ball into the net, the Dawgs were also helping to keep the Garnets from getting as many good shots off. While Heights got the first basket of the third to pull to within 2, 12–10, the Garnets did not get a second ball to drop for another 4 minutes. As the quarter came to an end, the Dawgs had more than tripled the Garnets’ score and were in control 37–12.

Haddon Heights actually outscored Haddonfield 24–17 in the last 8 minutes, but by then it did not matter, and also, the Dawg starters and first-off-the-bench players got to watch the game for the last few minutes. When all was said and done, the Dawgs had won by 18, 54–36. Fittingly, Dante Del Duca, who kick-started the squad in the second, finished as high scorer for Haddonfield with 14 points. Matt Guveiyian, helped by his trio of treys in the third, had 12.

Due to another round of winter weather, the Dawgs’ matchup with the Eagles of West Deptford got pushed back a day and was played at an earlier time of 4:30 at Haddonfield on Friday, 2/19. This was probably Haddonfield’s most consistent showing of the early season. And it was put in motion by its two seniors, Justin Kasko and Jack Deegan, who are also the team’s co-captains. While Deegan comes off the bench regularly and always gives good minutes, he is not a starter. But as is tradition on Senior Night at Haddonfield, Coach Wiedeman honors his graduating Dawgs by having them play the opening quarter.

While the Eagles jumped out 3-0 on their first possession, senior co-captain Kasko, who had almost picked the ball off ahead of the 3, sent a 3 in at the other end to tie it at 3 apiece. Matt Guveiyian (who I have called “Matthew” all his life, and yes, I do mean all his life; we met in the hospital a few days after he was born, although he may not remember that as well as I do) kept the 3’s rolling in, and with 6:32 on the clock put the Dawgs up by 3, 6–3.

After a full pickoff by Kasko, Deegan added to the scoring with a nice layup, making it 8–3 Haddonfield with about 3 minutes gone in the first. A layup and foul shot by Mooney would push the Dawgs’ lead to 8, 11­–3, before the Eagles landed another shot in the rim to make it 11–5. After a few missed scoring opportunities by the Dawgs, the Eagles hit a 3 to get to within 3, 11–8, with just under 2 minutes to go. Kasko got a roll on a drive under the basket to push the edge back to 5, 13–8. A travel by West Deptford gave Haddonfield back the ball. Another Dawgs’ shot rolled on the rim but this time didn’t drop, but a steal by Mooney gave the Dawgs another shot, which also did not go in. The quarter ended on a blocked shot by Kasko and a 3 by Mooney to give the Dawgs an 8-point, 16–8, advantage going into the second quarter.

The Dawgs improved on their first quarter scoring by 4 points, thanks in large part to the offensive contributions by Carson Wolfe, who alone outscored West Deptford 10–6. Wolfe hit a 3, three 2’s and also got one from the foul line. While adding 20 points to their score, the Dawgs held the Eagles to a miserly 6 points, and at the half, the Dawgs were up by double digits, 36–14.

In the third quarter, the Eagles matched their combined first half points, knocking in 14, outscoring the Dawgs, whose offense cooled down a bit, by 4. Even so, going into the 4th quarter, the Dawgs were still up 46–28. The Dawgs picked up their play at the offensive end in the last 8 minutes, putting up 18 to the Eagles’ 9, giving the Dawgs a 27-point, 64–37 W.  Six of those 18 4th-quarter points came from a pair of 3’s from Mooney. Those 3’s meant that for four straight games, the Dawgs hit 10 baskets from behind the arc.

Mooney, who had 8 in the first half and 12 in the second, was the Dawgs’ high scorer with 20.  Wolfe was right behind him with 16. All five starters and four who came in off the bench combined for Haddonfield’s 64 points.

The final contest of the week for Haddonfield was on Saturday, 2/20, against the Haddon Township Hawks. You may recall that a mere 13 days earlier, the Hawks had broken a very long (40-plus-years in the making) losing streak against the Dawgs by defeating them at their home nest 38–30. I was hopeful that the Hawks’ losing streak would start anew in their rematch.

At the outset, it seemed my wish had a reasonable chance of coming to fruition. Matt Leming got the Dawgs on the board with a 3 off a nice feed from Justin Kasko. After a jump ball gave possession back to Haddonfield, Leming did it again, this time off a dapper pass from Tomm—er, Tom Mooney, to make it 6-0, Dawgs. The Hawks got on the board off a way-too-easy layup, but Matthew Guveiyian got a 3 with a roll, putting the Dawgs up by 7, 9–2, with 3:44 left in the quarter.

