Ocean City Girls Fall to Nationally Ranked Neptune in State Semifinals

Overwhelming. Suffocating. Dominating.

That is the nationally ranked Neptune High School girls' basketball team, and Ocean City got to experience it first hand on Wednesday night in Williamstown.

The Scarlet Fliers, the Group III Central champions, routed Ocean City, 75-40, in the NJSIAA Group III state semifinals to improve to 27-1. Ocean City, the Group III South winner, ends its season at 23-7.

Neptune presses, taps and makes life miserable for most of its opponents, and Ocean city was no exception.

"They just came at you at all different angles," Ocean City guard Emily Gillian said. "They trapped you at all different angles. You don't even have to be in a corner and they trapped you."

"They were so athletic, it seemed like there's always three people around the ball," Ocean City coach Paul Baruffi said. "I'm sure to the girls out there, there were six people.

"I'm proud of the girls. They never quit," he said. "Not many teams can say they were here. I think we had the toughest draw except whoever was playing Shabazz. Hopefully we can use this as a learning experience. I got most of these kids back."

The Scarlet Fliers harassed the Red Raiders into 17 first-half turnovers. The Neptune pressure defense forced Ocean City into seven traveling violations in the first half alone.

Ocean City didn't score a field goal until a minute into the second quarter, and attempted four shots in the first quarter, which ended with Neptune up 20-4.

Ocean City's Emily Duggan made two foul shots, and Gillian connected from long range to cut the Scarlet Fliers lead to 15 with 3:30 left in the first half, however, that's the closest the Red Raiders would get the rest of the game.

Neptune closed out the first half with a 14-4 run for a 43-18 halftime lead.

"Yes, definitely the best team we ever faced," said Ocean City center Julia Duggan, who scored 10 points. "They hit a lot of their shots and took it to us. But we tried our best."

"We knew coming in they were an amazing team," Emily Duggan said. "They are fantastic. We tried different defenses. We tried to do a match-up zone against them to slow down their offense, but they came out strong."

Neptune senior Shakena Richardson, who signed to play at Rutgers University, scored a game-high 28 points. Fellow Rutgers recruit Syessence Davis scored eight points, recorded seven assists and made six steals.

By the time Neptune took its starters out with 5:37 remaining in the game, it led 73-29.

"They were a well-coached team," Gillian said. "They are great players. They have a lot of talent."