Dajuan Wagner Jr. scores 23 but Camden falls in Tournament of Champions final

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Dajuan Wagner Jr. pulled his jersey over his head concealing his emotions. Aaron Bradshaw put both hands atop his head, despondent, with his elbows flared. And Rick Brunson watched in disbelief, on the wrong side of a court-storming celebration.

Camden High School fell just shy of a perfect postseason run, falling to the Non-Public Group B champs Roselle Catholic, 61-58, in overtime of the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions final. The tournament pits each New Jersey group title team against one another. But that shouldn’t diminish the historic success the Panthers had this season.

“They’re young kids just getting better at basketball,” said Brunson, the Camden coach. “Couldn’t be better kids. I feel sorry for them. Wish I could have helped them more today but it was just one of those days.”

Their season was bookended by two matchups with Roselle Catholic. The first being a battle for early season bragging rights on opening night, won by the Panthers, 67-64. The latter, with the Tournament of Champions title on the line, Sunday night at Jersey Mike’s Arena - another grudge match.

Any notable advantage was hard to come by for either team. It was tied at 51 with three minutes to go in regulation. It was tied at 53 headed into overtime. And it was tied at 55 in the final two minutes of overtime.

Roselle Catholic guard Braxton Jones caught a dribble handoff and buried a 12-footer from the left wing. That made it 59-58 with 27.7 seconds remaining. Wagner got a decent look with under 5 seconds left that just missed and the Lions sealed the win on free throws.

It was a dogfight the whole way. An instant classic.

Wagner accounted for Camden’s first nine points. He found early success snaking through screens, catching the ball on the wing, and attacking the interior of the defense. The two-way guard ranked No. 1 in the 2023 class by ESPN finished with a game-high 23 points and six steals.

Junior center Aaron Bradshaw added nine points, eight rebounds, and five blocked shots in the loss.

For the Lions, ESPN’s No. 10-ranked player and North Carolina commit Simeon Wilcher led the way with 22 points and five assists.

But the loss shouldn’t cloud what Camden has accomplished, finishing with 31 wins and just three losses. Each loss came at the hands of a school ranked among the top 11 in the country.

The Panthers maintained a 44-game win streak dating to last year, until a mid-January loss to Montverde Academy at the Metro Classic.

In late January, Camden went toe-to-toe with Sierra Canyon, defeating the Trailblazers behind 21 points from Wagner. That game was highlighted by his behind-the-back crossover that dropped Bronny James, a top-50 player in the country and LeBron’s son, to the ground.

A postseason run including a second straight South Jersey Group 2 title, the program’s first Group 2 state title since 2000, and a trip to the Tournament of Champions showed how special this year’s Camden team has been.

The resurgence is most evident in seeing the community well-represented, wearing purple and yellow paraphernalia, filling the stands in support of the top-ranked program. And making sure their presence was felt.

“[I learned] that our guys are fighters,” Brunson said. “They’re hard workers and great kids. They got a lot of basketball ahead of them in their lives.”