About 90 seconds later, after neither team had added to their total, a questionable call gave Kasko his second foul of the game and sent a Hawk to the line. He made both shots, edging the Hawks closer, at 9­–4. Kasko had to take a seat, but his co-captain and fellow senior Jack Deegan came in and promptly got a bucket on another assist from Mooney, making it 11–4, Haddonfield, with 1:44 to go in the period. With 34.2 seconds on the clock, the Dawgs picked up another shooting foul, and again, the Hawks picked up a pair from the free throw line. After the Dawgs did not score, Haddon Township hit a 3 just ahead of the buzzer, closing the gap to 2, 11–9.

The second quarter seesawed back and forth. Haddon Township got the first basket to tie it at 11 with just under a minute gone. Mooney was fouled attempting to drive into the basket and made 1–2, tipping the lead back to Haddonfield, 12–11, with 6:35 remaining in the half. Neither team scored on their next few trips up and down the court, as Haddon Township went 0-2 from the foul line and Haddonfield’s shots from the field also did not drop.

A nice drive up and in by Mooney broke the mini-scoring drought and with 4:25 on the clock, gave the Dawgs a 3-point edge. For about 40 seconds, that is, until the Hawks hit a 3 to even things up at 14 with 3:38 to go. The Hawks had a ball rim out, and Matt Kouser, who had come into the game in the second quarter, hit a 3, making it 17–14, Dawgs, with 2:39 left in the half. However, after getting the ball back on a travel violation against the Hawks, the Dawgs failed to take advantage of it and did not score. Instead, Haddon Township got the last two baskets of the half and were up by 1, 18–17, as the teams left the court for the half.

The third quarter started with Haddonfield inbounding the ball, but no points came off it. Haddon Township got their offense going right away with a 3, boosting their lead to 4, 21–17, with 6:36 on the clock. At the other end, Mooney went in the lane for 2, cutting that lead in half, but 60 seconds later, the Hawks nailed another 3 to take their largest lead, going up by 5, 24–19, with just under 5 minutes left in the quarter.

Carson Wolfe picked a good time to get his first basket of the game and was fouled while doing so. His free throw got the Dawgs back to within 2, 24–22, with 4:45 on the clock. The Hawks had a quick answer, but just as quickly, Kasko got his first 2, and it was back to a 2-point, 26–24, Haddon Township lead, at the 4:14 mark. After both teams missed shots and lost balls out of bounds, Haddon Township took a timeout with 2:53 left in the third. After the inbounds, Haddonfield was charged with a foul, and when play resumed this time, the Hawks hit yet another 3, reclaiming a 5-point, 29–24, lead with 2 minutes and change on the clock. Mooney connected the ball with the net, cutting that to a 3-point, 29-26, edge with just under 2 minutes remaining.

After Haddonfield got charged with two more fouls, Kasko stole the ball and was fouled himself. His shots made it a 1-point, 29–28, game with 1:38 showing on the scoreboard. The Dawgs stole the ball again, and it then went out of bounds off the Hawks with 1:25 left in the third. A pretty jumper by Wolfe put the Dawgs out in front for the first time in the second half, 30–29, with 1:02 showing on the scoreboard. A blocked shot by Haddonfield led to a jump ball call, and the possession arrow returned the ball to Haddon Township. A Hawk basket also gave them back the lead, 31–30, but Mooney responded with a shot just ahead of the buzzer, and with 8 minutes left in what was proving to be the Dawgs’ most exciting match of the season, Haddonfield was up by slimmest of margins, 32–31.

Quarter 4 started with Haddon Township inbounding the ball … and getting called for a travel. A bad pass was rescued by Kasko, and Mooney was fouled attempting to score. His foul shots pushed the Dawgs’ lead to 3, 34–31, with only 40 seconds gone. Guveiyian picked up his second foul by osmosis (the ensuing look on his teammate Kasko’s face was priceless), but Haddonfield got the ball back on a steal, and Guveiyian went in the paint for 2 after a nice dish by Kasko, giving the Dawgs a 5-point, 36–31, edge with just about 6:30 to go in the game.

After another pilfered ball by Kasko, Haddon Township was called for its 6th foul of the half, but Haddonfield could not capitalize, turning the ball over with 5:54 left in the game. The Hawks got 2 to get back to within 3, 36–33, but Guveiyian answered with a 3 at the opposite basket, making it a 6-point, 39–33, game with 5:26 on the clock. After a Haddonfield timeout, a Haddon Township bucket made it 39–35, Dawgs, with 5:01 left. The Dawgs missed a few shots, then got called for a foul. At the Hawks’ end, a loose ball caused quite a scramble, with Kasko coming up with it on the floor and calling a timeout with 3:01 remaining.

