B/G Hoops: A Banner Night For Midd. South/Matawan Football Duo Makes College Commitments

Posted 2:45 a.m.

Before I get to basketball, there were two more football signings from Wednesday to announce. Matawan linebacker/fullback Jamiel Sims is headed to Wagner, and his Huskies teammate, wide receiver Kyle Hardy, will join Colts Neck linebacker Sean Smith and St. Peter’s Prep quarterback Justin Perez (a Freehold Twp. resident) at C.W. Post. Congrats to both of them.

Now, on to Thursday night, where there were plenty of interesting games, headlined by the performances of the Middletown South boys and girls teams.

I’ll star with the girls, who rolled Freehold, 51-33, in a nondivisional game behind 32 points from senior Danielle Pankey, the reigning All Shore Media Player of the Week, who also helped limit the Shore Conference’s leading scorer, Freehold forward Shannon Mayrose, who was in foul trouble all game. That win certainly adds to Middletown South’s Shore Conference Tournament seeding resume and continues some scorching-hot play as they also knocked off Rumson. Pankey is playing her way right into the All-Shore discussion with two big games in high-profile wins, and she has shown that she can be a force offensively and defensively. She always could put it on the floor and get to the basket, but her improved outside shooting has made the difference as she nailed five threes in the win over the Colonials.

Tom Brennan‘s crew is playing its best basketball of the season at the right time as it seems to have taken consecutive losses to Middletown North and Southern to heart and has come roaring back into the SCT seeding picture. I’m sure Southern is quietly loving every minute of it because the Rams have a nice bargaining chip in that SCT seeding meeting with every impressive South victory.

Also on the girls side, a few non-suspenseful division titles were wrapped up as Neptune, which is currently without sophomore guard Syessence Davis as she recuperates from a broken nose, routed Wall to claim the outright Class B North championship and St. Rose rolled past Mater Dei to clinch the Class B Central non-public title. Keyport’s win over Asbury Park means that the Red Raiders need to knock off Academy Charter in their final game before the state cut-off on Saturday to qualify for the NJSIAA playoffs, while Brick now has to beat Central on Friday night to get in after being knocked off by Lacey, which has become a real thorn in some teams’ sides with some good late-season play.

On the boys side, injuries continue to play a significant role as No. 8 Middletown South knocked off No. 3 Freehold, 58-45, in a nondivisional game as the Colonials were without their main inside presence, junior forward Christian Garcia, who was out with a sprained ankle suffered on Monday in a win over Monmouth. Meanwhile, Middletown South welcomed back its main inside presence, 6-5 junior Kyle Cancillieri, from a broken nose, and he dropped in a game-high 18 points to get the win. South certainly knows what it’s like to lose a key game while short-handed as it fell to Rumson on Saturday without Cancillieri. That’s a big win for the Eagles’ SCT seeding hopes, and I also think it helps Neptune in its quest to cement the No. 2 seed because the Scarlet Fliers have a win over the Eagles while Freehold now has a loss to them. I continue to say that the Eagles have the goods to make a run to the SCT final (unless they run into CBA in the semis) as long as everyone stays healthy.

Garcia is expected to return soon, so at least Freehold won’t be without him for long. Colonials coach Ben DiBiase is also a no-excuses guy so I’m sure he is not writing this loss off just because they didn’t have Garcia. They still expected to win.

I took in Monsignor Donovan‘s 43-41 win over Point Boro in front of a packed house down at Mon Don with two good student cheering sections. The Griffins kicked off a stretch in which they play No. 5 Point Boro, No. 2 Neptune and No. 10 Lakewood in succession, and they can now take the overall Class B South title outright with a win over Lakewood at home on Monday and then a victory over Pinelands in their final divisional game.

Mon Don sophomore point guard Sean Grennan continues to impress, as he had a game-high 19 points. You can tell that Grennan really worked hard in the off-season to add to his game. He can catch and shoot from mid-range and behind the arc, he can get to the rim, and he has a nice fadeaway off the dribble from about 15 feet that is becoming automatic. He also will pull the trigger off the dribble from behind the arc and does a nice job of using his body and inside-out dribbles to create space between him and a defender. Other than packing on more size, I think his other main area for improvement looks to be defensively, but his offensive game now has a ton more variety than it did last season and that is a testament to his hard work on his game.

