High school basketball careers end every year about this time. For the seven seniors on the Pinelands Regional boys hoops team, that final moment occurred a little sooner than they had hoped.

“Our basketball program is indebted to those seniors,” said head coach Fred Johnson, after his Wildcats were bounced from the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III tournament during a 61-54 quarterfinals loss to Timber Creek on Feb. 28. “I’m tremendously thankful to have been able to coach them.