Low seeds Clayton, Wildwood produce high drama in South Jersey Group 1 final

Forget the seeds.

That is what both participants in Tuesday’s South Jersey Group 1 championship did.

This might not have been a glamour matchup, but it produced one pulsating game.

No. 8 seeded Clayton, playing before a sold-out home crowd, overcame a seven-point deficit with under three minutes left to defeat No. 14 Wildwood, 64-63, to win its first South Jersey Group 1 title in nearly four decades.

“We live for this moment,” said Clayton 6-foot-5 senior Josh Jones, who had 12 points.

That is the thing about high school sports, there are these moments that may not come along often but when they do, they provide life-long memories.

The last time Clayton won a sectional title was 1980 when the Clippers went on to win the state Group 1 title. Nobody should underestimate the pull that town pride has when a game of this magnitude is played.

“We always said we would win this for the city of Clayton,” said Dorien DePina, who scored a team-high 15 points.

Neither team was expected to be here by the experts or just about anybody, else, but the heck with the prognosticators, was the attitude of both participants.

Wildwood (13-17) started the season 2-10. At that point few were giving the Warriors much chance to be playing in late February, let alone March.

As for Clayton (21-9), the Clippers proved that a team that can run-and-gun can win in the postseason.

What’s interesting is that the Clippers did little of either against Wildwood and still ended up winning.

Then again, all that matters is the result.

This is a Clayton team that scored 101 points in one game — and still lost by six early in the season against Salem.

Wildwood did a great job of spreading the floor, slowing things down and making big shots.

The Warriors didn’t feel they were playing with house money. They came to Clayton to win.

“We were resilient all tournament and came into every game, [confident] ," said Wildwood senior guard Tyler Tomlin, who had a game-high 23 points. “Knowing it could end wasn’t really an option for us. We were having fun.”

The fun ended Tuesday, but Wildwood showed great heart.

So did the winning team.

Down by 59-52 with under three minutes left, the Clippers increased the defensive the pressure, if that was possible, caused some turnovers and were eventually ahead, 64-61, when DePina hit two free throws with 14.5 seconds left.

Clayton then did all it could to prevent a three, but Tomlin got one off from the corner. It missed but teammate Seamus Fynes scored on a follow with 7.3 seconds left.

Wildwood was out of timeouts. Clayton didn’t inbound the ball until about a second remained and then time expired and the celebration began.

Wildwood coach Scott McCracken said he felt a five-second call should have been made, but no call was made.

Game over.

Clayton kept its cool when things looked like they could be getting away from the Clippers. Give an assist to the fans.

“I never head the gym that loud in my life,” said Frank Rago, who has coached 20 years at Clayton, the last 16 as head coach. “It was deafening.”

The atmosphere was a reminder of how special it is to keep playing basketball in March.

Both improbable championship participants rewarded the crowd by displaying tremendous effort. They distinguished themselves with how hard they kept fighting and battling.

In short, Clayton and Wildwood played like the high seeds that they kept knocking off along the way.

Wildwood 11 21 20 11 – 63

Clayton 19 12 16 17 – 64

W: Ethan Burke 1, Andrew Zielinski 2, Max McGrath 11, Karl Brown 12, Seamus Fynes 10, Will Long 4, Tyler Tomlin 23.

C: Max Cruz 12, Dorien DePina 15, Justin Mills 4, Dominick Bishop 3, Justin Gibson 7, Josh Jones 12, Kevin Pretlow 5, Ky’Shon Weldon 2, TerMeir Hill 4.