I also like the size and athletic ability of sophomore forward Anthony Duszczak, who is about 6-5 and is a good leaper. He’s still feeling his way offensively, but the more aggressive he becomes, the more dangerous he will be. The inside-outside tandem of Duszczak and Grennan could be a fearsome one in the not-too-distant future. Junior Ryan Milana also had a solid game with some big free throws near the end, and he just has that bulldog, football mentality that every successful team needs.

Point Boro’s Pat Hart had 13 points after dropping 29 on Mon Don the first time around, but I think that was more because of Point Boro’s limited possessions. When you work the ball around the perimeter for 30-35 seconds at a time before a shot, you’re not going to get a ton of chances to score, especially if the other team is also methodical offensively. Hart has one of the better post-up games of any guard in the Shore, as once he gets a shorter defender pinned on his hip, it’s over. I know there was a lot of howling over the no-call when Hart got into the lane in the final seconds and ended up throwing up an off-balance jumper that fell short after making some contact with Milana, but after watching the video a couple times, the contact with Milana was not that significant. If any foul might have been called, it should have been on one of the two defenders who bumped Hart when he split a double team off the dribble before getting into the lane. Still, it’s a judgement call, and it went Mon Don’s way.

Point Boro coach Kevin Hynes wasn’t exactly thrilled about that no-call after the game, but he felt his team gave a good performance, it just came down to a few little things. It’s always interesting to see how different coaches view this public/non-public division title stuff. A lot of the coaches in A North value the public (i.e., non-CBA) title and consider it a good accomplishment, whereas in other divisions, coaches could care less about winning a title if it’s not the overall title. When informed that Point Boro could still win a share of the Class B South public title even if Mon Don all but clinches the overall (and the non-public) title with a win over Lakewood on Monday, Hynes looked like I wrapped a turd in a box and told him to have a Merry Christmas. I guess the Panthers won’t be springing for “Class B South public co-champs” jackets if they end up tied with Lakewood behind Mon Don in the end.

Brick Memorial received an unexpected gift when it was able to clinch the Class A South title outright by virtue of a 72-68 win over Southern and a loss by a reeling Toms River North team to a sub-.500 Jackson Memorial squad. Senior Matt O’Brien dropped 25 for the Mustangs, who are getting hot at the right time with the SCT looming.

CBA also squeaked by Marlboro, 90-47, to clinch the overall Class A North title, believed to be its 8 billionth division title. Right now it’s just the Colts and everyone else in the Shore. Raritan clinched its state playoff berth with a win over Shore Regional, which now has to beat Red Bank Regional on Saturday to earn its berth in the state playoffs.

Congrats to Howell, which earned a rare state playoff berth of its own by routing Allentown. If I’m not mistaken, Howell’s last state playoff berth was the year I started covering Shore hoops way back when in 1999-2000, so great job by head coach Brian Quick and a team led by guards Tom Callahan and one of the most underrated sophomores in the conference, guard Ryan Keegan. Also congrats to a young Manchester team for clinching its spot in the playoffs with a nice win over Central.

Freehold Township beat Manalapan in a game that has an interesting wrinkle in that Patriots senior Matt Devine, one of the Shore’s top scorers, lives in Manalapan, but that part of Manalapan is districted for Freehold Township (only in bizarro world the Freehold Regional District). He had 21 in the victory.

Asbury Park almost got caught looking ahead to Friday night’s showdown on the road with Point Beach in Class B Central as it edged Keyport, 42-39. That would have dented the Blue Bishops’ SCT seeding case pretty hard had they lost, but now they can stay on a roll by beating the Garnet Gulls, who are looking for their most significant win of the season.

After a loss to St. Rose, Mater Dei now has its back against the wall and must win against Jackson Memorial on Saturday to get into the state playoffs. The Seraphs couldn’t have been excited to see that the Jaguars are playing well as they upset Toms River North.

A team that has been the definition of under the radar, Long Branch, routed Keansburg to get into the state playoffs as well, so congrats to the Green Wave.

