The Revolving Door Top 10 and More From Tuesday/Southern’s Binford Commits to Sacred Heart

A quick football note before I get to a wild Tuesday of action on the boys and girls sides as the Shore Conference Tournament seeding meeting probably just got another hour added to it. Southern senior safety John Binford has committed to Sacred Heart, according to Rams assistant Chuck Donohue Jr., making him the latest Shore Conference product in a Sacred Heart recruiting class that also includes Southern linebacker Steve Sibona, Red Bank Catholic wideout/defensive back Alex Taylor, Point Boro defensive tackle Jeff Keffer and Ocean defensive back Rhett Cowley. Binford also joins Glenn Carson (Penn State); Anthony Stroffolino (UPenn) and Sibona as the fourth player from this past fall’s Southern squad to commit to a Division I-A or I-AA school.

Now, on to a crazy night of boys and girls hoops in which my phone nearly melted from the text messages pouring in from different precincts while I was also sending out some updates from Middletown South’s 66-64 nailbiter against Freehold Township. First off, do we have to keep producing a Top 10 on a weekly basis? Is there any way we can suspend that maybe? It’s becoming the equivalent of eating a lima bean and beet sandwich as far as how much I’m looking forward to it with each passing week.

I’ll start with the Freehold Twp.-Midd. South boys game since it was the one I was at. The Eagles were up by as many as 20 in the third quarter and were getting whatever they wanted in their halfcourt sets, from lobs to Kyle Cancillieri to penetration and dishes by Pat O’Connell to open looks from behind the arc and putbacks. However, handling full-court pressure continues to be a concern, as a lethargic Freehold Township team that was frustrated with missed lay-ups and box-outs suddenly came alive on defense.

The Patriots’ full-court pressure led to some easy buckets and free throw attempts and senior Matt Devine, one of the Shore’s most potent scorers, starting dumping in shots from everywhere and converting at the foul line. Either from behind the arc or rebounding in the lane, Devine led the charge along with Steve Talbott to get the game down to a point. That’s when I figured South’s shaky free throw shooting might come into play, but seniors Will Low and Matt Callori went 6-for-6 in the final 1:30 to seal the win. Freehold Township nearly pulled off an improbable comeback when Talbott intentionally missed a free throw with 2.9 seconds left and the Patriots down by two, and Tyler McKinnon grabbed the loose ball and fired up about a 15-footer, off balance, from the baseline that fell short.

The win gave Middletown South at least a tie for the Class A North public title with a divisional game against Howell still looming and a big nondivisional game with Point Boro coming up on Wednesday night. The match-ups are going to be big for the Eagles in the Shore Conference Tournament because if they can draw a halfcourt-type team rather than a trapping and pressing outfit like Asbury Park or Neptune, they could go very deep in this tournament. With Callori and Cancillieri in the middle to contest shots, it’s tough for teams to post them up and they can seal off the defensive backboards, so it’s really turnovers that opponents use as an equalizer. If the Eagles can limit those, they will be tough to knock off. But as long as those issues against pressure linger, it will be hard for the Eagles’ faithful to feel comfortable. As our All Shore Media Middletown South student correspondent Jim Geant put it after the game, “We always have to make it interesting.”

Freehold Township is like an old TV set where you have to mess with the antenna (remember those?) and it either comes in crystal clear or it’s all blurry. When they really put effort into defending, they come alive because it sets up open looks and fast breaks for Devine and Talbott, and the points come in bunches. When they don’t, everything bogs down and it’s usually one and done on offense. This team is still dangerous because as long as Devine is on the court, it will be able to put up points quickly. Brick Memorial coach Ed Sarluca was in the house at Middletown South on Tuesday night because it looks like the way the seedings will shake out in Central Jersey Group IV that Freehold Township will play Howell for the third time this season in the first round and then the winner will have to travel to Brick Memorial in what appears to be a fairly wide open bracket this season.

While filming and taking notes on the FTwp.-MS game, my phone was rattling often with updates from what turned out to be a crazy 61-60 win by Red Bank over Freehold that denied the Colonials a piece of their first division title since 1995-96 and kept Red Bank’s heartbeat alive in its quest to qualify for the SCT. The Bucs now have to beat Rumson and Middletown North to make it in after being eliminated from the state playoffs with a loss to Shore Regional on Saturday.

I would guess it’s possible that my comment from an earlier blog about Shore wanting it more than Red Bank on Saturday may have gotten printed out and put up on a bulletin board over in Bucs-ville, possibly with my face as a dartboard, and I have to give it up to the Bucs for a great gut-check win. There was no doubting this team’s heart on this night.

A technical foul that was whistled on Freehold coach Ben DiBiase in the final seconds proved to be enormous as Red Bank sank one of two free throws to get within two points and then set up a final 3-pointer by senior guard Eric Raybon, who knocked it down with 2.7 seconds left in regulation for the game-winner. I like how the Bucs just went for the kill rather than the tie and overtime. It’s like at the end of “Happy Gilmore.'” “Happy, hit it around the tower, sink your putt, and we’ll go to sudden death.” “Nah, I’ll just beat him now.”

Christian Garcia played for Freehold but was not at 100 percent on that ankle from everything I heard. The Colonials need to forget about it quickly and get ready for a nondivisional game with Asbury Park on Thursday with big SCT seeding implications. If I’m Asbury Park, I didn’t want to see Freehold lose on Tuesday night because the Blue Bishops want the Colonials to be held in as high esteem as possible so that if they are able to knock them off, it carries a lot of weight. I still think Asbury needs that game way more than Freehold does when it comes to the SCT seeding.

Christian Brothers Academy beat Colts Neck 62-54 in a game it led by 20 points before it went to a zone and the Cougars nailed some late 3-pointers to trim the final margin, but the big story was senior center Pat Light leaving the game with an ankle injury that put him on crutches after the game. Can we make it through a week without a star player in the Shore getting hurt? The Year of the Injury isn’t a story I really want to write. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious, and the good news is that CBA won’t be playing a meaningful tournament game until next Friday in the SCT Round of 16, so Light could rest up for that. It does make CBA’s nondivisional game with St. Rose interesting because Purple Roses big man Sean McPaul is a big body inside, but if CBA could play with the five or six 6-7 behemoths on St. Anthony, the Colts will find a way against St. Rose without Light if necessary.

I have to give credit to Marlboro, which could’ve mailed its season in a while ago but has picked up wins over Middletown South and Howell in the last five days after knocking off the Rebels on Tuesday night. Guard Andrew Goldstein has had a nice little run, it’s just too bad that it’s too late for the Mustangs’ postseason hopes. Howell is going to need a win against Brick in its next game because if it loses that game, it means it will have to defeat Middletown South on Friday to clinch its SCT berth in a game the Eagles need to clinch the outright Class A North public title.

Another team that deserves a lot of credit is St. John Vianney under coach Bob Mahala. This team was 1-7 at one point this season, and then when it was building steam, it lost sophomore big man Mike Balkovic, its leading scorer, to a season-ending wrist injury. Still, the Lancers battled through that and clinched a state playoff berth via a win by forfeit against Raritan on Saturday, and on Tuesday, guard Craig Ganter hit a buzzer-beater against Matawan to clinch a berth in the SCT. Ganter and guard Joe Badru have stepped up in Balkovic’s absence and guaranteed that this team will live to play in the postseason.

A potentially good sign for Manasquan came on Tuesday night when one of the Shore’s top scorers, junior guard Matt Vadas, was held to eight points, yet the Warriors pulled out a win over Holmdel thanks to 17 points by senior guard Kyle Wehner. I think a lot of people thought that Squan couldn’t beat a quality team without Vadas having a big game, but they gained the confidence that they can.

