Senior Tom Ballezzi Ices Ocean City Victory With Clutch Free Throws

Ocean City senior guard Tom Ballezzi stepped to the free-throw line as he does every day in practice—only Tuesday night it was with his Ocean City team trailing Millville 67-66 with just 1.5 seconds remaining in the game.

Ballezzi, one of the holdovers from last season's Cape-Atlantic League championship team that finished the year 19-8, stepped to the line and didn’t worry one bit.

“We practice that everyday,” said Ballezzi, who finished the game with 11 points. “My teammates told me to just do what I do in practice."

The senior bended at the waist and delivered his first free throw perfectly through the net, knotting the score up at 67-67—then came the nerve-wracking game-winning attempt.

“I wasn’t nervous really at all,” Ballezzi laughed. “I shoot them in practice and that’s all I did there.”

The 5-11 guard calmly let his shot leave his hand, hitting nothing bet net and giving the Red Raiders a 68-67 advantage. Michael Cirocco’s half-court heave fell well short of the basket as time expired, giving Ocean City an improbable win in this American Conference matchup.

“We never lost our composure tonight,” said Ocean City head coach John Bruno. “The look on our kids' faces tonight was, we aren’t going to lose this game.”

While Ballezzi made two key free throws, the Red Raiders were carried by junior Chris Turner. The 5-foot-9 guard bobbed-and-weaved his way to the basket with regularity, leading the way with a career high 30 points to lead all scorers.

“He wants the ball,” said Bruno of Turner. “His decisions were the right decisions tonight, and when he gets going, he can really be good.”

Turner struggled in Friday nights loss to Oakcrest, scoring just eight points on 3-of-14 shooting, but came out hitting shots early Tuesday night.

Ocean City jumped out to a impressive 18-5 first quarter lead, but lost their starting forward Matt Bosch to foul trouble. Without Bosch, Millville began to chew away at the Red Raider lead, going into the locker room at halftime trailing by just five, 29-24.

“Our intelligence killed us in that second quarter,” Bruno explained. “We did a lot of foolish stuff with the ball and I thought that was how they got back in the game, that was the difference.”

While Ocean City was clinging to its five-point lead, Millville star Jaymere Hadden was just getting warmed up. Hadden one of the Cape-Atlantic Leagues top scorers and overall players, put the Thunderbolts on his back, scoring 12 of the teams 19 points in the third quarter, giving Millville a 43-38 lead after three.

“We knew they weren’t going to shoot as poorly as they did in the first quarter,” admitted Bruno. 

Ocean City fought hard and stayed around in the game, eventually the Red Raiders caught a couple of breaks. With Millville leading 63-59 with just 54-seconds left in the game, Hayden fouled out.

“I think them losing Hadden late in the game made it a free-throw game,” Bruno said. “We didn’t shoot well from the line, but shot well when it mattered.”

After Hadden fouled out, Ocean City outscored Millville 11-to-4 over the final 54-seconds of them game, including two key three-pointers.

“I thought we hit two really key three-point shots,” Bruno said.  “First Tommy’s and then Chris’s.”

Ballezzi first hit a three-pointer with 1:06 left in the game, to keep Ocean City in the game, then came Turner’s three-point basket with 7.5 seconds remaining to make it a one-point game.

“The plan there was we were going to push it, but Turner or Ballezzi could shoot a three," Bruno explained. “Everyone else was to take it to the basket.”

Turner’s three-point basket made the score 67-66.

As the Ocean City crowd erupted, Millville’s Rashon Sorrell was called for traveling, with five-and-a-half seconds left, trying to break the Red Raider pressure setting up one final play for Ocean City.

The Red Raiders got the ball inbounds to Ballezzi who took the ball to the baseline. On this way to the basket he was bumped with just one-and-a-half seconds left on the clock, getting to the line and sealing the win for Ocean City.

With the victory, the Red Raiders improve to 5-5 on the season with home games this week against Egg Harbor Township on Thursday and a nonconference matchup with Collingswood on Saturday.

Ocean City played four players in double figures in addition to Turner’s 30 and Ballezzi’s 11, Bosch had 11 points and Dylan Canova added 10.