Haddonfield did not get a good shot off, but their defense was stellar, as the Hawks were stuck on the perimeter without an open shot or a way into the basket. Finally, a ball from behind the arc went in … and out. Matt Leming, who was just back into the game, got the big rebound. In the near empty gymnasium, it was not hard to hear Coach Wiedeman yelling, “Hold the ball,” as the clock ticked down to less than a minute. With 54.4 seconds left, Wiedeman called a timeout to talk over the strategy.

Almost as soon as the ball was inbounded, it became clear that the Haddon Township strategy was to foul Haddonfield so the Dawgs could not keep holding onto the ball without shooting. This was the Hawks’ 7th foul of the half, setting up a 1+1 opportunity, which, for the uninitiated, means if the player taking the foul shot makes it, he gets to take another. With 51.2 on the clock, Mooney stepped to the line. Mooney, who is usually reliable on the line, did not get his shot to drop. Leming and Wolfe combined for an offensive board to give the Dawgs back the ball only to have Haddonfield turn it over.

Before the Hawks had time to set a play, Guveiyian swiped the ball and passed it to Wolfe, who was fouled with 26.1 seconds to go. It was still a 1+1 opportunity. Wolfe’s first shot went in, but his second did not, making it a 40–35 game. At the other end, the Hawks found an open man behind the arc who hit a 3. Now, with 18.0 showing on the clock, the Dawgs’ lead was down to 2, 40–38. Haddon Township called a full timeout.

After inbounding the ball, Guveiyian got it back and was immediately fouled. It was the 9th of the half for the Hawks, meaning it was still a 1+1 situation. Guveiyian stepped up to the line with 14.1 left in the game and his team up by 2, meaning it was still a one-possession game. He released the ball, which fell into the net. The crowd—all 50 or so of us—went wild. His second shot also was nothing but net and put the Dawgs up by 4, 42–38.

The Hawks did not have time to waste, and their shot did not hit the mark. Guess who got the rebound and was immediately fouled again? That’s right. Guveiyian. Now that the Hawks had hit 10 fouls, the Dawgs were in the double bonus, meaning Guveiyian automatically had 2 shots. And again, he made both, giving the Dawgs a 44–38 lead and leaving the Hawks with only 3.6 seconds, not enough time to battle back again. When the horn sounded, the Dawgs had officially won their 5th straight game, and their 5th game overall, to go 5–2 in the Colonial Conference.

Thanks to his 4th quarter offensive heroics, Matt Guveiyian finished as the Dawgs’ leading scorer with 12. Tom Mooney, who had an equally important 3rd quarter, finished with 11. Five other Dawgs scored to help secure the W.

Next up is a home game versus the Red Raiders of Paulsboro Monday, 2/22 at 7 p.m. That will be followed by road games versus West Deptford on Tuesday, also at 7, and then an early nonconference Thursday game on 2/25 at 4:30 against Northern Burlington Regional High School.

By Lauree Padgett. Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today.

Without the benefit of the roster that hangs on the wall by the entrance to the gym, it’s tough to put all the new faces with the numbers and figure out who is who. Here is the current roster to help Dawg fans get familiar with the 2021 team.

• 21 Matt Leming — Junior — 6-3 Guard               
• 2 Carson Wolfe — Junior — 5-11 Guard               
• 4 Matt Guveiyian — Junior — 6-4 Forward            
• 11 Tom Mooney — Junior — 6-2 Guard                
• 22 Justin Kasko — Senior –6-4 Forward            
• 5 Dante Del Duca — Junior — 6-2 Guard                 
• 15 Jack Deegan — Senior — 6-4 Forward          
• 3 Sean Bean — Junior — 5-10 Guard                
• 13 Teddy Bond — Sophomore — 6-4 Guard              
• 20 Matt Ventola — Junior — 6-1 Forward          
• 24 Jon Bucci — Junior — 6-3 Guard              
• 25 Christian Raymond — Junior — 6-1 Guard              
• 32 Matt Kouse — Freshman — 6-2 Guard              
• 33 Evan Rohifin — Junior — 6-2 Forward          
• 35 Darragh Roddy — Freshman — 5-11 Guard  

Unless you are related to a player or are a member of the press (woohoo!), current COVID-related restrictions do not permit fans to attend games in person. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t watch games in real time or after the fact. Happily, for all hoops fans out there, the host school is providing a live feed of each game — varsity, JV, and frosh — via its athletics’ YouTube channel.