Monmouth won its share of the Class B North title and ended Ocean‘s SCT hopes with a lop-sided win, while Long Branch, which has been the definition of under the radar this season, nabbed a berth in the SCT with a 10-point win over Wall. Manchester, which is right there with Long Branch in the shadows, clinched its SCT berth and dashed Toms River South’s hopes by knocking off the Indians.

The main other eye-opening score was Keyport‘s 72-54 win over Point Beach in which several of the Garnet Gulls top players were disciplined and sat for long stretches of the game.

With all of this parity and craziness, one common line has emerged from talking to coaches when it comes to the SCT. They don’t want the No. 4 or No. 5 seed, the No. 8 or No. 9 seed or the No. 16 or No. 17 seed, but they’ll literally take anything else. That’s because those teams will eventually run into CBA, and the feeling is that any other team out there can beat any other team. You might see a coach almost want to be dropped from No. 7 to No. 10 or from No. 16 to No. 18 just to avoid CBA because the feeling is that it’s possible to make a deep run against any of the other teams in the field. You can almost imagine delegates arguing teams are worse than they are. Oh, you guys think that team should be seeded No. 8? No, they’re not that good, put them at 10 or 11.

As for the girls side, they had a pair of surprising scores as well, as Raritan knocked off No. 4 Rumson-Fair Haven, 37-36, and in the biggest surprise of all, Shore not only beat Red Bank Catholic, but beat the Caseys by 17 points behind an 18-point effort from center Liz West.

Raritan’s victory gives the Rockets a bargaining chip to try to get a top 10 seed, while it really clouds the issue near the top now. Senior Alexa Ryan became the third girls player to cross the 1,500-point milestone for her career in the Shore this season and is now 88 points away from breaking Kelly Robinson’s school record set in 2003 of 1,597 points. The Rockets have developed a nice little rivalry with RFH and have found a way to knock them off in consecutive seasons by winning low-scoring, defensive battles.

Who in the world is the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds right now? Does Rumson still stay at 4? It’s hard for St. Rose to jump them because the Bulldogs beat the Purple Roses. Middletown South could possibly be the No. 4 seed right now because it has a win over RFH, with Rumson at No. 5. That is going to be a long discussion on Sunday at that meeting, that’s for sure. Can Ocean argue to be all the way up there? Southern? It’s going to be a free-for-all.

As for the Shore Regional win, I’m wondering if that’s the first time Shore has ever beaten RBC, or maybe it’s the first time in at least 15 years or so. You just don’t see RFH and RBC lose on the same night too often, that’s for sure.

Howell was on a roll after qualifying for the state playoffs but got picked off by Marlboro and Meghan Reilly in the final seconds of a one-point loss. The Rebels now have to beat RBC on Saturday to qualify, which is an interesting game with the Caseys reeling right now.

Division Title Monday and More

There are only a few division titles left out there on the boys side while the girls side is all wrapped up after Monday’s action as we rapidly approach the Shore Conference Tournament.

Starting with the girls, I took in the first half of Southern‘s eventual 70-45 win over Toms River North that gave the Rams a share of the Class A South title with Jackson Memorial, which rolled past a one-win Toms River East team on Monday night to get its piece of the championship. The Rams were up by 19 at the half, and it was obviously going to be an uphill battle for a Toms River North team that has been hit hard by calamity at the worst possible time. Senior guard Dana Coronato, one of the team’s top players, missed her second straight game with an illness that has put her in the hospital, while forward Sam Heck, another one of the Mariners’ top players and their main interior presence, was on crutches with an ankle injury and was not available to battle the Southern duo of Kristen Sharkey and Avery Hodgson.

Not surprisingly, it was lob city inside to Sharkey, who not only is a good finisher but also is a good foul shooter, and she put in 30 points to key the win, while Hodgson had 10 of her 12 in the first half. The Rams avenged losses to Jackson Memorial and Toms River North after losing to the two of them in their first meeting to take their share of the championship.

Jackson Memorial and Southern were the last two cars in the division title parade, making the final division champs for the 2008-09 season Colts Neck (Class A North); St. John Vianney and Rumson-FH (Class A Central non-public and public); Jackson and Southern (Class A South); Neptune (Class B North); St. Rose (Class B Central non-public); Manchester (Class B South). Congrats to all of them.

The biggest game of the night turned out to be Ocean proving that its earlier win over Freehold was no fluke with a 54-53 victory over the Colonials that spoiled a night in which senior forward Shannon Mayrose became Freehold’s all-time leading scorer. It was another pivot player, Ocean junior Annie Farrow, who stole the show with 23 points and 13 boards to key the victory. That’s a huge win for the Spartans and it only makes seeding the Shore Conference Tournament more difficult. To show what kind of crazy season this has been beyond the rock-solid top three of St. John Vianney, Colts Neck and Neptune, Ocean has a legitimate argument to be seeded ahead of Red Bank Catholic, which has a loss to Freehold, which Ocean beat twice. You don’t see that too often in the seedings, and great job by the Spartans to prove some people wrong by beating Freehold a second time.

Neptune canceled its Wednesday nondivisional showdown with St. Rose during a week in which it has games against Red Bank, which it defeated on Monday, as well as state-ranked Trenton Catholic and Eastern. That’s got to really bother St. Rose, which was counting on that game as a shot to make a big splash before the seeding meeting by handing Neptune its first loss, and now the Purple Roses are denied the opportunity to give it a shot. Too bad, because I would have liked to have seen it. I also wonder if maybe Neptune sophomore standout Syessence Davis, who is out while recovering from surgery for a broken nose and is supposed to return right around Wednesday or Thursday, may not have been available for that game. Hmmm….

On the boys side, I caught the second half of Monsignor Donovan‘s 51-49 thriller over Lakewood after running over from Toms River North’s girls game against Southern, as the Griffins won their fourth straight non-public Class B South title. Sophomore Sean Grennan continues to be outstanding as he had 26 points, and I thought the team as a whole did a solid job in limiting Lakewood’s second chances until the Piners made a lightning-quick run in the final 1:30. I think the one missing ingredient for the Griffins to really take off in the next two years is a true point guard. To me, Grennan could be a lethal two-guard if he didn’t have to worry about bringing the ball up the floor, tiring himself out beating the pressure and initiating the offense as the point guard. If he could just set up on the wing and worry about destroying his man, Mon Don would be awfully tough, especially with sophomore Anthony Duszczak inside and Kevin Carter and Ryan Milana to attack the offensive glass from the weakside.

As for Lakewood, the Piners will have to settle for sharing the public title with Point Boro. They show flashes of scary scoring ability off the dribble and on the glass and then at other times can’t hit anything from the outside or throw up wild shots. Their most consistent player is senior forward/center Tyquan Strand, who is always active on the offensive glass and finishes underneath. He may not get the publicity of Jacob Grant and Jarrod Davis, but to me he has been their best player this year from game to game.

In other news, Raritan has forfeited the game it trailed against St. John Vianney on Saturday before Nick Casalaspro smacked his head on the floor in a scary incident late in the third quarter that required him to be airlifted to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick. The forfeit means that SJV has qualified for the state tournament. Raritan has also postponed its scheduled Tuesday game with Rumson-Fair Haven and it is up in the air whether or not the Rockets and Bulldogs will even play that game before the SCT cut-off on Feb. 14. As for Casalaspro, I am happy to report that he is out of the hospital and was in attendance at the Raritan girls game against SJV on Monday night, which is great to hear.