Finally, I hope you took some time out of your night to watch that Celtics-Lakers OT thriller on TNT. Great game, featuring some cold-blooded jumpers from Kobe Bryant down the stretch. I am an unabashed NBA fan along with Miss All Shore Media (the biggest Lakers fan this side of Jack Nicholson), as we are probably the only people in Monmouth County who have NBA League Pass that gets us all of the games even though I am a Knicks fan and can get their games on MSG. So yes, that means I’m the guy watching Sacramento-Golden State at 1 in the morning while I’m writing for this site. If you can’t get fired up watching LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett or Kevin Durant (who I love) and others on a regular basis, you don’t like basketball.

However, I feel like being an NBA fan is seen as some kind of mental illness at this point by the so-called purists. I remember telling a hoops junkie like Holmdel coach Sean Devaney that I loved the NBA way more than college hoops (which is only good for gambling during March Madness but fairly boring until then) and he looked at me like I said that I enjoyed punching puppies in the face. The egos and the individualism gets to a lot of people, but I love every minute of it, even Oklahoma City vs. Minnesota. The Knicks are even watchable at this point for crying out loud, and I’ll take David Lee and Wilson Chandler (and hopefully LeBron) on my team any day. One day I will write a full treatise to the NBA on this blog just to annoy everyone singing the praises of the college game and its no-name players (although I wish the best for all Shore grads playing in college), just to drive everyone nuts.

B South boys battle tonight/Freehold-Midd. South girls square off

Posted 2:10 p.m.

Some quick hoops stuff to watch for tonight and some reaction from last night.

On the girls side, my apologies first for not getting out to see Rumson’s George Sourlis and Kate Miller get their twin milestones of 500 wins and 1,500  points on a snowy Tuesday, as shaking hands and talking with too many sick teenagers, coaches and fans finally caught up with me and knocked me flat for a day. Congrats again on two tremendous accomplishments.

Tonight, Freehold heads to Middletown South in a nondivisional game that should have some big Shore Conference Tournament seeding implications. Middletown South, led by senior Danielle Pankey, is a defensive-minded team, so we’ll see if the Eagles’ scheme can slow down the top scorer in the Shore in Freehold senior forward Shannon Mayrose. Freehold likes to push the ball, while Middletown South is a little more of a half-court team, so we’ll see who wins the battle of tempo. The key is keeping Mayrose off the offensive glass, where she can kill teams with putbacks.

As for last night, that’s a big and gutsy win for Toms River North over Jackson in a game where both teams were missing top players. Jackson center Christa Evans is out for the season with an injury, while TRN guard Dana Coronato missed the game with illness. That meant the game was begging for someone to step up, and it was TRN’s Ashley Vandenbulcke, who had a career-high 16 points in the game. Those cheers you heard after that 44-40 win came from Southern, which now has a chance to tie for the Class A South title or even win it outright if Jackson stumbles again and the Rams win their final divisional game. Jackson has hung tough without Evans, who leaves a big void in the middle, so we’ll see if the Jaguars can pull it together and win their final A South game to get their piece of the title after so much hard work to get to this point. Toms River North also now boasts wins over Jackson and Southern, which can’t hurt come SCT seeding time.

Congrats to Barnegat, which has qualified for the state playoffs for the first time in school history after a win over Pinelands. Howell also picked up a crucial overtime win against Lacey to get to 7-8 with the state cutoff coming Saturday, as they withstood a 30-point effort by Lacey’s Jami Snyder, who hit a school-record six 3-pointers.

Also, Neptune‘s undefeated girls can put the finishing touches on the outright Class B North title with a win over Wall tonight. St. Rose, which is unbeaten in Class B Central, can clinch the non-public division title tonight by knocking off Mater Dei. I believe the Nixon administration marked the last time St. Rose lost a B Central game. Manchester can also clinch at least a tie for the Class B South title by knocking off Central tonight.