For a list of Colonial Conference YouTube channels, go HERE. Click on the desired school to be taken to that channel.

To access the Dawgs’ schedule. go HERE. Keep in mind that it will change as the season evolves … meaning, check the day of each scheduled game to make sure it’s still on and the time is still accurate. The weather forecast for this coming week could impact one or both of the upcoming home games.

And while there is nothing quite the same as being in the gym to cheer on your team, I will admit that sitting in a comfortable chair instead of going out in the cold, dark of winter to drive to a school to watch a game isn’t a bad deal. That being said, I am also grateful that I have the opportunity to see the Dawgs play at home from my own little corner of the gym, dubbed “the press” area.            

By Lauree Padgett. Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today.

No one could have anticipated that when the Haddonfield Dawgs’ 2019–20 season came to an end on March 10, 2020, in a South Jersey Group 2 championship loss to Camden, it would be a few weeks short of a year before the team took to the court for an actual Colonial Conference contest. While the COVID-19 pandemic brought the New Jersey 2020 basketball state semi-finals to a screeching halt a few days later and would go on to upend sports on all levels, that spring, I doubt few people aside from maybe infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci weren’t thinking that by the fall of 2020, life, including high school sports, would be back to normal. Sigh.

The original Dawgs 2020–21 schedule had the first game happening on Friday, Dec. 18th versus Haddon Township. That schedule did not last too long before Governor Phil Murphy halted all winter (indoor) sports activities until mid-January. January 18, Dawgs’ coach Paul Wiedeman replied to an email of mine, saying in part, “So far we have successfully completed 7 days of practice uninterrupted. Our opening game against Haddon Township on January 26th has already been postponed and moved back to February because of COVID concerns on their part. …  Guys are working real hard in practice and are just excited to be in the gym playing basketball. I hope we can play all 15 games this year.”

Fifteen games, for those of you who don’t keep basketball stats memorized, would be exactly half of what the Dawgs played last season when they finished 25–5. Sectional playoff games were eliminated (meaning the 2019 Dawgs are still the reigning Group 2 state champion!), although individual conferences, such as the Colonial, could have their own playoffs. The number of non-conference games allowed, normally capped at 11, was also reduced.

But alas, per COVID-19 protocols, the Haddonfield squads had to then stop practicing for 2 weeks, pushing back the opening game even further. Finally, on Feb. 6, which, by this same date in 2020, the Dawgs played game 19 in their schedule, the team took to the court at Haddon Township. No fans were in the stands. The only people in the gymnasium were the players and their coaching staffs, the refs, and the other essential personnel, such as those running the clock/scoreboard and providing the audio and video feeds.

That first game showed just how much the delays and setbacks had impacted the Dawgs, who only brought back two players with starting varsity experience: senior Justin Kasko and junior Tom Mooney. The game was tied 5 all after one quarter, and the Dawgs had a 3-point, 14–11 lead at the half that they built up to a 19–13 advantage early in the third quarter. However, the shots stopped dropping and those quick 5 points would be the only ones that went on the board for the team in the remaining minutes of the quarter. (If I could tell you the time on the clock when the Dawgs made it 19–13, I would, but the Haddon Township feed did not provide a scoreboard, nor did the announcer think to provide any time updates.) When the quarter ended, the Dawgs were behind by 2, 19–21. Mooney and junior Carson Wolfe did help boost the Dawgs’ 4th quarter points, scoring two buckets each, but when the final buzzer sounded, the Hawks had beaten the Dawgs 38–30. According to the Courier Post, Haddon Township had not accomplished this feat in 48 years!!! The Retropsect was more, uh, circumspect, and reported it had been more than 40 years since the Hawks had secured a W versus the Bulldogs.

Game two of this shortened season took place 3 days later at Haddonfield. The Silver Knights of Sterling road into town and put it to their Colonial nemesis all four quarters, leading by 5, 11–6, after the first 8, upping that lead to 8, 31–23 at the half, and taking that to a double-digit advantage of 50–35 at the finish of the third. The final score was Sterling, 64, Haddonfield, 55. And although the Dawgs were now 0–2, those last 8 minutes gave a glimpse of what the team might be capable of, as five players—Wolfe, Mooney, juniors Matt Leming and Dante Del Duca, and freshman Matt Kouser—had scored to put 20 points, to Sterling’s 14, in the net. The team had also hit 10 three-pointers during the game.