Neptune grabbed its piece of the Class B North pie and won its 13th straight with a 66-52 win over Red Bank to guarantee at least a share of the division title. Red Bank’s SCT hopes are now on life support as it has to go 3-0 the rest of the week to qualify and still has games against Freehold, Rumson-Fair Haven and Middletown North. Freehold needs that win over Red Bank to gain its share of the division title, and Monmouth has to beat Ocean on Tuesday to claim its piece of what looks like it will be a Class B North tri-championship.

Congrats to Ocean senior guard Scott Nelson, who dropped in a game-high 21 points and scored his 1,000th career point on a free throw in the third quarter of a 66-42 win over a depleted Mater Dei team that was missing some starters to give the Spartans a win they needed to keep their SCT qualifying hopes alive. Nelson joins Central’s Ibn Moye, Monmouth’s Joe Willman and Toms River South’s Tyler Gebler as seniors who reached the 1,000-point milestone this season.

On Tuesday, the game to watch out for is Freehold Township at Middletown South at 6:30 p.m. If the visiting Patriots win, for all their ups and downs this season, they will have captured the Class A North public title. If the host Eagles win, they will have clinched at least a tie for the public title, but won’t be totally out of the woods yet as far as grabbing it outright as they still have to face a red-hot Howell team on (cue eerie music and sticks crackling in the background of the forest) Friday the 13th. Middletown South left the door open for Freehold Township with its upset loss to Marlboro last week, so we’ll see if the Patriots step through it to claim the public title. They certainly have motivation from the first game, when Middletown South drilled them, 71-42.

Stumpy’s Sunday Blog: Notes, Thoughts on the SCT, Extras from Saturday and More

There is a ton of stuff to get to after the past couple of days, so I won’t waste any time,  and we’ll start with the boys basketball side and wrap it up with the girls side, so scroll down if you want to get right to the girls hoops stuff.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Updated 6:55 p.m.

I took in two games on Saturday, starting with Shore’s 48-39 win over Red Bank in a must-win game for each team to get into the state playoffs. It’s clear that the Blue Devils and coach Doug Shaw used the fact that everyone thought they would fall on their face after moving from Class B Central to the bigger-school Class A Central as a rallying cry this season, so making the state playoffs became a badge of honor for them. I thought they wanted it a little more, while Red Bank sunk under a hail of technicals, missed shots and the ejection of coach Scott Martin to finish a frustrating morning, while Shore senior guard Mike Pillari did his best Steve Nash impersonation while setting up shop at the free throw line in the fourth quarter to bring home the win. I’ve heard from other coaches that they think they never get any calls in Shore’s gym and that the physical Blue Devils turn it into a football game out there, but from what I saw, Shore just plays in-your-face defense and teams just have to match that intensity. In an earlier version of this post, I may have implied that Martin said something to me about the officials, which he did not. I just meant that opposing coaches have been frustrated in that gym, so I could see where Martin was coming from when he expressed his displeasure to the officials during the game, not to me in any way after the game.

It’s a typical Shore team in that the Blue Devils defend you to the death and never give anyone a clean look from the perimeter. They are a little more vulnerable on the glass because sophomore big man Mark Coleman is out for the season with an injury, but they all do their best inside. They also have two athletic big men in Rich Vivian and David Roslin who can face the basket and put the ball on the floor. They are so methodical on offense that they limit the overall number of possessions in the game, which, coupled with their defense, can keep them in the game against anyone. Someone is going to have to work hard to knock this team out of the Central Jersey Group II bracket, and I like the gritty Pillari, who doesn’t really take any bad shots and is a hard-nosed defender.

From there I went to the Neptune-Monsignor Donovan game, where the Scarlet Fliers community honored legendary coach Larry Hennessy, who passed away in Virginia in August. As for the game, Mon Don had it down to seven points in the fourth quarter, but Neptune’s ability off the dribble was just too much in the end. Senior forward Dan Singleton was slashing to the rim with success and, as usual, senior guard D.J. Gutridge was breaking down his defender and getting into the lane off the dribble. It got a little chippy near the end, as Mon Don coach Mike Kearney got hit with a technical for arguing and a Mon Don fan got tossed out of the gym, but the main thing I noticed was how Monsignor Donovan sophomore guard Sean Grennan (19 points) was able to score against some good defenders, including Gutridge, arguably the best on-the-ball defender in the Shore. That’s the kind of thing that colleges want to see, and Monmouth University assistant Chris Kenny, a former star at Christian Brothers Academy and Monmouth U, was in the stands watching the game.

While I knew that Hennessy was a legend who won over 600 games, I learned a lot more about him from Saturday’s event, particularly from the outstanding program put together by 1972 Neptune graduate Bill King. That was no shock, given that King was the public relations director for the Milwaukee Bucks for 22 years, so he knows how to put together key information, but he really did a great job on the research for everything. I had no idea that Hennessy was also an outstanding player in his own right whose jersey still hangs from the rafters at Villanova. Neptune coach Ken O’Donnell, who spearheaded the event and was very close with Hennessy, said he didn’t even really know about all that stuff because Hennessy never talked about his playing days. I included Hennessy’s coaching accomplishments in my story on the event, but here are some more fun facts:

• In the 1952-53 season with Villanova, he finished second in the nation in scoring at 29.2 ppg, just behind Frank Selvy’s 29.5 ppg mark.
• His roommate in college at Villanova was none other than a coach synonymous with Saturday’s opponent, former long-time Monsignor Donovan coach Steve Gepp, who has the gym at Mon Don named after him.
• The Philadelphia Warriors won the NBA title in Hennessy’s rookie season in 1955-56, beating the Fort Wayne Pistons in the finals.
• The 58 wins in a row at home for Neptune during nine seasons (1959-60 to 1967-68) are believed to be a state record.
• Hennessy coached one season at Brookdale Community College, and during four seasons at Mater Dei after his first stint at Neptune, his teams went 87-18 and won four division titles.
• This one might be the best one: In 1954, Hennessy was an extra in the film, “Go, Man, Go!” about the Harlem Globetrotters, and it featured legendary actor Sidney Poitier as well as actress Ruby Dee. I’m sure the unintentional comedy is off the charts in that one.
• Neptune has only had four boys basketball head coaches since Hennessy started in the 1957-58 season and has only had eight coaches in since the 1930s. That is insane. They are like the Pittsburgh Steelers of Shore basketball, and Lakewood and Christian Brothers Academy spring to mind as the only ones who can really match that type of longevity out of their coaches.
• The name Scarlet Fliers came from 1929 Neptune graduate James L. Ogle for a team that wore scarlet and flew up and down the court.
• The 1907-08 squad beat Asbury Park 96-0 in one game. I had the over-under at 94 points in that game, so that last bucket killed me.

As for the rest of Saturday’s action, that’s a gutsy win by Monmouth over St. Rose without Neil Thompson, who was suspended for one game for a violation of school policy. Justin Ruiz and Cameron Lee stepped up and had arguably their best games in their careers to bring home the win, and that could go a long way toward this team’s confidence going forward, if those guys can rise to the challenge. They now know that they can beat a quality opponent with a so-so game from Anthony Gibson (10 points) and no Thompson or Joe Willman, which has to help their confidence.

Raritan had a major scare when Vincent Casalaspro had to be helicoptered to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital after hitting his head on the floor against St. John Vianney and suffering a seizure. He stayed overnight after returning to stable condition, so thankfully everything is OK. As for the Lancers, they needed that win to qualify for the state playoffs, so I guess they will either play the rest of a suspended game that they led by 18 points with 35 seconds left in the third quarter, or Raritan will just take a forfeit and move on.