On the boys side, the two big games that stand out tonight are Point Boro at Monsignor Donovan and Middletown South at Freehold. Monsignor Donovan handed Point Boro its first loss of the season with an overtime victory in their first meeting that was basically a game of one-upmanship between Point Boro’s Pat Hart and Mon Don’s Sean Grennan. This game is all about execution in the half-court sets, and we’ll see if each coach decides to run extra defenders at Hart and Grennan to make someone else beat them. Mark Ward and Wil Hawthorne are the ones to watch on Point Boro, while Anthony Duszczak has been a good complement to Grennan for the Griffins.

The Panthers could take a huge step toward claiming at least a piece of the Class B South title with a win, while Mon Don has home games against Point Boro and Lakewood and could win another Class B South overall title if it can knock off both of those teams. If Point Boro gets a win and then Mon Don beats Lakewood, that would give the Panthers the outright crown. This is provided that all three teams win their other remaining Class B South games.

As for the Freehold-Middletown South game, it has SCT seeding implications just like the girls game between the two teams, and both teams come in banged up. Middletown South’s Kyle Cancillieri has not played since Friday because of a broken nose, while Freehold’s Christian Garcia is out with a sprained ankle suffered on Monday against Monmouth. The 6-5 Cancillieri should be suiting up, so we’ll see if he can take advantage of Garcia’s absence in the middle against a Freehold team where everyone is about 6-3 and under. I think Middletown South needs this game a little more than Freehold as far as ammunition in the SCT seeding argument, but it is big for both teams.

Brick Memorial can clinch at least a tie for the Class A South title by beating Southern tonight, while No. 1 Christian Brothers Academy can take care of the formality that is clinching the overall Class A North title this afternoon by beating visiting Marlboro.

Mater Dei, which is fighting for its playoff life at 8-8 and just added a game against Jackson Memorial on the state cut-off day on Saturday, will face St. Rose in Class B Central. Raritan against Shore is another game pitting two teams hovering at or just above the .500 mark as the state cutoff looms.

Boys Hoops Division Races Heat Up/Neptune’s Manfre Commits to Marist/National Signing Day Coming Up

Before I get to Monday’s hoops action, Neptune senior offensive lineman Rocco Manfre (who also served as the Scarlet Fliers’ punter), has committed to play at Marist, according to Neptune coach John Fiore. Manfre was an All-Federal Division selection by the coaches in the fall. The commitments are coming quickly with national signing day coming up on Wednesday, when a host of athletes will sign their National Letters of Intent to make their college commitments binding and official. Anyone who is signing a letter of intent on Wednesday who can take a digital photo of the signing, please e-mail it to me at stump@allshoremedia.com and I will post it because I would like to recognize all of the athletes who are signing on a proud day for them and their families.

Now, on to Monday night’s hoops action. With four of the six girls basketball divisions a foregone conclusion (Class A North – Colts Neck; Class B North – Neptune; Class B Central – St. Rose; Class B South – Manchester), it has been the boys divisional races that have begun to heat up as we head into the home stretch of the regular season.

I took in Freehold’s 56-47 win over Monmouth, which continues to struggle against top opponents without Joe Willman. It was clear from the beginning that Freehold was going to attack the interior and establish junior forward Christian Garcia. I thought Freehold did a nice job of rotating in time off penetration by Monmouth’s Neil Thompson and Anthony Gibson to challenge any shot in the lane, and Monmouth’s forwards, Justin Ruiz and Brent Shelton, missed a few chippies that hurt the Falcons early on.

Freehold’s Lance McKenzie has become the grim reaper for opposing teams when he gets to the foul line late in the game as he is one of the better clutch free throw shooters in the Shore. The Colonials are hoping that Garcia is OK after spraining his left ankle when he missed a dunk late in the fourth quarter and came down awkwardly, resulting in him limping off the court and wrapping the ankle in ice for the rest of the game.

As for Monmouth, teams are just extending their defenses much farther out on the perimeter because they are not as worried about Willman wreaking havoc in the middle. Ruiz and Shelton just have to be more consistent in finishing around the basket, but the potential is there. Shelton had some nice spin moves inside but just had trouble finishing the play. Gibson kept them in it with five 3-pointers, but I think Freehold would live with that because the big key was keeping him out of the paint where he could create easy baskets for himself and others. I still think Monmouth is capable of making noise in the SCT if Gibson and Thompson play aggressively and their forwards finish inside.