Thursday, 2/11, the Dawgs went up the highway (Kings Highway, that is) to take to the court against another longtime rival, the Garnets of Haddon Heights. Last year, the Dawgs and the Garnets split their pair of conference games and then faced off for the third time in the South Jersey Group 2 semi-finals. That nail-biting 35–33 win, secured on a nifty poach of the ball and a layup by Dawg Connor Fell, also gave Paul Wiedeman his 500th as Haddonfield’s coach.

On one hand, the stakes weren’t quite so high in this matchup as they had been the last time the teams had met. On the other hand, no one wanted to see the Dawgs start off 0–3. (Or, as Vic Wiedeman reminded me when we passed each other in our cars in our Voorhees neighborhood and rolled down the window to chat, lose 4 games in a row, counting the Camden game.) From the outset, it was clear the Dawgs were not going to let that happen. Unlike the first two games, the Dawgs scored the first 5 points of the match on a 2 by Wolfe and a 3 by Leming. Heights got 2 back from the foul line, but the Dawgs scored the next 5, in a second verse same as the first, but in reverse order: a 3 by Leming and a 2 by Wolfe. Heights got another point from the free throw line, and Wolfe closed out the scoring for the quarter with his third bucket, putting the Dawgs up by double digits 12–3.

The Dawgs never looked back. Heights did score a bit more (7 points) and Haddonfield a bit less (9 points on another 3 from Leming and two more drives by Wolfe) in the second 8 minutes, but going into the half, the Dawgs were leading by 9, 19–10.

The Dawgs really stepped on the offensive gas in the third quarter, putting up 25 points to the Garnets’ 5. Wolfe knocked in 7 on a trio of 2’s and a foul shot. Leming got his fourth and fifth 3’s of the game (he would finish with 6 of them and a total of 22 points). Justin Kasko showed that he had been honing his 3-point shot in the offseason, swooshing in 2 along with as a basket from the foul line, and Dante Del Duca got into the 3-point act as well. Going into the last 8 minutes, the Dawgs were definitely in control, ahead by almost 30 points, 43–15.

Heights finally found its shooting range in the 4th, outscoring the Dawgs 18–11, but the Dawgs still won by a decisive 26 points, 54–28 to secure their first win of the 2021 season. In addition to Leming’s 22, Wolfe finished with 13 and six other players contributed to the total.

Saturday, 2/13 was the day I had pegged to go to a home game in person. As it turned out, it was the first game family members (two per player) were also allowed in the stands. (The Dawgs’ athletic department, under AD Lefty Banos, did a great job arranging the seats, assigned by numbers marked on the benches, so that social distancing protocols were followed. While families did chat a bit during halftime and as they were exiting the stands, I think everyone felt safe.) The foe was the Collingswood Panthers, always a tough team to beat. Could the Dawgs get another win to get to the .500 mark?

Well, Collingswood got the first bucket of the day at the 7:25 mark of the quarter 1. The Dawgs got on the board to tie it off a nice feed from junior Matthew Guveiyian to Tom Mooney. Then after rebounding a board at the other end, Guveiyian hit a 3 to put the Dawgs on top 5–2. The Panthers got 2 and then the Dawgs got 2 more on a nice drive by Kasko, putting the Dawgs up 7–4 with 4 minutes and change to go in the quarter.

Collingswood got to within 1 point on a basket its next possession, then went up by 1, 8–7, on a steal and a slam at the 3:22 mark. The next score of the game would come on a 2-point bucket by Leming, who was fouled. His shot at the line went in to put the Dawgs back on top by 2, 10–8. He got another 3 in one shot to push the lead up to 13–7 with 1:44 to go in the first.

Collingswood ended their mini-scoring drought with a 2, but Leming answered with another 2 and Mooney drained a 3. The Panthers got another basket, but Mooney hit another 3, and the first quarter ended with the Dawgs up 9, 21–12.

Both teams scored a bit less in the 2nd quarter, but the Dawgs were still able to build onto their lead, putting 10 more points on the board on 3’s by Mooney and Kasko and the equivalent of one by Leming, who was fouled beyond the 3-point arc and made all of his resulting foul shots. Mooney also added a point from the foul line, and going into the half, the Dawgs were ahead 31–17, with their solid D having held the Panthers to 5 points.

