January 18, 2006
Eight CAL teams in Battle By The Bay
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
Eight basketball teams from the Cape-Atlantic League will be involved in this
year's Battle By The Bay. Four will be playing each other and the other four will
be facing top teams from the East.
The event will begin on Friday, Feb. 3 with an evening boys doubleheader - Middle
Township against Winslow Township at 7, followed by Holy Spirit against Paterson
Catholic.
An extra game has been added on Saturday to accommodate an additional girls game.
The Battle By The Bay has had one girls game each of the last two years. The
first Saturday session will start at 11 a.m. with Holy Spirit's girls meeting a
good Harrisburg PA team. Next is a boys contest between Our Savior and St.
Benedict's, followed by Absegami against Atlantic City in a girls game.
The second Saturday session starts at 5 and features New York's Rice against
Harrisburg in the first game, followed by St. Augustine and Chester.
On Super Bowl Sunday at noon, a real good match-up pairs St. Anthony of Jersey
City against Philly's Germantown Academy, followed by the annual finale between
Atlantic City and Pleasantville.
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Last weekend, in Cherry Hill, the third annual Cougar Classic saw six undefeated
teams arrive and only three leave with the same distinction.
Absegami and Holy Spirit were beaten in back-to-back Sunday games - the Braves by
Pennsylvania power Council Rock North and Spirit by Woodrow Wilson, the defending
NJSIAA Tournament of Champions winner.
The other team to suffer its first loss was Bloomfield Tech, the defending Group
2 state champion, which lost a thriller to undefeated Camden Catholic on Monday
night.
Willingboro, which has entered the Cougar Classic undefeated all three years, got
its first win in the event over Atlantic City, despite 28 points, 22 rebounds,
six steals and six assists by the remarkable Tasha Cannon. And Trenton Catholic
also remained undefeated with a win over Rancocas Valley.
The only CAL team to win was Mainland, which upset Haddon Heights, largely by
making 15 of 18 free throws.
In addition to losing its first game, Holy Spirit also saw point guard Jordan
Sykes aggravate an already sore hamstring. She will probably miss some action
this week. But Spirit will also get two new players this week. Transfers Courtney
Sykes (Middle Township) and Teena Marsh (Sacred Heart) completed the 30-day
period of ineligibility required by the NJSIAA.
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You don't often see many boys basketball coaches watching the girls basketball
team from a different school. Or many girls basketball players finding time to
watch the boys from another school play.
But the new Pleasantville High School boys basketball coach has been seen
watching the Holy Spirit girls play. And one of the Spartans has returned the
favor by attending as many of the Greyhound boys games as she can.
The reason?
Kenny Johnson, a star player at Pleasantville in the 1970s and his alma mater's
new coach, is the father of Chelsi Johnson, the star forward of the Holy Spirit
girls.
Read more of
Tom Williams' columns