Senior guard D.J. Gutridge and some of his Neptune teammates were there along with head coach Ken O’Donnell in hopes of a Freehold win, which now creates a three-way tie for first in the loss column in Class B North. I would think that Red Bank would be the main team that could potentially throw a monkey wrench into a three-way tie, and that’s who Neptune is schedule to play on Tuesday, weather permitting. I wonder how the three will be seeded in the SCT if none of them lose a game before the seeding meeting on Feb. 15. It really depends if the committee looks at the season as a body of work or if the most recent results carry more weight because Neptune just beat the other two back-to-back on consecutive days, which may help the Fliers potentially grab that No. 2 seed behind Christian Brothers Academy. The fight will be for that third seed because no one wants to get the No. 4 or No. 5 because you don’t want to have to see CBA until the final, rather than the SCT semifinals.

As far as the other games, the big thriller was Point Boro‘s 46-44 overtime win against Lakewood, and those cheers you heard were coming from Monsignor Donovan, which is now right back in the picture as well for the overall Class B South title. (I know there are public and non-public titles and all that, but that means nothing to me. You win the overall title or you don’t.) You can tell by the final score that it was Point Boro’s type of game because Lakewood would much rather get into a 75-70 type of game that is more fast-paced. Senior Pat Hart banked in the winner at the buzzer for the Panthers, plunging Class B South into a 3-way tie as well. Hart has been big for them all season, and we’ll see if he can keep it up when the lights are shining the brightest in the SCT, where All-Shore reputations are made or broken.

Point Boro’s win on Monday means the game to circle on the calendar is Point Boro at Monsignor Donovan on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and then Lakewood at Mon Don on Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m. The Griffins have both games on their home court, so the opportunity is there to pull out a division title after lurking just out of first place for most of the season. Point Boro cleared a big hurdle on Monday night and now has a chance to get a win over Mon Don and then hope the Griffins go on to take down Lakewood to give the Panthers the title all for itself.

Brick Memorial took a big step toward claiming the Class A South title by playing its best all-around game of the season in a 21-point win on the road over Toms River North, which added injury to insult when it lost senior starter Pat Szukics just two minutes into the game with a possible dislocated or separated shoulder that was so bad it took about 30 minutes to get Szukics off the court and directly to the hospital. Senior Matt O’Brien led the Mustangs with 17 points, and they have now built up a little cushion in A South to put themselves in a great spot to claim the division title. Guard Jose Ramos also helped hold TRN’s leading scorer, senior Steve Nyisztor, to only two points in the victory. Ramos is a huge key for Memorial. He has been playing better lately, and it’s no coincidence that the Mustangs have been as well.

St. Rose took care of Freehold Township, 67-59, which helps add some more credibility to Class B Central come SCT seeding time, and it was a nice bounce back after a loss to Asbury Park on Saturday. If it doesn’t get snowed out, Asbury Park’s big game in the spotlight comes on Tuesday when it travels to Point Beach for a game that looks like it should decide the Class B Central title.

I give a lot of credit to St. John Vianney, which lost sophomore star Michael Balkovic to a season-ending wrist injury in a loss to Manasquan on Friday but has come back to beat Holmdel and Ocean to keep its state playoff hopes alive. A quick update on Balkovic – he will have surgery on Tuesday morning to have pins placed in his left wrist and will be sidelined for 6-8 weeks. Here’s hoping for a swift recovery.

As for the girls side, the Class A South race just got a whole lot more interesting for a very unfortunate reason. As previously reported here, sophomore center Christa Evans is done for the season with a fractured ankle for first-place Jackson Memorial, which had to pull out a last-second win over a sub-.500 Toms River South team on Monday night thanks to a pair of free throws by Dana Costello. The Jaguars are clinging to a one-game lead in the race and now have to go to face a tough Toms River North team on the road on Wednesday night, which will be a big test of Jackson’s mettle without Evans, who was their leading scorer and rebounder. Costello and Caitlyn Testa will be counted on to rise to the occasion if the Jaguars are going to finish the job and not let Southern potentially get a piece of that Class A South title.

