By TOM WILLIAMS

The NJSIAA basketball tournaments ended over the weekend and Mainland became the 19th Cape-Atlantic League team to win a state girls championship.

Scott Betson, who also won a state title in 2019, is the seventh CAL girls coach to win more than one state championship. Wildwood’s Dave Troiano leads that group with four and the rest of them also have two – Steve DiPatri, Steve Ottenberg, Joe Fussner, Gary Barber and Greg Goodwin.

Betson and Middle Township’s John Leahy each won a third South Jersey title, ranking among the top 10 CAL coaches on a list that is led by Ocean City’s Paul Baruffi with eight.

By the way, CAL girls basketball has an impressive streak. At least one team from the league has won a South Jersey championship for each of the last 13 seasons!

Dan Williams also guided Mainland’s boys to a South Jersey title, the school’s third and first in boys basketball since 1981. In addition, Mainland’s dual wins marked the fourth time a CAL school won South Jersey titles in both girls and boys basketball in the same season. The others were all by Middle Township, in 2023, 1994 and 1992.

There was some last-second excitement in some of the games. Among them – Mainland’s Sydney Stokes against Ewing, Ocean City’s Charlie LaBarre against Cherry Hill West and Rebecca Benichou’s three at the buzzer against Woodstown for Wildwood (which is just outside the CAL).

There was, of course, another well documented buzzer beater. Only that one didn’t count.

Manasquan’s Griffin Linstra, who in-bounded the ball at the other end of the court with 5.8 seconds left and his team down a point, hustled down to grab an offensive rebound and score the game-winner against Camden about a half-second before the final buzzer. Contrary to some opinions, the clock started exactly when it should have and Manasquan freshman Rey Weinseimer did not step out of bounds before shooting his desperation three.

The game official who is directed to make the call on a last second basket – the one across the court from the scorer’s table – emphatically called the shot good and Manasquan fans exploded. The Camden coach complained, as would most coaches in that situation, and the three officials huddled, including one who returned after heading off the court. An NJSIAA official stood nearby and, hopefully, did not participate in the discussion.

Somebody decided the official who was designated to make the call was wrong and either convinced him or overruled him. The basket was waved off and Camden fans exploded.

There is a common phrase in baseball that, if you are going to try to steal third base with two outs, you’d better be safe. Well, if you are going to change a call made by the assigned official, you’d better be right.

Changing the outcome of a game because of an error by the officials is pretty rare – and it should be. There was video available and the NJSIAA proved earlier this season that they are willing to use video to change decisions made by game officials. Just ask the people at Atlantic City High School.

The handshake at the end of this confusion was impressive. No stress or tension was visible. Players and coaches shook hands and, in some cases, hugged much like any other game. But it was just a sign of things to come.

Manasquan coach Andrew Bilodeau took his team to Rutgers on Saturday where the Manasquan girls easily won the state Group 2 title. But his team came early and they were there for Camden’s win in the boys state final that preceded the girls game. When Camden won, the Manasquan players stood and applauded.

So, Coach Bilodeau made something positive out of a negative experience. Many want video review’s to be returned to the NJSIAA tournaments. In this case, it would have corrected the change made by the officials and the right team would have won. Maybe just to deal with these last-second plays it would be worth it. But could coaches request reviews throughout the game, like at other levels of sports? It should at least be seriously discussed.

A problem in this year’s tournament that can easily be corrected is the scheduling of state semifinals. Mainland’s boys played their state semifinal at 5pm Wednesday in Monroe High School. The Mainland girls played theirs at 7pm the same night at Deptford Township High School. According to Google Maps, the two schools are almost 60 miles apart and a 70-minute drive. Maybe a Mainland fan could get to the girls game before it ended without violating speed limits but it is unnecessary.

Just play the two Group 3 semifinals in the same gym – the girls at 5 and the boys at 7. The same thing happened to Manasquan in Group 2 (though their games started at the same time in gyms an hour apart) and to Lenape in Group 4.

Playing the South-Central state semifinals, boys & girls, in the same gym would allow fans of any school whose teams both won sectional championship to see both teams play. Just like they do in the state finals.

There is no Tournament of Champions again this year and, after a weekend of blowouts in the state finals, it would have been fun to see those winners play each other. For example, we’ll never know who would win between St. Rose and Camden (though we can make a good guess – St. Rose beat Manasquan twice by a combined 40 points).

Some believe that the TOC ruined the end-of-season celebration for the state champs, except for the TOC winner. But if that applies to the TOC, why doesn’t it apply to the state finals? Wouldn’t losing in the state semifinal or final then ruin the celebration of a sectional championship? Of course not.

And, by the way, the time has come for all the charter schools to be grouped together by the NJSIAA and compete with each other for post-season championships.

So, the tournaments weren’t perfect. But the two plus weeks of basketball had some exciting moments. We also got the chance to see players who will next play at major colleges and maybe a few who will play professionally. Plus the joy of student-athletes when their work and dedications pays off.

New Jersey basketball is, as always, among the very best.