The third quarter was a little more evenly matched, as the Dawgs again got 10 on the board but this time the Panthers got 7. Still, going into the last 8 minutes, the Dawgs had a comfortable 41–24 lead. Sometimes that comfortable edge can vanish, as a team starts to lose a bit of momentum. However, thanks to Matt Kouser, who played a good part of the 4th and send in a trio of treys from way out there, and Mooney, who drove in for three consecutive layups, the Dawgs put 15 more on the board. The Panthers took a bit of an advantage of Wiedeman clearing his bench and actually outscored the Dawgs by 1 point, but it did not change the outcome. The Dawgs won their second straight by a 56–40 margin.

For the third straight game, the team combined for 10 3’s. Tom Mooney knocked in 18, Matt Leming, 16, and 7 Dawgs contributed to those 56 points.

So, what happened between the first two games, when the Dawgs lost by 8 and 9 points, respectively, and the second two games, when they won by 26 and 16, respectively? In my mind, it was almost like a switch was flipped. A team that looked tentative at best versus Haddon Township and even for the first three quarters against Sterling, with no one really taking charge, was in control from end to end of their games versus Heights and Collingswood. A parent I was in touch with put this about-face into perspective after the Heights victory: “That 14-day quarantine and coming back into games with virtually no practice time was tough. They are getting their rhythm back,” he noted, adding, “Great to see that win!”

And I think that is really the right takeaway. Teams returning most of their starting lineup from the previous year probably are in somewhat better shape than teams who are bringing in players who don’t have a lot, or even any, varsity minutes under their unis. Between the long delay of the season at the outset, and then the 2-week quarantine just as the Dawgs were getting ready to play ball, the players lost valuable time interacting with each other as a unit. How can a team gel when the players and coaches are isolated from each other? The short answer is, it can’t.

By the end of the Sterling game and then the full matchups against Haddon Heights and Collingswood, the players started being more in synch with each other. Turnovers started decreasing on their end and passing and assists picked up. Balls started dropping into the net instead of clacking off the rim or the backboard. Defensively, through great double teaming, pressing, and quick hands, the Dawgs started turning the tables on their opponents, forcing them to turn the ball over before getting shots off.

I’m not predicting that the Dawgs are now going to win their remaining (if the schedule holds up) 11 games, which doesn’t count the Colonial Conference Tournament. But I think the team is finding its mojo, now that they can really be a team again and under the in-person tutelage of one of South Jersey’s greatest coaches, Paul Wiedeman. And in a season that has been like no other, that counts for a lot.

Come back on Monday night (February 15) for:

• Getting to Know the Team
• How to Watch the Games, Live or Later

Dawgs Hit the Heights

By Lauree Padgett for Haddonfield Today

Part 2 of 5: Dawgs Keep Streaking Along

Three games later, after easy victories over Ocean City High School in the Seagull Classic (the Dawgs won 46-29, and Ben Cerrato scored 24) and Audubon (the Dawgs won 66-33 and Andrew Gostovich scored 23, 21 off 3’s), Haddonfield had its first of two games versus its fellow Liberty division team, the Eagles of West Deptford. This initial meeting on January 8 was at the Dawgs’ pound.

Digging again into my Facebook posts, here is my recap:

It was a barn-burner game between the Haddonfield Dawgs and the Eagles of West Deptford tonight. Going into the 4th quarter, the Dawgs sported an 8-point lead on their home court … but couldn’t hold it. We went into OT tied at 36. It was a stressful period [4 minutes], but the Dawgs hung in there with tough defense and a big 2 from Andrew Gostovich and an equally big pair of foul shots from Conner Fell. [The final was 41-39.] The Dawgs are now 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the Colonial Conference. Ben Cerrato led the Dawgs with 19 points, and “Gos” finished with 16. Up next is a home game next Tuesday night versus Sterling.

Ah yes, Sterling. Sterling was allegedly another one of the “to-beat” teams in the Colonial Conference for the 2019-20 season. On January14, in the first of its pair of games versus the Silver Knights, Haddonfield again was playing host. Here is my game summary capsule:

The game was close throughout. After 1, the Dawgs were up by 3, 14-11; at half-time, they held a 5-point, 26-21, advantage. Going into the last quarter, they were ahead 37-33. But thanks to some stellar foul shooting by Tommy Mooney and four baskets under the bucket by Ben Cerrato, the Dawgs walked away with a 55-43 victory. Cerrato finished with 17 points, Andrew Gostovich with 15, and Mooney with 14. This was the Dawgs’ 7th W in a row, which improves their record to 8-1 overall and 5-0 in the Colonial Conference. Nice going, boys!