Congrats to Mater Dei and good job by head man Bob Klatt for leading the fight out of a four-game hole and qualifying for the state playoffs with a win over Jackson Memorial. That name that keeps popping up game after game for the Seraphs is senior forward Chris Chamberlin, who has gotten it done scoring and rebounding to help lead the way.

Finally, the Snakebitten Team of the Year Award has already been wrapped up by a one-win Wall squad. So far this season, senior starting guard Tom McDonough was lost for the season with torn ligaments in his thumb after 7 games, freshman sixth man Derek Gardner suffered a season-ending fracture in his thumb after 10 games, senior captain and starting forward Andrew Cecchetti tore his ACL and meniscus on Feb. 2 and is out for the season, and on Thursday, senior captain and starting forward Corey Whitman, who was averaging 14.2 ppg, suffered a severe high ankle sprain and is done for the season as well. Suffice it to say that the first season for new head coach Michael Puorro has been a learning experience in overcoming adversity.

As for the Shore Conference Tournament, which will be seeded on Feb. 15, here are a few quick things. I’m not going to attempt any mock seeds until we see the results from this upcoming week as there are still several big games looming out there that will have implications. I will have a big preview of the tournament next week, but here are some thoughts.

• It’s not so much about seeding as it is about match-ups. Teams will want to avoid the 8-9 seed because that most likely means a date with No. 1 Christian Brothers Academy in the quarterfinals, so if a team like Middletown South is in that area, it would probably want to get dropped to No. 10 rather than get 8 or 9 in order to avoid CBA until the SCT final if it can make it there. There is so much parity that after CBA, I think anybody can beat anybody on a given day.
• The most intriguing team by far is Asbury Park. The Blue Bishops have won 15 in a row, including two last-second wins over Point Beach and a close one against Keyport. They are clamoring for respect, but I think they are going to have to beat Freehold this week to get it. I know the B Central always feels disrespected, but here’s a question – when was the last time a B Central team reached the SCT semifinals? I can’t think of one in the last 10 years or so, unless St. Rose did it with Collin Kamm a few years back, but I don’t think so. One of those teams is going to have to get to that point for people to really take the division seriously, and maybe Asbury Park is that team. With Lamar Young and particularly Jamar Smalls, whom opposing coaches have quietly said should be the Player of the Year in the division for all the different things he does even though Young has better numbers, the Blue Bishops have the firepower. They have shown they can get to the SCT quarterfinals, but they are going to have to win one of those games sooner or later. I have seen them a couple times this season, and this is what they are going to have to prove in the SCT – that they can consistently knock down jumpers from the perimeter. Teams are going to zone them and do everything to seal off the defensive backboards, where the Blue Bishops get the lions’ share of their points.
• I’m interested to see how bad that Marlboro loss hurts Middletown South because it could end up dropping them from maybe 4-5 range to around 7-8, which they want to avoid. Usually good wins are weighted better than bad losses in the SCT seeding meeting, so the Eagles might be able to gloss that one over.
• How much have injuries affected the way certain games and teams will be viewed in the seeding? Monmouth lost to Freehold and Neptune without Joe Willman (who obviously isn’t coming back), Middletown South lost to Rumson without Kyle Cancillieri, and Freehold lost to Middletown South without Christian Garcia. From hearing the coaches discuss these scenarios in the past, I can tell you that there usually is no sympathy there. Injuries are part of the game, so a loss is a loss usually to the delegates.
• How hot is Howell right now? If the Rebels qualify for the SCT after qualifying for the state playoffs, they could give someone trouble because of the way they shoot from downtown. Senior guard Tom Callahan is a 3-point sniper, while several opposing coaches have said that sophomore guard Ryan Keegan is a legit all-around threat and could play for any team in the Shore.
• Did Freehold Township wake up in a recent loss to CBA? The Patriots had been kind of floundering around, but took nemesis CBA to the wire on Friday. Can that give the Patriots the confidence to make a run in the SCT?

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Before I get to some girls SCT talk, here are some quick notes.

• I know Colts Neck struggled shooting the ball in a 3-point win over Trenton Catholic in a good nonconference game on Saturday, but it might be a good thing. The Cougars experienced some adversity on the road against a good team and found a way to win, which should only strengthen their resolve going forward.
• While Rumson’s Kate Miller surpassed the 1,500-point scoring mark for her career last week, she isn’t the only Shore Conference senior to do so. Freehold senior forward Shannon Mayrose currently has 1,566 career points and is now just 15 points shy of breaking the school record of 1,580 points set by Liz Scharpf.
• Matawan coach John Kaye must have been reading my mind as he sent me an e-mail to remind me of how well junior Alyssa Johnson has been doing. I know the one-win Huskies have struggled mightily in the merciless Class A Central this season, but in a recent stretch, she had 18 points and 9 rebounds against Shore, 16 points and 18 rebounds against Mater Dei, 17 points and 13 rebounds against Red Bank Catholic and 21 points and 15 rebounds against Manalapan. So even though Matawan is having a rough season, Johnson deserves some credit for a nice year.
• Great job by Howell to lock up a state playoff berth with a win over Manalapan in a year in which standout guard Jacquie Ward went down for the season with a knee injury in the preseason. Junior center Maggie Gilbertson and underrated sophomore Sarah Olson have led the way for the Rebels.
• Keyport also earned its state playoff berth by knocking off Academy Charter. Sophomore Devinn Bright has been a bright spot (no pun intended) for the Red Raiders this season and has put the team on her back in the scoring department to help push them into the postseason.

Now, as the for the Shore Conference Tournament, which will be seeded Feb. 15, the debate continues over that No. 1 seed. Colts Neck just added another bullet to its arsenal with that nonconference win over Trenton Catholic, a team that Neptune will get a crack at this week. That is seriously going to be splitting hairs, but after watching No. 1 St. John Vianney terrorize Rumson 72-45 the other night, it is hard to argue against the Lancers, who now have two wins over RFH this season. I know it might be blasphemy at this point, but SJV freshman Michaela Mabrey might be one of the best players ever at St. John Vianney when it’s all said and done, and I’m including the Gomezes in that conversation.

If SJV is going to shoot like they did against RFH in the SCT, no one is beating them, period. SJV is back to just smashing on teams like Audrey Gomez is running the show, as they have buried old foes like Rumson and RBC like it’s 1989 or something. This team has a swagger, and it is not going to let up on anyone. That RFH game got a little chippy as well as SJV coach Dawn Karpell and RFH coach George Sourlis got into it at one point when Sourlis felt a foul had wrongly been attributed to star Kate Miller. That prompted Karpell’s husband, Jeff, who is the head baseball coach at Shore Regional and a teacher at Rumson, to get up in the stands and bark at Sourlis. It probably was the best part of the whole game as far as I’m concerned.

After halftime, Sourlis and Karpell shook hands and calmly squashed anything in sportsmanlike fashion, but it’s clear that there is no love lost between these teams. I, for one, absolutely love it. As long as the play on the court is clean and hard-n0sed, I love great rivalries. With all of the AAU stuff going on today, everyone on different teams are friends. When I played back in the 1990s, we hated everyone on the other team. Years later I would see those guys and we would laugh about it over a beer, but at the time, we wanted to beat people’s brains in. It’s nice to see that come back again a little bit.

Anyway, as far as the No. 1 seed is concerned, we’ll see how this week shakes out as Neptune has some big nonconference and nondivisional games to help bolster its argument as well. I still most likely see SJV getting that top seed, but you never know. The Class A Central delegate on the SCT seeding committee is Red Bank Catholic coach Joe Montano, who has seen firsthand on multiple occasions how good SJV is this season.