Just like with Willman and Monmouth on the boys side, teams can attack Jackson differently without worrying about Evans coming off to alter shots on defense or causing trouble in the paint offensively.

Everything else was basically status quo on the girls side on Monday night, as Ocean picked up a solid nondivisional win over a Holmdel team desperate for victories in its quest to make the state playoffs.

If we aren’t buried under snow on Tuesday, it should be a big night at Rumson-Fair Haven against visiting Manasquan as head coach George Sourlis goes for his 500th career win and senior Kate Miller is just nine points shy of the rare 1,500-point milestone for her brilliant career.

Thursday Boys/Girls Basketball Ramblings, Lakewood-Pt. Boro boys tonight

I will be at the Lakewood-Pt. Boro boys game tonight as the two square off for first place in Class B South and Lakewood seeks its first victory against a Top 10 team this season. This game is all about tempo. Lakewood wants to push it up and down the floor, Point Boro wants to slow it down and run only on obvious opportunities. Point Boro usually is a hard-nosed man-to-man team, but you could certainly see the Panthers in a zone tonight because of Lakewood’s speed, which puts a premium on Point Boro’s big men to find a body when the ball goes up because when you play zone the one thing you have to worry about is the other team pounding you on the offensive glass because no one is assigned a specific man to box out.

I like the star power here as well with Lakewood’s Jacob Grant and Point Boro’s Pat Hart. This is a good test for Hart, who will face quicker defenders and will have to prove he can still get quality shots off and/or find open teammates. Grant and sophomore Jarrod Davis have been Lakewood’s most consistent scorers all season and have the ability to take over games with their scoring ability. Lakewood has struggled against gimmick defenses like zones, match-up zones, triangle-and-two and other stuff like that in recent seasons, so we’ll see if the Piners can be patient and get good shots if Point Boro coach Kevin Hynes throws something off-kilter at the them. Lakewood has more talent than Point Boro, but Point Boro executes well and hustles from beginning to end, which Lakewood did not do the time I saw them against a good Elizabeth team. We’ll see what wins out tonight. Point Boro is 8-0 and ranked No. 6 in the All Shore Media Top 10, while Lakewood has been banging on the door to get into the Top 10. I’ll have the video highlights and everything else, so if you are not a member yet, make sure you sign up so you can check out everything.

Another game to watch tonight is Brick Memorial against visiting Toms River North for Class A South supremacy. Both teams are very athletic with a lot of combo guard/forward types, like Brick Memorial’s Matt O’Brien and Toms River North’s Steve Nyisztor. I think the Mariners have a wealth of talent, and it’s really defining who will take big shots down the stretch and playing a little more under control that will make them tough to beat. Brick Memorial is solid defensively, and a big key for them is emotional guard Jose Ramos. When he is giving them points and good energy, they are tough. When he gets a little wild or coach Ed Sarluca has to sit him down, it removes a quality scoring option and 3-point threat.

You can listen to the game live on Shore Sports Network by clicking here and clicking on the “Listen Live” link.

OK, now let’s get to a few extra ramblings from the past few days of boys and girls hoops action.