After thundering over the Herd at Woodbury on January 16, beating them by 38, 58-20, thanks in part to putting 28 on the board in the last quarter, Haddonfield played Gateway at home on January 23. This wasn’t a game in which anyone was expecting the Gators to give the Dawgs much trouble. And as expected, the Dawgs won easily, outscoring them by more than 40 points. But this was a noteworthy game for a few reasons. Here is how I described it in my Facebook post:

So, some history was made tonight at the Haddonfield boys basketball home game versus Gateway. First of all, we had a female ref for I believe the first time in a varsity game. She called a good four quarters.

And then, at some point in the third after senior Andrew Gostovich had drained another 3, I heard Dave Wiedeman in the stands behind me saying, “I wonder how many 3’s he has? He must be near the record.” So, I looked down in my scorebook and counted.

Me: Dave, he has 7. What’s the record?

Dave: 9

Me: Who has it?

Dave: One of your boys after Brian [Zoubek].

Me (after thinking for about 1 second): Greg? Greg Steinberger?

Dave: Yeah, that’s it, Greg Steinberger.

And then just to make things more exciting, Gos swooshed in #8. With that, the 3rd quarter ended with Andrew alone outscoring the poor Gators by 26-19, with eight treys and a 2-pointer, and the Dawgs overall up by 35.

Gos must have known he was closing in, as he hit #9 to tie Greg almost right after the clock started ticking in the 4th. With about 4:30 showing on the scoreboard, in went #10, and with that, the Dawgs record set by Greg in 2007 was eclipsed. [Upon further review, it was determined that Greg had shared this record with Blake Wilson, who first recorded nine 3’s in a game a few years ahead of Greg.]

Well done, Gos!! And speaking of well done, that’s pretty much sized up what the Gators were by the end of the night, well done, as the final score was 74-33, Haddonfield. The Dawgs remain undefeated, at 8-0, in the Colonial Conference, and are now 12-1 overall.

Saturday, January 23, it was time for the annual Jeff Cooney Classic. This year, Haddonfield was taking on Highland Regional. By the half, Highland hadn’t even broken into double digits and the Dawgs were up by 15, 21-6. The final score would be 63-41. Tommy Mooney had 19 points and Ben Cerrato had 21 along with eight boards.

To finish out the month of January and push their overall record to 15-1, the Dawgs would face the Red Raiders of Paulsboro at home and trek to Overbrook to take on the Rams. Although the Dawgs started out a little sluggish against the Rams, trailing by 3, 7-10, after 1, they were up by 3 at the half, 17-14, and ended up winning by 13, 46-33. Paulsboro, on the other hand, was a test of the team’s tenacity that I alluded to earlier. Here is my FB wrap-up:

Jan 28

It was a real nail-biter at Haddonfield tonight, where the Dawgs hosted the Red Raiders of Paulsboro. The two teams were in a tight game through the first 3 quarters. In fact, they were tied at 12 after the first 8 minutes and tied at 21 going into the half. But Paulsboro went on a run in the 3rd and had a 6-point lead with 1:46 to left in the period. That’s when Steve McClane hit a 3 to make it 34-37, and then after Connor Fell, who is a Bulldawg in every way on the court, picked off the ball, McClane went in for 2 to make it 36-37. But Paulsboro would get the last basket to take a 3-point lead into the final quarter. Luckily, Andrew Gostovich wasted no time in swooshing in a 3 to tie it at 39, and after another Fell pick-off, Gos followed with another 3 to put the Dawgs back on top, 42-39. And amazingly, Paulsboro would only put 5 points on the board in those last 8 minutes. The Dawgs had a pair of 3’s by McClane to help seal the deal. When the buzzer sounded, the Dawgs remained undefeated in the Colonial Conference, with a come-from-behind 52-44 win. They are now 9-0 in the conference, 14-1 overall, and haven’t lost in over a month. Gos led all scorers with 19. McClane scored all 11 of his points in the second half. Next up is a road trip to Overbrook for an early (5:30) game on Thursday.