Middletown South is on fire right now after blowing out Freehold, and I wonder if the Eagles’ recent stretch of wins against Rumson and Freehold will help erase a bad loss to Middletown North and a setback against a Southern team that will most likely win or share the Class A South title. Can that get them as high as No. 5 over St. Rose? It could, considering that St. Rose has no wins over any other teams currently ranked in All Shore Media Top 10, although the Purple Roses don’t have any bad losses, either. That could possibly set up a 4-5 rematch between South and RFH in the SCT quarterfinals, which would be a fun game.

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.

Spinella commits to South Carolina/Martell Blossoming at URI/Friday hoops extras

Former Colts Neck star forward Steve Spinella committed to South Carolina on Friday after making his official visit earlier in the week down in Columbia, S.C. Spinella is averaging over 30 points per game as a post-grad player at Apex Academy in Pennsauken. He led the Shore in scoring last season and helped the Cougars reach the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals. He picked South Carolina over Seton Hall and UNC-Greensboro among others. Having visited Columbia, S.C., on numerous occasions I can see how the official visit closed the deal. Let’s just say there’s no shortage of social life down there in addition to basketball, plus it’s a beautiful area. Congrats to Spinella, who really blossomed in the last two years.

Also, here is another update on a former Shore player who is doing well that was passed along by one of our readers. Former Rumson center Will Martell has overcome the naysayers and become not only a Division I player at the University of Rhode Island, but one who is making an impact as a 7-foot center. Like Spinella, Martell also did a post-grad year, with his coming at the Hun School out in the Princeton area. Martell was set to go to a Division III school out of Rumson before reconsidering and doing the post-grad year, and it significantly upgraded his situation.

As for those who are currently playing, it was a wild Friday night on the boys side in which some division races became a little clearer (Class B Central) while others got murkier (Class A Central and Class B South). The madness continued in Class A Central, where front-runners Holmdel and Shore both hit the deck against Rumson-Fair Haven and St. John Vianney, respectively. Easily the most confounding team is Rumson, which lost to last-place Matawan earlier in the week and then came back to sting a Holmdel team that was tied for first place in the loss column with Manasquan, leaving the Warriors alone in first again. St. John Vianney, which is also at the bottom of the division, knocked off a Shore team that was playing better than anyone in the division. I think the reason for all of this parity is that all of these teams are flawed, so the margin for error is slim. No A Central team really has the offensive firepower to just blow teams out, so it comes down to defense and execution. One thing that is for sure is that it may be hard for any of these teams to get a decent seed in the Shore Conference Tournament because they keep knocking each other off.

The other two upsets of the night belonged to Howell and Central. We’ll start with the Rebels, who took out No. 7 Freehold Township to give the Patriots their second loss in two days. Senior guard Tom Callahan (who once sold half a million brake pads to save the city of Sandusky, Ohio) went off from behind the 3-point arc for Howell, and the Patriots are really searching for answers right now as their offensive chemistry is lacking and their defense is struggling. Howell, meanwhile, quietly has wins over Freehold Township and Brick Memorial, which has to be frustrating in a sense because if they can beat those teams, they feel they probably shouldn’t be 7-8. However, they are still right there in contention for a postseason berth, so if they keep the momentum going, they could be a spoiler in a couple of weeks.

Central had a big night as the always-explosive Ibn Moye poured in 27 points, including his 1,oooth career point, in an upset of first-place Point Boro in Class B South, which now puts Lakewood alone in first place in the division. As long as Moye is in the mix, Central always has a chance to pull off an upset. It was a tough week for the two teams that entered as Ocean County’s best teams, Toms River North and Point Boro. The Mariners fell to three-win Toms River South, and the Panthers went down to a Central team that has hovered around .500 for most of the season. Brick Memorial seems to be gaining steam, and we’ll see if that continues against Holmdel on Saturday.

Monmouth had to pull one out against Red Bank, 53-50, one day after suffering a devastating blow with the loss of senior center Joe Willman to a season-ending injury. Unless Monmouth is still in shock and Red Bank took advantage of it, that’s a troubling sign for the Falcons because they blew Red Bank’s doors off twice this season before that game, so if the gap has been closed that dramatically without Willman, it’s going to be an uphill battle the rest of the way. I would guess that RBR ran its match-up zone on defense because it didn’t have to worry about Willman destroying it on the offensive boards like he did in the first two meetings, and the Bucs took Monmouth to the wire. I’m sure Neptune and Freehold’s coaches were there taking notes about the Willman-less Falcons.

I took in the St. Rose-Point Beach game and the Purple Roses romped to a 19-point win. I think junior Chris Hueth makes a big difference for St. Rose because he is a physical presence who likes to mix it up in the paint, which St. Rose seemingly hasn’t had in a while. He gives them a little more of an edge than usual. They just ran right through Point Beach’s defense for lay-ups or open threes for most of the night, although the Gulls did have success when they pressured St. Rose full court out of desperation toward the end. The Roses are going to have to tighten up that aspect of their game if they expect to go into Asbury Park’s tiny court and win on Jan. 31 against the Blue Bishops’ relentless pressure.

Senior center Sean McPaul showed a little more shooting range than I have seen from him in the past, as he was hitting turnarounds from 12-13 feet and looked good offensively. He is a huge key to St. Rose’s SCT hopes because most teams don’t have anyone who can match his size. If he can start to take over offensively at times, the Roses could be tough.

As for Point Beach, it just wasn’t the Gulls night. The two times I’ve seen them, their defense has been a little shaky. If their shots aren’t consistently falling, they are in trouble. Sophomore Jarelle Reischel didn’t have the best night, and he still had 17 points, which will tell you something about his talent. He has already been offered by Rutgers, according to Point Beach coach Nick Catania, and Kansas, Temple and a host of others are all heavily interested. Senior guard Jose Diaz has received interest from Bloomfield, a Division II school, as well as a handful of other Division II and III schools and possibly Division I NJIT as a walk-on, according to Catania.

On the girls side, the news of the night was Middletown North‘s upset of rival Middletown South. Middletown North is almost like the Howell of the girls side, as the Lions have struggled but boast wins over Ocean and now the No. 6 Eagles. Also, just like Howell’s boys, never underestimate a team that is in must-win territory when it comes to their SCT and state playoff hopes. While also showing that you can throw records out the window when two cross-town rivals meet, the Lions’ win also shows that after the top five teams now, anyone can beat anyone. Middletown South seemed immune to the upset bug, only losing to top teams like Colts Neck and Neptune, but now the Eagles have been bitten too like everyone else short of St. Rose. They also have to recover quickly as they have a tough nondivisional game against Southern on Saturday in a game that will have SCT seeding implications. As for Middletown North, Kim Ridolfi has led the Lions back from a rough start and is an underrated player to watch.

Like the boys, Howell’s girls also picked off Freehold Township, which was a nice win for the Rebels. Finally, Raritan senior Alexa Ryan dumped 10 threes and 44 points on Matawan, beating the previous school record of seven 3-pointers.

Wednesday Hoops Ramblings/RBC’s O’Leary Commits to Campbell for Football

Before I get to some quick hoops thoughts, Red Bank Catholic senior quarterback Connor O’Leary has committed to Division I-AA (or FCS, whichever you prefer) Campbell University in North Carolina, which is a member of the Pioneer League, whose champion plays the winner of the Northeast Conference (the league Monmouth University and others are in) in a bowl game every season. Campbell just completed its first season of football in 2008 after a 58-year hiatus. Congrats to O’Leary, an All-Liberty Division selection who was part of a Caseys’ team that finished the season ranked No. 1 in the All Shore Media Top 10.

If any coaches or players out there have football commitments to report, please e-mail them to me at stump@allshoremedia.com.

