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.

B/G Hoops: 10 Things We Learned This Weekend

After a loooooong weekend of basketball in which I basically lived at Convention Hall in Asbury Park for the Battle on the Boardwalk slate (and have the annoying sniffles from the frigid temperatures to prove it), let’s get to some of the things we found out from an exciting weekend of basketball. Also, I promise that I will get the Players of the Week from this last week posted by early tomorrow or even late tonight if possible, so look for those. I also am looking to have the alumni page going by tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.

Also, congrats to St. Rose coach Dennis Devaney on picking up his 400th career victory in a win over St. John Vianney on Saturday, and I’m sure he had plenty of wisecracks to celebrate his long and successful tenure with the Roses. This was a big weekend for the Devaney brothers, as in addition to the milestone, Dennis’s brother Sean and his Holmdel Hornets fell to Manasquan in a showdown for first place in Class A Central on Friday night and the other Devaney brother, St. Louis Rams general manager Billy Devaney, hired the Rams’ new head coach, former Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.

BOYS

1. Christian Brothers Academy can hang with anybody: Looking at the video replay numerous times, St. Patrick’s Paris Bennett got that final shot off in time to beat CBA at the double OT buzzer in my opinion, so that was just a great play by him. I’m sure CBA coach Geoff Billet needed a cold one after that game because the Colts were right there. Certainly, St. Pat’s is a different team without North Carolina-bound guard Dexter Strickland or junior guard Kyrie Irving because it’s next group of guards are not even close to that level. The thing I always like to see is who can make individual plays against St. Pat’s level of talent, which always includes several Division I players, which is where Brian Neller and Pat Light showed me something, Neller in particular. He really turned it on at the end, particularly from downtown, which makes you wonder where that was for three quarters but also shows that Neller can seize the moment and make a big play. Light is just the ultimate competitor who backs down from no one, so I wasn’t surprised by his strong performance. Now the Colts just have to show that they can finish off a top opponent with a trophy on the line when we get to the postseason.

2. Monmouth’s Neil Thompson is the best junior guard in the Shore Conference: As a long-time boys basketball follower and coach said to me during Monmouth’s win over Lakewood, “If you’re a college coach and you’re recruiting junior guards in the Shore Conference, how are you not starting with Neil Thompson?” Thompson has elite level quickness, can reliably knock down threes, can defend, and can get into the paint and finish or find open teammates. I know that’s a strong statement given the fact that players that are also highly regarded like CBA’s Roy Mabrey and Manasquan’s Matt Vadas are out there among others, but that’s the way I see it right now. Thompson continues to work on his game and add more and more every season.

3. Monmouth’s Joe Willman is the most efficient scorer in the Shore Conference: He has to be shooting over 60 percent from the field easily this season, and it isn’t just lay-ups and dunks. That 12-foot jumper of his is nearly automatic. I was joking with Monmouth coach Larry Cirignano that I’m almost surprised when he shoots and it doesn’t go in, and he smiled and said, “So are we!” before laughing. Also, kudos to Cirignano, who dug into any info the school had and went through old newspapers to try and find all of the Monmouth school records, which Willman is breaking one by one as he became Monmouth’s all-time leading scorer on Saturday. It’s a nice problem to have. Yeah, we have a guy who’s obliterating every school record in sight, so we just want to make sure what those records are.

4. Asbury Park is a good team, but take the Blue Bishops out of their home gym and they’re vulnerable: With their fullcourt, trapping, end-to-end style, the Blue Bishops’ tiny home gym is perfect for their style. I should know because I played there on a visiting team when I was in high school and when you take the ball out of bounds on one side of the court, your feet usually are actually over the end line because there is so little space between there and the concrete wall in which the Asbury Park faithful feel like they are right on top of you, roaring for their team. The other side of the court is the end of the stage, which I nearly went off the end of once while diving for a loose ball. One good outlet pass and it’s a lay-up in an instant on the other side on that court. However, on the bigger court at Convention Hall, Rumson could handle the Blue Bishops’ press because there was more space to work with, and the Bulldogs kept the game low-scoring in the 40s. Asbury Park is averaging much more points at home than away, and don’t think other teams weren’t taking notes when RFH sat in a zone and forced the Blue Bishops to beat them shooting jumpshots. AP’s Dave Johnson is a good coach, so certainly they will make adjustments now that they’ve seen it, and Asbury Park also has an army of good offensive rebounders, led by senior Lamar Young, who has developed a knack for late-game heroics with last-second buckets in wins over Rumson and Point Beach.