BOYS

• Talking to a Neptune assistant before the game on Tuesday, he pointed out a specific Monmouth player and said, “That is a guy we are worried about.” Joe Willman, right? Nope. Neil Thompson? Next. Anthony Gibson? Wrong. Austin Whitehurst? Guess again. It was forward Brent Shelton, a physical, active inside presence. That is the type of player who has given fits to Neptune all season, and he came out like gangbusters with 12 of his 14 points in the first half and also had 8 rebounds. Players who can finish on the block and pound the offensive glass have given the Fliers trouble all season. Granted, Willman was also a monster with 23 points and 13 boards, but he’s probably going to do that to everyone this season. It’s when guys like Shelton get Monmouth 14 points that they are awfully tough to beat. Willman has added so much to his game. He can face up, step back and drain shots and even has a nice fadeaway from about 15-16 feet after catching the ball with his back to the basket. You can tell he has worked on moves that will help him at the next level at Bucknell, when he won’t just be able to overpower people inside. There’s part of me that would love to see a match-up between him and CBA’s Pat Light in the SCT.
• Anthony Gibson is a good spot-up 3-point shooter and Willman’s presence means everything to his ability to get that shot off because he rarely pulls the trigger from behind the arc off the dribble with a defender in his vicinity because he doesn’t jump very high off the ground on his 3-point attempts.
• Monmouth is arguably the most fun team to watch in the Shore when it gets rolling. Between Willman throwing down dunks, Thompson breaking ankles off the dribble, Gibson draining threes and Austin Whitehurst threading the needle with passes, this is definitely a team you should take time to go watch a few times this season. Just get there early when it’s at Monmouth, because I heard complaints all night from people at the Neptune game that they almost got locked out or that they had friends or family who didn’t get in the door.
• One thing that has stuck out about Neptune in its big games to me, besides the much-talked about problems it has had in the interior defensively and on the defensive backboards, is that it doesn’t get as many easy baskets as usual. Every shot seems to have a high degree of difficulty, whether it’s a deep 3-pointer or a shot in the lane in a thicket of defenders or some kind of off-balance attempt. That’s why Neptune’s shooting percentage has been below 40 percent in its big games. Usually when Neptune is playing well, the dunks, lay-ups and open jumpers are flowing, but that hasn’t been the case. Teams are daring the guards to penetrate and finish in the lane and are extending their perimeter defense to challenge every shot beyond the arc. That I think is a big challenge for coach Ken O’Donnell to solve. The other troubling fact is that they are allowing a fairly high shooting percentage from the field to top opponents, which most likely stems from the fact that teams are getting lay-ups inside from their big men.
• I saw Christian Brothers Academy for the first time on Tuesday and they look like a much different team than last year. I felt like most of their offensive players last year were tentative and scared to shoot at times, but everyone on the floor was aggressive on Tuesday. This is not the CBA of old that works it around the perimeter for a half hour before trying to get a backdoor lay-up. This is a team that attacks off the dribble, swarms the offensive glass and takes its shots whenever anyone gives it an opening (Brian Neller in particular). It’s fun to watch. Also, Pat Light has become a better finisher inside. As head coach Geoff Billet noted, his hands have gotten much better. Last season, he would often drop passes on the block or in traffic or go up awkwardly, but now he gathers himself, makes a clean catch and finishes. I also like sophomore big man Matt McMullen, who I think will continue to help them. He looked a little nervous against Middletown South, but he’s active on the boards and he has range out beyond 15 feet.
• CBA senior swingman Brian Neller is receiving heavy interest from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC), a Division I school in the America East conference. UMBC head coach Randy Monroe and assistant Nate Stewart were both at the Middletown South game and expressed heavy interest to Billet about Neller after the game. Billet’s old colleague, Monmouth University coach Dave Calloway, whom Billet served under as an assistant, was also in the house looking at CBA junior point guard Roy Mabrey and others, according to Billet. I’ve liked Mabrey since last season, when they threw him in the fire against Boys and Girls (N.Y.) in the Battle on the Boardwalk as a sophomore and he held his own. He already had guts, and now he has a game to go with it as he hit five threes against Middletown South on his way to 19 points.
• I also said hello to former CBA baseball star Kyle Slate, who is now in the Phillies organization and was at the game on Tuesday because he is home before heading to spring training. There is a good chance Slate will be pitching for the low Class A Lakewood BlueClaws this season, making him the first homegrown product playing for the ‘Claws since Casey Martinez (Holmdel) back in the earlier part of the decade, if I’m not mistaken. Slate’s younger brother has also now transferred from CBA to Red Bank Catholic and is a lefty who throws in the mid-80s and should see time with the Caseys.
• Middletown South looks like a two-man team right now. If Kyle Cancillieri and Matt Callori don’t both have big games, they can’t beat a quality opponent right now. However, another issue that head coach Kevin Cullen noted before the game against CBA is that they are working on getting better on defense. Last season, if you looked at most Middletown South games, they held teams in the 40s or low 50s. This season, they are routinely up in the 60s and 70s against most quality opponents, so that’s an area they are trying to improve in.
• My alma mater, Red Bank Catholic, is starting to make some noise in Class A Central with a nice win over Rumson-FH, which is coached by James Young, who is a former player for RBC coach Joe Nappo. A sleeper player that I noted in the preseason, guard Dan Calandrillo, has really become a consistent scorer and one of the better long-range shooters in the Shore. RBC has had spurts of success before in the past few seasons where they win three or four in a row and then come back to earth on their way to a .500 season, so now we’ll see if they can keep it going for a long stretch.
• A team that has been playing well that I feel hasn’t gotten much credit yet is Holmdel. They are quietly tied atop the standings in Class A Central with Manasquan and are unbeaten in the division. Mike Kelly, Erik Shirvanian and Mike Perillo, who are all juniors, have been very solid for this team under coach Sean Devaney. This team is built for success this season and next and should battle a good junior class at Manasquan much of the way. Like RBC, Holmdel has shown flashes of being able to take down quality teams the past few seasons and is searching for consistency, and so far they have looked good with only two close losses to nonconference teams in their holiday tournament.
• Great win by Mater Dei over Keyport early in the week. I gave Keyport a shot at No. 10 in the All Shore Media Top 10, but Mater Dei promptly handed the Red Raiders their first loss of the season. The Seraphs pushed the pace relentlessly and Keyport could not quite keep up despite hitting a ton of 3-pointers. The last few times these teams have played have been great games, as I can remember Keyport’s Mark Ziobro hitting a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat Mater Dei last season. The win put Point Beach in sole control of Class B Central. The Garnet Gulls have a good win over St. Rose but have played an easy nonconference schedule, so we’ll see how they do in the thick of their divisional schedule.