Now, on to the hoops. The boys basketball Shore alumni page is up and running now and can be found by clicking here or by going to the “Boys Basketball” page on the site and clicking on the “Alumni” link. I’ll work on the girls page tomorrow because it is insanely tedious, but worth it to keep up on all the former Shore players. I’m sure I probably missed some people, so feel free to fill me in on anyone who is not on the list by sending an e-mail to stump@allshoremedia.com. I also will try to post some blog entries with the latest news on the accomplishments of former Shore players.

Time for some ramblings, starting with the girls hoops side.

Can a freshman make All-Shore if she doesn’t start but is excellent in big games (cough, cough, Michaela Mabrey)?…Can Jackson Memorial finish strong and close out the Class A South title despite a loss to Southern on Monday? If they can, that would be a great confidence-booster for a team that is experienced but still fairly young…Holmdel’s Alex Diekmann might be known a little more as a field hockey standout but has been an underrated scorer for the Hornets…When Red Bank Catholic‘s guards get used to getting Sam Guastella and Chyna Golden the ball in the right spots to score and consistently knocking down 3-pointers to allow the Caseys to play inside-out, this could be a much different team. Think about the Achilles’ heel of St. John Vianney and Colts Neck – defensive rebounding. Guastella and Golden are built to punish teams on the offensive glass, but RBC’s guards have to avoid the large amount of turnovers that have doomed them in big games this season…Senior Alex Eagle played a great game on both sides of the ball for Freehold, including a huge steal near the end, in its upset of RBC…It was a little under the radar, but nice win for Manasquan over Shore on Tuesday, with Tori Grille leading the way with 19 points…Brick is quietly playing much better as the season goes on and that was an impressive win over Toms River North on Tuesday given that the Mariners had recently knocked off Southern. Vicky DeTata is one of Ocean County’s more underrated players….Mater Dei and Keansburg played an overtime game and a 3-point game, both of which the Seraphs won, in their two meetings this season, which is a nice showing for the Titans because Mater Dei and St. Rose have usually had a decent amount of separation from the rest of Class B Central for the past few seasons…Wondering just how good Middletown South is – not quite in Neptune and Colts Neck’s league, but could the Eagles beat RBC, Freehold or St. Rose? I would like to see one of those games happen…While Mabrey, St. Rose’s Samantha Clark and others deservedly get recognition as top freshmen in the Shore, Point Beach’s Brianna Feerst has quietly emerged as one of the Garnet Gulls’ top scorers and has them on pace for another trip to the postseason…Can we just skip to the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals now so we can see the match-ups we’ve been waiting for?

And now on to the boys side...

Class A Central, you’re killing me. Shore Regional is the hottest team in the division right now, and a week ago it was Red Bank Catholic, and before that it was Manasquan and Holmdel. It’s getting hard to pick a team to rank because once one of them starts to look good, another one yanks they back down into the moshpit. This race looks like it will come down to the last week, with the winner getting a home game in the SCT. Things aren’t looking too good over at preseason contender Rumson-Fair Haven, either, as leading scorer Matt Blumel went scoreless and was benched in the second half of a loss to Matawan, which was winless in the division before the win over the Bulldogs on Tuesday. RBC got back on track with a win over Raritan, which has already surpassed last season’s win total (6), but is being ravaged by injuries to its front line. RBC plays at Manasquan on Thursday, so we’ll see if the madness continues…Middletown South could be gaining steam now that point guard Pat O’Connell is eligible, as the Eagles avenged an earlier loss to Colts Neck. The more this team can get into its halfcourt sets without turnovers, the more difficult it becomes to stop because with the emergence of Rob Callori and Jake Brodsky as 3-point threats, they can make teams pay for doubling down on Kyle Cancillieri and Matt Callori. It also means that those last two will have to handle the ball less and can worry more about just lighting up their defender…I’m curious to see how Middletown North does on its second trip through Class A North because the Lions were on a roll before running into CBA, who would halt pretty much any team’s momentum right now. Can they recapture that momentum and keep making a push to the postseason? It’s certainly not going to be easy because guess who the Lions play on Thursday? That’s right, No. 1 and undefeated Monmouth. That’s the most brutal 1-2 punch a local team could face right now…

Holmdel’s Erik Shirvanian returned with a vengeance after sitting out the Manasquan game as he put 30 on St. John Vianney on Tuesday night. With him as a 3-point threat, the Hornets are a different team because opponents can’t sag in the lane, which slows down junior forward Mike Kelly and allows more defenders to rotate and help when point guard Mike Perillo takes it to the hole. With Shirvanian out there, it helps court spacing and keeps teams honest or he will just fire away from behind the arc. Manasquan’s players essentially said that they defended Holmdel much differently than they would have had Shirvanian not been out of the lineup with an injury…Brick Memorial almost got caught looking ahead to a big game against Toms River East on Thursday when Toms River South took the Mustangs to overtime. However, that’s what seniors are for, to bail out the team in those situations and pull out the win, and that’s what Matt O’Brien did with 24 points…Senior forward Corey Whitman quietly had a 28-point night for Wall against the No. 3 team in the Shore, Freehold, on Tuesday…Marlboro showed how treacherous Class A North can be when the two-win Mustangs pushed Freehold Township to quadruple overtime on Tuesday. There are no days off in that division. The Patriots have a big one on Thursday as they face off with No. 3 Freehold after having lost to the Colonials in the Jack Kuhnert Holiday Tournament semifinals and in last season’s Shore Conference Tournament. Both of those wins took place on Township’s home court, where the game will tip off at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday in front of what is sure to be a raucous home crowd.

Thoughts on the GMC/Shore Conference football crossover pilot program for 2009

With the Greater Middlesex Conference voting today to make the football pilot program between the Shore Conference and GMC, which involves the two conferences playing numerous crossover games, a reality for the 2009 season after the Shore Conference had already approved it, here’s some quick things:

• If you want to see the tentative schedule of 2009 regular-season games between the GMC and Shore, you can view it here.
• I give credit to the Shore Conference executive board for quickly addressing the problem in some way, so that games that don’t seem to benefit either side, like Red Bank Catholic vs. Mater Dei, don’t happen as frequently. They listened to the complaints of their membership and tried to address the situation promptly, which you rarely seem to get in governing bodies any more, so good job by president Kim Degraw-Cole and the rest of the board.
• The Shore Conference is already really strong, usually sending anywhere from four to eight teams a year to state sectional finals. Will creating a “super conference” with the GMC, which is essentially sort of what this is doing, dilute that or help it? I don’t know the answer to that, so I guess we’ll see on the field. Division titles will still be decided between Shore teams, so it’s not like the crossover will effect that.
  

I like the idea, although I guess it takes a little bit of intrigue out of the Central Jersey playoffs because there is a good chance that teams will have already met during the season. However, that happens all the time in Central Jersey Group III and the games are still exciting in the postseason. You can never be mad about a Brick Memorial-Sayreville or Toms River North-Piscataway regular-season match-up given the rivalry that has developed between Brick Memorial and Sayreville the past few seasons and the power of the programs at North and Piscataway, so those are two great games right off the bat. Also, now teams will have less room to complain about a schedule that doesn’t give them a chance to get enough power points to make the playoffs if they go 5-3 or 4-4. Teams like Group II Rumson-Fair Haven that had to go 6-2 or better usually to make the playoffs because they play in the Group I-laden Patriot Division should now have more chances to grab power points.

I see they tried to match the programs that have been stuck in losing situations with one another and winning teams with winning teams, which makes things a little tricky. Does this mean every year that Shore teams are going to have to project how good they might be the next season in order to be properly paired up with a GMC team of somewhat equal ability and size?