The Dawgs were riding a 14-0 streak when they met up with Moorestown, the team that had knocked them out of first round of last year’s Tournament of Champions, beating Haddonfield by 1, 60-59, and giving our guys only their second, and final, loss of the season. Needless to say, the Dawgs and their fans were looking for a little payback when the two teams met up again on February 1 at the Holy Cross Academy Shootout. Well, after 32 minutes, two things had been proven: It sure hadn’t been redemption — Haddonfield lost again — and it most certainly hadn’t been a shootout – the final score was 27-25, Moorestown. I was not able to make the game, although several friends kept me updated. So, I’ll borrow a bit from the Inquirer’s recap, written by Chris Melchiorre and titled, “Quakers Out-Defend Dawgs in a Grinding Battle.” After putting 4 on the board and keeping the Quakers off it after 1, both teams managed 7 in the second quarter, giving the Dawgs an 11-7 lead going into the half. In the third, the Quakers outscored the Dawgs by 3, 9-6, so going into the last quarter, they were only down by 1, and not for long. As Melchiorre put it, Moorestown led, 27-22, with just over a minute left before a three-pointer by Andrew Gostovich set up a tense final minute in which Haddonfield rimmed out on two would-be game winners.” Crud! Ben Cerrato put up 16 of his team’s 25 points.

Now 15-2, the Dawgs showed their mettle by coming out strong the next two games versus Colonial opponents: their only matchup against Lindenwold and round two against Collingswood. Both were at home.

Here is part of my summary of the Lindenwold game:

Feb 4

The Lindenwold Lions came to the Dawgs’ den tonight for a Colonial Conference match. And it took a while for the Dawgs to tame them. …

The Dawgs [up 30–24 at the half] started to wear down the Lions a little more in the third. Cerrato got three buckets, Tommy Mooney went up and in twice, and Kasko got another 2 and another 3, so going into the 4th quarter, Haddonfield was up by double digits, 48-33. … When the horn sounded, the Dawgs had won 63-49 to remain undefeated (11-0) in the conference. It was a good way to rebound off a tough, defense-oriented 25-27 loss to Moorestown on Saturday. Gos finished with 17, Cerrato with 15, and Kasko with 12.

The February 6 game against Collingswood was Senior Night. As I noted in part on FB:

We honored six Haddonfield players: Aiden Bell, Ben Cerrato, Connor Fell, Andrew Gostovich, Alex Kadar, and Steve McClane. All six played significant minutes and contributed to the Dawgs’ pounding of the Panthers. But no one contributed as much to the 62-31 final score as Cerrato, who knocked in 27 points and pulled down lots of boards at both ends. Sophomore Tommy Mooney finished with 13, swooshing in 9 on treys and 4 on a few nice layups. … The Dawgs are now 12-0 in conference play (with four conference games remaining) and 17-2 overall.

Then it was time for another Saturday nonleague game. Here is some of my FB recap:

Feb 8

The Dawgs had probably the shortest road trip of the year, heading down the highway to Paul VI for the Showcase tournament. The game was at 11:30 a.m., which is not the team’s favorite time to take to the court. Their opponents were the Red Devils of Rancocas Valley Regional High School. Out on the court the Red Devils looked big and athletic. And even though the Dawgs got possession off the tip-off, the Dawgs did not score. After the Devils did not either, Ben Cerrato secured the rebound, but the Devils picked off the ball and scored. They would not get another point off a field goal the rest of the quarter. … [When] the first quarter ended, the Dawgs were up 14-4.

The second quarter was even worse if you were a Red Devils’ fan. The Dawgs’ stifling defense held them to one made basket – a 3. Meanwhile, the Dawgs just kept scoring. Mooney hit his third 3; Andrew Gostovich got his first, as well as a 2-pointer; Justin Kasko scored two buckets on a pair of nice backdoor feeds, the first from Connor Fell, and the second from Mooney; and Cerrato also had two buckets in the paint. At halftime, the Dawgs were in control, up 30-7. … When the buzzer sounded to end the game, the Dawgs had still won by 18, 53-35 to improve their record to 18-2. Ben Cerrato finished with 14; Tommy Mooney, 13; and Andrew Gostovich, 12. And sophomore Mattew Guveiyian got the first basket of his varsity career, a 3 from the left side. My nostalgic sidebar below explains Matthew’s Dawg genealogy, tells you just how long I have been going to Haddonfield boys basketball games.

For Part 1, click HERE.

PART 3 of 5 will be published on Wednesday, August 5.

A CBS-owned website that specializes in coverage of American high school sports has ranked the athletics program at Haddonfield Memorial High School number 1 in New Jersey and number 14 in the United States.

MaxPreps calculates its rankings by assigning points for state championships and runner-up finishes and by factoring in the popularity of each sport, size of each state, state enrollment divisions, and the number of schools in each state enrollment division. Points also are awarded for national rankings, where available.

This school year, Haddonfield athletes brought home state championship trophies for boys’ cross country, girls’ indoor track, boys’ swimming, and girls’ swimming. They were state runners-up in girls’ field hockey and girls’ cross country.

The state rankings are HERE. The national rankings are HERE.