5. Watch out for Toms River North: Quietly, while all the action was going on at Convention Hall, the Mariners had No. 3 Freehold on the ropes before Andrew Gerbehy saved the day with a 3-point play in the final seconds for the Colonials. This Toms River North team has an array of athletes and scorers, and when it cements its lineup and rotation, it will not be an easy out for anybody because it has several players who can guard multiple positions and are a match-up problem, like seniors Steve Nyisztor and Pat Szukics.

6. Middletown South has definitely improved: You knew under head coach Kevin Cullen that they weren’t going to just let the season get away from them, and we’ll see if they are really a different team when they take on Colts Neck again to start the second trip through their Class A North schedule. The good sign is that they are playing low-scoring games, which means their defense has gotten better. The big keys are guards Rob Callori and Jake Brodsky. If they get consistent scoring out of those two, this is a different team. Two areas that have to improve are ball-handling against the press and foul shooting. The Eagles tend ot overdribble against the press, and Neptune took full advantage of that to get a large chunk of points on Saturday, and foul shooting has cost South in losses to Colts Neck and Neptune.

7. We still don’t know which way Neptune is headed: The Scarlet Fliers found a way to beat a good team, Middletown South, thanks to Jabari Joyner’s game-winning jumper, but they still shot 1-for-19 from 3-point range and 20-for-58 overall. They simply cannot continue to shoot like that and pull games out in tournaments. The good sign is that their defense caused 23 turnovers and they shot 9-for-13 from the foul line. I think senior D.J. Gutridge is the best of the four senior guards right now because he always seems to be a factor in any game, whether it’s offensively, defensively, or both, while Joyner, Lem Walker and Thomas Jones tend to have flashes here and there before disappearing at times. I would never write a Neptune team off because the Fliers have proven too many times that they are up to the challenge.

8. Lakewood has to handle the ball better against top teams: The Piners showed that when they got into transition or the halfcourt that they have good one-on-one players who can break down their man and score. However, I don’t know how many times they kicked the ball away, threw it away or had other careless turnovers that you can’t have against a team like Monmouth. Their guard play will determine how far this team can go because if swingmen Jacob Grant and Jarrod Davis can get the ball on the wing in position to score, they are tough. If they have to handle the ball more than usual, that will take them out of their comfort zone.

9. Manasquan will go as far as Matt Vadas can take it: A legitimate 6-4 guard, Vadas is a match-up nightmare who can post up, score off the dribble, score in transition and knock down threes. I think you might see teams employ Holmdel’s strategy from Friday night, which is essentially that they know Vadas will get his points, so just stop everyone else while making sure senior guard Kyle Wehner doesn’t cause drouble from behind the arc. The Hornets did that, but didn’t have the offensive firepower to keep up without Erik Shirvanian in the lineup. Someone on Manasquan is going to have to emerge as that reliable second scoring option to Vadas, and one candidate in my mind is junior forward Neal Sterling.

10. Watch out for Shore and Middletown North: Both of these teams have come on recently, particularly North, which is back from the dead and right back in contention for a postseason berth. Shore took down a Red Bank Catholic team that was playing well in double overtime. These teams might be fringe teams when it comes to making the Shore Conference Tournament, but they also could be the last teams any others want to have to beat to qualify for the postseason or solidify a seed.

GIRLS

1. St. John Vianney is built to play with anybody, but does have a vulnerable spot: The Lancers nearly stunned Murry Bergtraum, but an offensive rebound by Doris Ortega did them in at the very end. The thing that makes SJV so dangerous offensively is that anyone can carry the offense for stretches. Freshman Michaela Mabrey and sophomore Jackie Kates did it for three quarters on Sunday before the Shore’s best closer right now, senior Katelyn Linney, brought them down the stretch. However, the loss showed that the Lancers can be hurt by a good offensive rebounding team. The thing is, I don’t exactly know who that team is in the Shore Conference because the next-best team, Colts Neck, has the same problem itself. Who would be that Shore team that would be able to really exploit SJV on the offensive glass? This Lancers team is just so solid considering that it withstood a treacherous week, which was interesting because Colts Neck had its hell week at the exact same time and also finished strong. I was definitely more impressed with SJV after Ortega said that this was the first team all year that they felt hung right with them and actually made them look like the tired team that couldn’t keep pace. Considering Bergtraum is by far the fastest team I have seen all year, that’s a heck of a compliment to SJV from the best player on a nationally-ranked team that has won 70 straight games.

2. Colts Neck’s season will come down to defensive rebounding because its offense is outstanding: This team’s offense can’t really be slowed down by anyone because its guards are so good off the dribble and play so well together. Plus, if Emily Laurence is going to knock down threes off kickouts like she did on Sunday, that makes this team even tougher to defend. They run that high screen and just get whatever they want off of it. That makes sealing off the defensive boards the No. 1 issue for this team. If they can do that in that crucial four-minute stretch to end a close game, they can beat anyone, SJV included. They also proved that they have the stamina to play back-to-back games with a small rotation against powerhouse teams and compete right to the end.