As far as the “Who’s better, the GMC or the Shore?” argument, I could pretty much completely care less about that. When you can play to an overall Group champion in the state, then give me a call. This obviously will fuel that GMC-Shore debate and make for some trash talk between fans of both conferences, which means nothing to me. I think it’s more about giving teams a chance to regularly play schools of their own size and ability. I’m probably most curious to see if the fans from each side will make the trip if it’s a long one, which could lead to some less than thrilling atmospheres. It also is always interesting to see the Division I prospects from another conference to see how they might stack up against a talented counterpart on a Shore team.

All the Monmouth County schools have at least one crossover game, most of them have two and a handful of schools have three. Not all of the Ocean County schools have crossover games, but most have at least one crossover game. We’ll see if there is an imbalance between the conferences that lets some teams pad their record if they have more games against teams from the other conference.

The games that caught my eye, besides the two I mentioned earlier, are New Brunswick vs. Freehold and NB vs. Middletown South because of the talent and level of athletes that will be on the field in those games. Also, Shore vs. Metuchen and Shore vs. South River should be some kind of preview for part of the Central Jersey Group I bracket, and the same with Keyport vs. Middlesex and Metuchen. Point Boro vs. South River would normally be juicy, but South River’s program is not at its usual lofty height right now after a dismal season. Asbury Park vs. Highland Park is another Group I game featuring some exciting players. Colts Neck and North Brunswick will be between two solid CJ IV teams.

For schools in northern Monmouth County like the Bayshore schools and others, they are geographically close to some of their GMC opponents which could certainly start some nice new rivalries, rather than playing Ocean County teams that the fans don’t really care about.

All in all, I think it’s worth a try, although my gas tank and I’m sure the gas tanks of several families and fans are not going to be particularly appreciative of trips to Middlesex County. I’m sure there were more than a few groans from the assistants who have to go scout and film opponents every week about some longer drives to unfamiliar places. Nothing is set in stone for eternity, so if it doesn’t work out, maybe there is another solution after the 2009 season. There is no perfect system.

From my selfish sportswriter point of view, doing the Top 10 rankings is going to get even trickier because I will have to quantify what a win over a certain GMC team means in the scope of the Shore Conference, but obviously that is more a frivolous issue than anything major. Also, what will leading the Shore in rushing mean if a running back rolled up on three GMC teams but was average against Shore competition? These are little issues, but worth considering because we know how everyone goes nuts about All-Shore teams at the end of the season. This will only add another wrinkle to that decision. So, my apologies in advance to everyone who makes second team in 2009.

Two Shore Conference nondivisional games that will happen and stood out are Long Branch vs. Point Boro and LB vs. Manasquan, which should be circled on the calendar as well as Lacey vs. Freehold.

Boys/Girls Basketball Extras; Shore’s Corsi commits to Duquesne for baseball; Smith lands at Maine

Before we get to the basketball stuff from the beginning of this week, two quick non-basketball tidbits that I forgot to get to in my previous post.

Shore senior lefty Rob Corsi is headed to Duquesne.

Congrats to Shore Regional senior left-handed pitcher Rob Corsi, who has committed to Duquesne and received an academic and athletic scholarship. Corsi plays for Shore but attends Communications High School in Wall and carries a 3.7 grade-point average, according to Shore coach Jeff Karpell. Good to hear about Corsi, who went 8-1 with a 1.51 ERA last season for the Blue Devils, who won the Class B Central public title. Corsi has one of the best curveballs in the Shore Conference, a nasty 12-6 job that was his out pitch last year.

Also, I ran into former Lacey quarterback Warren Smith at the WOBM Classic over the weekend and am happy to report that he has landed at the University of Maine after spending his freshman season at Iona. Smith was the starting quarterback as a true freshman this past fall for the Gaels, who abruptly folded their program immediately after the season, sending Smith and numerous other former Shore players scrambling for a home. Iona had played Maine during the season and the Bears coaching staff was impressed with Smith, and Smith said he was offered a scholarship to join the team. He is immediately eligible because it is not a Division I-A program, and the Bears are a big step up from Iona, so congrats to Smith.

Now, on to some hoops, and I’ll start with the boys first. Scroll down if you want to jump right to the girls hoops news.

BOYS

• 

  The abilty of Lance McKenzie and others to break down their defenders off the dribble helped Freehold upend Neptune.

  I took in Freehold‘s 60-49 win over Neptune, and Christian Garcia was as advertised. He has packed on more size, which makes him much more trouble in the paint than he was a year ago, yet he still has retained enough quickness to beat people off the dribble. Neptune had no answer for him. Senior Andrew Gerbehy also did a good job slashing to the rim off the dribble as well. Perhaps the most surprising thing is how well Freehold was breaking down Neptune off the dribble, which you don’t see a whole lot against Neptune’s quickness and trademark man-to-man defense, which is a little scary for the Scarlet Fliers because that’s not necessarily an easy thing to correct if Freehold is just quicker off the dribble. Neptune couldn’t hit anything from 3-point range and will probably just want to forget this one and move on, while Freehold, like I thought in the preseason, is a team with the potential to win the Shore Conference Tournament. The key is having guards who can handle pressure, and Freehold seems to have that with Gerry Plescia, Lance McKenzie and Gerbehy, plus Garcia can also handle the ball. Between Garcia and Gerbehy, the Colonials have two players who are match-up nightmares because of their ball-handling ability plus their height (Gerbehy) and size (Garcia). Will Howarth also is going to be a weapon for them because he is a forward with 3-point range and could be a good zone buster when they face teams that sit in a 2-3 or a 3-2 because they can’t match Freehold’s speed or quickness.

