The Shore Daily, 2/18/15
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Have to make this one short and sweet today because of a jam-packed schedule that includes covering the Point Beach-Matawan boys Shore Conference Tournament first-round game later today, so there will be plenty to talk about tomorrow.
The lone SCT game on the boys or girls side that was played on Tuesday was No. 11 Rumson's rout of No. 22 St. Rose to set up The Battle of Ridge Road: The Sequel, after Rumson fell in a thriller to rival Red Bank during the regular season. The Bulldogs and Bucs meet tomorrow on Red Bank's home floor for the right to make it to Sunday's quarterfinals at Brookdale Community College.
Pretty crazy stat from Matt Manley in that game story: 17 of Rumson's 18 wins this season have been by double digits. When the Bulldogs get the momentum going, they can bury people because their swarming guards in the press can convert turnovers into quick buckets, and because they launch threes from everywhere behind one of the Shore's top scorers, junior Brendan Barry. He even caught himself a dunk on Tuesday night to punctuate the romp.
Red Bank is the one team that really held Barry down this season behind junior guard Jack Navitsky, so we'll see what the Bulldogs do the second time around to free him up for more looks.
With Class B Central co-champion St. Rose now out, defending SCT champion Point Beach is the best hope for B Central to have any teams get out of the first round. The Garnet Gulls will have a battle on their hands tonight against visiting Matawan, which they beat in last year's SCT semifinals.
In one other B Central note, the girls and boys teams from Asbury Park have qualified. It has been a long time since that happened, so congrats to both Blue Bishops programs. The boys bounced back from a one-win season, while the girls also have made great strides to reach the postseason.
More on Wednesday:
- The best high school player in the country from the Class of 2017 plays at a tiny 108-student school in San Diego that doesn't participate in the state playoffs.
- A-Rod's road back to the Yankees. ESPN followed him for the last six months.
- Michael Sam talks about his roller coaster past year since coming out before the 2014 NFL Draft.
- The Red Sox are using neuroscouting to hopefully gain an edge in evaluating prospects.
- You can now bet on shark racing in Florida. Mainly because it's Florida.
- They have to have Contra in this Hall of Fame.On tap for tonight: The boys and girls SCT gets in full swing with the first-round games. The whole schedule is here and the scoreboard is here. Good luck to everyone tonight in the quest to make it to this weekend at Brookdale and beyond.Hopefully everyone's day will be as good as this guy's, who just crushed it on Wheel of Fortune yesterday.
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