3. If the rest of Freehold’s starters are aggressive offensively, this team is dangerous: While Shannon Mayrose was excellent as usual and had 22 points in an upset of Red Bank Catholic, I thought it was the aggressiveness of Alex Eagle, Ashley Lewis and Simone Dixon offensively that really made the difference. It gave Mayrose more room to operate, and it got RBC’s frontcourt in foul trouble when one of those three would penetrate and get fouled. If they can do that consistently, the Colonials will be a tough out in the SCT.

4. Sophomore guard Kasey Hobbie makes RBC a better offensive team: While I think RBC”s guards still throw the ball away way too much, Hobbie has major scoring potential because she can knock it down from deep, get to the basket off the dribble and hit mid-range floaters. Her return makes this a team that struggles a lot less to score against good teams. This is still an extremely young team, but that is no excuse any more in the Shore Conference considering that Colts Neck won the SCT with a team full of sophomores last season and Neptune won a sectional title while being led by a pair of freshmen last season. The Caseys will have to get up to speed because teams like SJV, Colts Neck and Neptune will bring back everyone next season, too, so this group has to bring it up a notch. The talent is definitely there, and you would still rather have this loss in mid-January than in February. RBC is the type of team where the light switch could go on a week before the SCT and then it makes a great run, so it certainly can’t be counted out.

5. Neptune is lurking out there under the radar: The Scarlet Fliers quietly beat a well-respected Absegami team over the weekend and are still unbeaten. They haven’t had the high-profile match-ups of those like SJV, RFH and Colts Neck, so they haven’t been at the forefront, but they are hovering out there, preparing themselves to run the SCT gauntlet. Like Colts Neck, they rely almost exclusively on their starting lineup, but with sophomores Shakena Richardson and Syessence Davis, junior Sehmonyeh Allen and senior Marley Mauvais, they are dangerous. Still, they know that no one will believe in the record until they take down an SJV, Rumson or Colts Neck in a tournament game.

6. Middletown South is improving as the season goes along: The Eagles had a nice win over Freehold Township on Friday night and have SCT quarterfinal potential behind Danielle Pankey and Meghan McGuinness. This is a team that can slow the game down and maybe steal one from a well-regarded team, although if they get a No. 7 or No. 8 seed that means a likely meeting with SJV or Colts Neck, which they obviously want to avoid.

7. Colts Neck’s Lauren Clarke is throwing her hat in the ring in the early discussion for Player of the Year: Junior guard Lauren Clarke is right at the top of the discussion along with Katelyn Linney and Kate Miller when talking about first team All-Shore Conference players as she was tremendous in a loss to Shabazz and a win over Christ the King, with 29 points and 22 points, respectively. She also does it without taking a ton of shots as she gets to the free throw line, converts in the paint, and knocks down open threes when she gets them. Granted, much of it is because of the chemistry between her and Brooke Hampton and Tiffany DeTulio, but Clarke has showed up in a major way in every big game Colts Neck has had this season, and that’s the mark of a Player of the Year candidate.

8. We still don’t really know who that No. 5 team in the Shore is for sure: St. Rose occupies that spot now, but the Purple Roses are one of those teams that has beaten every team it has been favored against but has come up way short against the higher-ranked teams (i.e., St. John Vianney). RBC was a candidate, and then lost to Freehold. St. Rose still plays Rumson and RBC, so we’ll see what the Purple Roses do. Right now, there just doesn’t look like that team that can break up that top four of SJV, RFH, Neptune and Colts Neck. It could actually be Freehold if the Colonials are going to play like they did on Sunday.

9. There aren’t a whole lot of divisional races with any intrigue in them: Colts Neck (Class A North); Neptune (Class B North); St. Rose (Class B Central); and Manchester (Class B South) all look like runaways, and it looks like St. John Vianney’s next meeting with Rumson most likely decides Class A Central. Jackson had a two-game lead in Class A South coming into Monday’s game with Southern, but still would have to stumble twice for that division to get away from it.

10. Can anyone from Ocean County crack the top eight in the SCT?: Southern looked like a candidate before a loss to Toms River North, and Manchester is playing better after some early season stumbles, but once again it looks like an uphill battle, mainly because the Monmouth County teams all seem to play one another and have tougher schedules while the Ocean County squads mainly stick to their division and county until the SCT and state tournaments, other than maybe the WOBM Tournament.