• Jeez, isn’t varsity high school basketball supposed to be hard for most freshmen? A lack of experience hasn’t stopped Colts Neck from a strong 2-0 start, as the Diaper Dandy crew routed Marlboro on Tuesday night after closing out a 10-point win over the No. 4 team in the All Shore Media Top 10, Middletown South, in their opener. The highly touted trio of freshmen Hunter Wysocki, Brian Kenny and Sean O’Reilly has been strong so far, and Wysocki in particular has drawn praise. Cougars coach Lou Piccola told me he was excited about this group during the offseason but figured it might take a little time because they are so young. So much for that. Kyle Mobbs has also stepped right in as the team’s top scorer after seeing limited minutes behind a veteran group last season that all graduated, leaving the Cougars with no returning starters. It’s definitely interesting to see that freshmen trio choosing to go to Colts Neck when in the past you could’ve probably penciled them in at Christian Brothers Academy, so the Cougars’ recent success obviously has caught the eye of a sending district that CBA has mined for talent for years. As for Middletown South, I can’t say I’m entirely shocked because I had a feeling that the Eagles guards would struggle early on before new point guard Pat O’Connell, a Red Bank Catholic transfer, becomes eligible on Jan. 19. The good news is that some of the stuff that really hurt the Eagles, like an avalanche of missed free throws, can be corrected. Then it just comes down to finding a rotation of guards who can handle pressure and allow Kyle Cancillieri and Matt Callori to establish post position and go to work rather than having to handle the ball. If they don’t find that, they are in serious trouble. I had Garret Thiel as one of the top five players in the Shore last season because he did a lot more for that team than just stuff the stat sheet, so the real challenge is finding someone the team can lean on during critical times during big games. The Eagles did come back and knock off Middletown North on Tuesday to right the ship, so we’ll see where they go from here.
• The newcomers combined with the returners on Point Beach are already paying dividends, as Jarelle Reischel and Jose Diaz each had 20 points in a 66-63 win over St. Rose on Tuesday night. First of all, when was the last time Point Beach beat St. Rose? Unless there’s a game slipping my memory, that might be the first time in like 10 years or more that that has happened. It certainly helps to have Reischel, a 6-5 sophomore swingman who is a transfer from overseas and was a starter on the U-17 national team in Germany. In a small-school division like B Central, Reischel should be able to have his way against most teams, which makes the Garnet Gulls a bona fide contender to win it all. A victory over perennial divisional standard-bearer St. Rose, which has already beaten Asbury Park, was a big one for Point Beach.
• Holmdel is looking like a dark horse contender for Class A Central honors after escaping with a one-point win over Long Branch in their opener in a nondivisional game and then taking down Rumson-Fair Haven, 51-40, on Tuesday night. Junior guard Erik Shirvanian lit it up from behind the arc, while Rumson could not find any rhythm offensively. Holmdel is one of those teams that doesn’t necessarily have the firepower to blow many teams out, but they have the ability to win close games against favored opponents and are well-coached. They also have a nice inside-outside tandem with Shirvanian and forward Mike Kelly. Meanwhile, Rumson, despite returning a veteran cast, has not been able to get on the same page offensively early on and can’t get Matt Blumel and James LeCardi both going in the same game. I don’t know if there’s squabbling over who is getting touches or what, but things are looking a little ominous for the Bulldogs in a season in which they have high expectations after winning 17 games last season.
• Lacey remained tied at the top of Class A South after pulling one out against Jackson on Monday, and the Lions have now won two overtime games out of their three games this season, so that shows some mental toughness from a group that is a mixture of seniors, transfers and a freshmen and sophomore who see significant time. Also, great job so far by new coach Ryan O’Rourke, and, as I’ve talked about here in a previous post, the addition of guard Mike Pierce from Lakewood has been paying dividends. Jackson Memorial continues to push teams to the brink and if the Jaguars can keep their confidence despite some close losses to Toms River North and Lacey, they could really be a thorn in the side of opponents in Class A South.
• Just when everyone was starting to pile on Central, the Golden Eagles went out and took down Monsignor Donovan in overtime as Ibn Moye was spectacular as usual. That is quintessential Class B South – get too high on a team, and someone chops them down a day later. Start bagging on a team, and they surprise a favored team the next day. I still think that if Lakewood really plays up to its potential, it’s the Piners’ division, but they have to prove they can get it done night in and night out. Still, that’s a beastly combo between Jacob Grant and Jarrod Davis.
• I thought the Asbury Park-Mater Dei game would be closer, but the Blue Bishops really took it to the Seraphs in an 82-54 win. It’s clear that Asbury has simply reloaded despite graduating nearly all of its offense, and Lamar Young, Joe Anderson and Darius Osborn have vaulted from role players to players who can take over a game. No team in Class B Central can match their speed, so it’s more shot selection and turnovers that will determine their fate.
• Two teams that look improved from last season are Howell and Matawan. Both lost on Tuesday, but they pushed Freehold Township and Raritan, respectively, to the end, so they both are worth keeping an eye on. Raritan, which won six games all of last season, also already has two wins in its first three games. It’s clear that when senior guard Chris Monahan is hitting from outside and junior Bennett Jackson is finishing around the rim, this is a different team.
• A team that might have been underestimated in the preseason was Shore, which looked like it lost a decent amount to graduation but pushed Manasquan to the end in its opener and then routed St. John Vianney on Tuesday night. The Blue Devils look like they have more scoring punch than in recent seasons, and they always dig in and defend, so they could be trouble in Class A Central after making the jump up from Class B Central. If players like senior Mike Pillari are going to put up 25-point nights, they will be trouble because junior Rich Vivian has proven to be a consistent scorer.
• Southern is 3-0 after cruising past Brick as senior guard Joe Tomczuk had another strong game. Having some solid interior players has really opened it up for Tomczuk, who gets much more open looks because teams have to respect it when the Rams dump the ball into the post and can’t cheat out to the perimeter on Tomczuk.
• You could tell Monmouth was champing at the bit to get its season started and did so with gusto, rolling past Red Bank in a 28-point win. With Neptune going down on Tuesday, the Falcons look like the new No. 1 in the All Shore Media Top 10, and we’ll see how they do in their holiday tournament as well as a rugged Class B North schedule that features two meetings apiece with Neptune and Freehold.

GIRLS

• As I figured, Neptune cruised past Freehold in their Class B North game on Monday night. The Scarlet Fliers just have too many offensive weapons, plus they now have one of Freehold’s previous best weapons in junior Sehmonyeh Allen. Right now, you would have to say that the next best challenger after Freehold is Ocean, but I don’t think anyone can match Neptune’s offensive firepower. Unfortunately, word also traveled quickly about a fight between two parents of prominent players on either team after the game. That is just depressing. I can’t say I’m shocked, because that is the state of scholastic sports in 2008, but every time it happens you wonder what in God’s name people were thinking. I’ve always secretly considered filming some of the most abusive parents during games and posting it on YouTube, just so that they can see what they look like when they are screaming incessantly at the players or officials or threatening to kill the coach or someone in the opposing stands. I could edit it into a nice little montage with “You’re Crazy” by Guns ‘N’ Roses playing in the background, although I’m sure instead of having its intended effect of getting them to stop acting nuts, they would probably just sue me for defamation of character.
• Colts Neck looks like it is going to run away with Class A North. I think I might be surprised if anyone in that division loses to them by less than double digits. The three-guard group of Brooke Hampton, Lauren Clarke and Tiffany DeTulio is just too much for anyone to answer in A North, and then you throw in a deep group of frontcourt players. The Cougars were wise to go out and seek a bunch of nondivisional and nonconference games against top teams because I don’t think they are going to get much of a challenge from A North, and that’s more being respectful to Colts Neck than disrespectful to the rest of A North, as Middletown South, Howell, and Freehold Township are all quality teams, but cannot stay with the Cougars offensively.
• Speaking of teams that are way ahead of everyone else in their division, put St. Rose in that category as well. The Purple Roses routed a solid Point Beach team by 41 points on Tuesday. Theyare just way deeper at guard and way taller and more talented in the frontcourt than anyone. Come to think of it, if you’re looking for interesting divisional races out there this season, there’s not a whole lot of them. Colts Neck, St. Rose and Neptune look like they might run away with their respective divisions, and Manchester has the ability to do the same in Class B South. That leaves the best division in the state of New Jersey, Class A Central (RBC, SJV, RFH), as well as Class A South, as the only races with any potential intrigue. That also puts more of an onus on the nondivisional and nonconference games for St. Rose, Neptune, Colts Neck and Manchester because come Shore Conference Tournament seeding time, the teams in A Central will all be using the wins they had against one another to argue for a high seed, so those heavy divisional favorites may need some other wins over top opponents to bolster their case.
• Southern junior center Kristen Sharkey now has two 40-point games in two seasons for the Rams after doing it against Brick on Monday. If she seals her defender on the block against most Ocean County teams, it’s a bucket, a foul, or both almost every time.
• 

  Marlena Klein and Ocean picked up a solid win over Wall on Tuesday as they continue to stifle opponents on defense.

  Finally, great win by Ocean over Wall on Tuesday night. Ocean’s defense has been tremendous so far, as no team has cracked the 40-point barrier against the Spartans. Wall’s Kathryn Campbell had another solid game, but that was all that Ocean allowed while getting a balanced scoring effort led by Marlena Klein. Ocean now assumes the mantle of the top challenger to Neptune in Class B North after the Scarlet Fliers dispatched of Freehold. Ocean’s victory also looks good in light of Wall’s victory over a well-regarded Jackson team in the WOBM Classic this past weekend.