GIRLS

• I couldn’t help but be impressed with St. John Vianney when I saw them take apart Red Bank Catholic on Saturday. They are just relentlessly deep, everyone can score and no one is afraid to take the big shot. It will take a team with some experienced, quick guards to navigate that press for four quarters, and Colts Neck and Neptune have those. The only tiny spot of weakness I could see with the Lancers is that if you can get them into halfcourt defense, they are vulnerable to the lob inside and teams can get decent looks out of their offense. Brittany Howes and Marley Mauvais could be huge for Colts Neck and Neptune, respectively, if they cross paths with SJV, although the Lancers have talented pivot players Arron Zimmerman and Katie O’Reilly. However, getting it across halfcourt has been a problem for most opponents because of that swarming press. RBC was able to get some easy baskets for Chyna Golden off the lob and by beating the rotations on the press early in the game. However, that’s another scary fact with St. John Vianney in that Dawn Karpell will make adjustments to the rotation and those easy baskets early in the game suddenly disappear. Offensively, senior Katelyn Linney is still their go-to player, but no one is afraid to take a big shot and they all can seemingly hit from behind the arc and mid-range (Missy Repoli will destroy teams with 13-footers). The seniors also know that when it is time to step up, as guard Kate Wilverding showed against RBC. Freshman Michaela Mabrey also stood out defensively with long arms and good anticipation of the passing lanes on defense. SJV went on to rout Freehold, another Top 10 team, on Wednesday, so anyone short of Rumson, Colts Neck and Neptune looks like they will get their doors blown off by the Lancers right now.
• RBC is taking some lumps early, but it’s probably better to have these problems now than in tournament time. At least they still have time to get things corrected before the elimination games start coming. Rumson beat them soundly on Tuesday and the Bulldogs look like they are starting to round into their usual stellar form with Kate Miller leading the way. I’m interested to see how they do in their first Class A Central meeting with SJV.
• Quietly an important win by Manchester on Wednesday night over Jackson Liberty. The Lions were undefeated and looked like a prime contender to Manchester’s supremacy in Class B South, but the Hawks knocked them off convincingly, 64-47, behind Camille Valmon’s 20 points and 17 from forward Ariele Parrish.
• Keansburg is quietly off to a strong start and that was a good win against Point Beach in Class B Central earlier this week. Head coach Mike Scarano has helped this program continue to come back from the abyss to be a competitive squad that has the goods to qualify for the postseason.