The Shore Daily, 1/16/15
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I took in No. 4 Red Bank Regional's 55-46 win over No. 8 Colts Neck in Class B North as the Bucs became the first team in the division to break the 40-point barrier against the stingy Cougars and became the first team from the Shore Conference to beat them this season.
Clearly the loss of starting forward Mike Lamb to an ankle injury only 20 seconds into the game was a blow for Colts Neck by removing a top rebounder and interior presence. Red Bank big man Eddie Hendrex came off the bench to score 15 points and did a nice job on the offensive boards with Lamb out of the equation.
Red Bank just has so many players who can hurt you on a given night, including guard Anthony Mitchell, who had 16 points last night, and junior swingman Sadiq Palmer. Seniors Justin Gilson and Tyler Christie are two other scoring threats, but the biggest thing seems to be that every player knows his specific role, as coach Scott Martin noted after the game.
Junior Jack Navitsky knows he's not a scorer and is out there for his bulldog defense and ability to penetrate and dish. Palmer knows he's not a long-range shooter, so he focuses on getting into the lane and using his explosive athletic ability. Hendrex knows he's a super-sub needed to give some offensive energy and rebounding off the bench. Gilson and Christie know when to pick their spots for open threes or put it on the floor. Senior Jimmy Ferrogine knows he's an energy player off the bench on both sides. Mitchell attacks the basket and takes threes when he has a good look.
As long as everyone stays in their lane, it's a tough team to defend, although they have a tendency to take head-scratching shots when they have comfortable leads to let teams back into the game instead of being patient because they're so used to attacking. They play with some swagger and confidence. Palmer was already doing half Victor Cruz samba dancing and it was only the first quarter last night.
Red Bank also did the job defensively, holding junior standout Lloyd Daniels scoreless and making senior star Chris O'Reilly work for his 16 points. Every good player is going to have a rough game somewhere along the line, so at least it happened early on for Daniels, who went 0-for-11 from the field, and there is plenty of time to bounce back. Colts Neck is still tied for first place in the division in the loss column with Red Bank and Wall.
Speaking of Wall, the Crimson Knights have now rattled off six straight wins as they sunk Neptune to 0-6 in B North with a win. This is probably the latest in the season that Wall has been tied for first place in a division race in 10-plus years. Their senior guards continue to ring people up as Ryan Janeczek poured in 25 points on Neptune and Trent Mitchell added 21.
The eye-opening score of the night in B North was Matawan ending a four-game losing streak in emphatic fashion by going on the road and pasting No. 3 Red Bank Catholic, 69-40, behind 26 points from senior Jason Dunne. It goes to show how ruthless B North is this season. RBC was riding high after a big week last week that included a win over Red Bank, but the Caseys have now lost back-to-back games to Colts Neck and Matawan to put them two games behind the front-runners in the division. Also, an Ocean team that started 1-6 has now put together a three-game winning streak behind guard Taj Shomo to become another threat in the division.
Down in Ocean County, Manchester is building steam for a potential first-place showdown with Lakewood on Tuesday as long as the Hawks handle their business against Jackson Liberty before then. Manchester took care of Central 66-54 behind 19 points by Jordan Torney to remain unbeaten in the division. Another B South team, Barnegat, has now won four straight after beating winless Monmouth to even its record at 5-5, marking the first time since 2011-12 that the Bengals have been .500 this late into the season.
It was a good night for the Ramsay family, as Manchester coach Ryan Ramsay saw his team continue to play well, while Howell, coached by his brother Pat, picked up a quality 50-44 win over Manalapan to continue its solid start by improving to 6-5 on the heels of a five-win season. Gino Palummo had 15 points and Will Kocsis added 14 for the Rebels.
There also was a last-second thriller in A North as Middletown North beat Marlboro 42-41 on a putback by John Tomassetti with two seconds left in the game. In Class A Central, Rumson junior guard Brendan Barry continues to torch opponents, as he dropped 30 in a rout of Raritan for his third 30-point game of the season and his second in less than a week.
Speaking of scoring, Shore Regional senior Kevin Bloodgood is now only 60 points away from 1,000 for his career after dropping in 18 in a win over St. John Vianney.
On the soccer front, congrats to former Holmdel star Dan Metzger, who was taken by D.C. United with the 42nd pick in the Major League Soccer Draft on Thursday.
Also, great to hear that former Holmdel basketball player and Rutgers student Timmy McDonnell is now back home continuing his remarkable recovery after being struck by a car near the Rutgers campus on Oct. 4, leaving him in a coma with extensive injuries.
More on Friday:
- Pope John XXIII takes over as the state's new No. 1 boys basketball team after Roselle Catholic was stunned by Linden.
- A senior guard for West Milford up in North Jersey is back in the lineup after a scary lung surgery derailed his junior season.
- The son of 7-foot-7 Gheorghe Muresan, one of the great NBA curiosities of past years, plays for a top high school team in the DC area. He's 6-8 and even has the same goofy smile.
- It was a '90s flashback at Oregon State-Washington last night. GP and the Reign Man watching their kids play against each other.
- A high school kid in Michigan convinced Kings guard Nik Stauskas and his girlfriend via Twitter to come to his prom.
- A D2 men's hoops program that aims to score 120 points per game has been a high-octane unit by....passing the ball more?
- Vanderbilt football is hosting 20 recruits this weekend as a rape trial stemming from last year's recruiting weekend hangs over the program.
- I dream of the day this comes to MLB. A pitch clock is being tried out in Double-A and Triple-A this season.
- A distance runner from North Carolina is trying something completely insane: 7 marathons in 7 days across 7 continents. I got tired and have to take a break just from typing that sentence.
On tap for tonight: In boys basketball, it should be a good atmosphere at Brick Memorial tonight as the red-hot Mustangs try to polish off a strong week in which they already beat No. 4 Southern and No. 2 Toms River North by hosting senior guard Tymere Berry and a dangerous Toms River South team at 6:30 p.m. in Class A South.
Barnegat will also try to keep it rolling when it goes on the road to face Central at 5:30 in Class B South.
At the college level, former Manchester star Jimmy Lawson and Penn State wrestling are at Rutgers at 7 p.m. in a highly-anticipated match.
I'll leave you with a shot from the Houston Rockets' throwback Thursday night featuring none other than Tone Loc of "Wild Thing" fame, who, uh, hasn't really aged so well. We'll all end up there some day, but there's something depressing about old rappers. Funky Old Medina.
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