Boys Basketball – NJSIAA Central Group 3 Championship Preview: Freehold Boro at Red Bank

NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III Championship

Saturday, March 2, 2024

No. 7 Freehold Boro (22-7) at No. 1 Red Bank (21-4)

Tipoff: 1 p.m.

Freehold Boro at a Glance

Head Coach: Ben DiBiase

Last Sectional Championship: 1973 (Group I)

Road to the Final: Defeated No. 10 Matawan, 69-52; No. 2 Nottingham, 58-56; No. 6 Ewing, 59-56.

Probable Starters

Brian Tassey, Jr., 6-4, Forward (11.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.2 steals, 1.85 blocks)

Christian DiGiso, Sr., 6-0, Guard (9.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.6 steals)

Aidan Hamlin-Woolfolk, Jr., 6-5, Forward (11.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.24 steals, 0.86 blocks)

Qua’Mir Everett, Jr., 6-5, Forward (10.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.1 steals, 1.0 blocks)

Sam Cranwell, Sr., 6-1, Guard (6.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists)

Off the Bench

Will Hon, Sr., 5-10, Guard

Damier Lester, So., 6-0, Guard

Red Bank at a Glance

Head Coach: George Sourlis

Last Sectional Championship: 1993

Road to the Final: Defeated No. 16 Ocean, 56-43; No. 8 Robbinsville, 59-48; No. 4 Hopewell Valley, 56-42.

Probable Starters

Zayier Dean, Jr., 5-10, Guard (15.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.0 steals)

Braydon Kirkpatrick, Sr., 6-0, Guard (9.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.2 steals)

Jameson Ackerman, Sr., 5-10, Guard (9.6 points, 55 3-pointers)

Ryan Fisher, Jr., 6-1, Guard (10.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.0 steals)

Trey Moore, Jr., 6-3, Forward (4.1 points)

Off the Bench

Justin Valentino, Fr., 6-2, Guard

Anthony Moore, Jr., 6-3, Forward

Glory Days

It appeared the glory days had passed both programs by as recently as a year ago, but they have most certainly returned this season.

It has been 10 years since Red Bank played in an NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III championship game and 31 since the Bucs captured a sectional championship. They have also never hosted a sectional final, so Saturday’s Central Group III championship game at the Red Bank Regional Field House has the makings of a special afternoon for the school.

Then there is Red Bank’s opponent on Saturday. When it comes to championship droughts, Freehold Boro’s supporters and alumni might listen to a list of Red Bank’s droughts, chuckle to themselves and retort with some form of “hold my non-alcoholic beverage.”

The 31 years Red Bank has waited to win a sectional title is indeed a long time, but Freehold Boro has been waiting for more than half-a-century. The Colonials last won a sectional championship when they captured the 1973 Central Jersey Group I title and have not been to a sectional final since 1994 – the year after Red Bank's last championship.

There is also sectional final history between these two programs and it is rather noteworthy history as well. Red Bank defeated Freehold Boro in the 1983 Central Jersey Group II final on the way to finishing 31-0 and No. 1 in the state for the 1982-83 season.

Four decades later, the two programs meet again – not only after a long wait between championships but not long removed from considerable futility. Prior to this season, Red Bank recorded a winning record just once in the previous eight seasons, which was a 15-11 mark in 2021-22. After retiring from a wildly-successful 30-year stint as Rumson-Fair Haven’s girls basketball coach, George Sourlis came back following a five-year hiatus to take over the Red Bank boys program in 2022-23 and found the transition difficult in year one. The Bucs finished 8-15, sneaked into the NJSIAA Tournament as a No. 15 seed in CJ III and lost to Nottingham in the first round.

This year has been a total turnaround for the Bucs, who start three juniors and bring a junior and a freshman off the bench as their top substitutes. Red Bank has become comfortable in close games, and while two of their losses are in close games – one at home to Howell in the Shore Conference Tournament round-of-16 – the Bucs have come through in the clutch more times than they have not.

The end result is Red Bank’s first 20-win season in two decades, plus a No. 1 seed in the Group III section that set up this postseason run that reaches its zenith Saturday on the Bucs’ home floor.

While Red Bank has risen from mediocrity to the cusp of a championship, Freehold Boro rose from the ashes. The Colonials are just two seasons removed from a 0-21 season in 2021-22, which means the current team has players who experienced that level of basketball agony. Most teams that go from losing that much to winning big in such a short amount of time are professional franchises that land No. 1 overall draft picks and nail the selection. Freehold Boro had no such advantage; the Colonials just had to go to work.

Of course, in order to climb from 21 losses to 22 wins in just two calendar years, it takes a wave of talent and Freehold Boro has that. Seniors Christian DiGiso and Will Hon and junior Brian Tassey were starters as underclassmen two years ago and have grown into their roles, particularly DiGiso and Tassey. Throw in second-year starter Sam Cranwell and the Colonials came back with three experienced guards and a dynamic 6-foot-4 wing in Tassey.

The finishing touch to the roster, however, has been the junior duo of Aidan Hamlin-Woolfolk and Qua’Mir Everett. The two 6-5, super-athletic forwards have helped the Colonials raise their ceiling on a nightly basis and after some early-season hiccups, the group has put it together at the right time of the season. The first-round win over Matawan was the first NJSIAA Tournament win for the Colonials since 2010-11, when they reached the Central Group III semifinals as a No. 7 seed.

Head coach Ben DiBiase was the head coach in 2010-11 and one year earlier, the Colonials reached the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals. After reigniting the program with that stretch of seasons, DiBiase stepped down after 2012-13 before returning in 2017-18 in the same role. Prior to this season, Freehold Boro’s best showing in DiBiase’s second stint was an 8-7 campaign during the COVID-shortened 2021 season.

Knowing how far both programs have come in a short amount of time – Red Bank in Sourlis’s second year and Freehold Boro two years after its disastrous 0-21 season – adds to the charm of Saturday’s sectional final and should add some additional electricity to the gym on top of the usual dose that a sectional final provides.

The Matchup

On top of being inspiring basketball stories, both Red Bank and Freehold Boro are good teams that can be fun to watch when it’s all clicking. Freehold Boro, in particular, stands out in warm-ups with its three long, athletic wing players in Tassey, Hamlin-Woolfolk and Everett. In addition to those high-fliers, DiGiso and Cranwell are complementary guards who can handle the ball, knock down open shots and set up their teammates. DiGiso, in particular, is a creator on offense who can catch fire shooting the ball.

Red Bank, meanwhile, is a defensive-minded, guard-heavy roster whose offensive attack is built around sparkplug point guard Zayier Dean. The 5-11 junior transferred to Red Bank from Ocean Township for this season and has been the piece that has put the Bucs over the top after putting together an All-Shore season as a sophomore for the Spartans in 2022-23.

Dean has displayed a good feel for his game and his team all season long, with a sense of when to take over with the ball in his hands and when to turn the game over the Sourlis’s offense and his teammates. Hopewell Valley held Dean without a field goal in Thursday’s sectional semifinal win, but he still picked up seven points at the free-throw line and got his teammates going enough to get Red Bank to 56 points.

For the Bucs, scoring in the 50’s is usually a recipe for success on account of their stellar defense. Senior Braydon Kirkpatrick, junior Ryan Fisher and senior Jameson Ackerman are three guards who can both catch fire scoring the ball, but also dig in on the defensive end along with Dean, who is disruptive in passing lanes. Junior Trey Moore gives Red Bank at least some size and physical play at 6-3 to round out the starting lineup while contributing the occasional offensive boost, but the Dean-Kirkpatrick-Fisher-Ackerman quartet is where the Bucs get their offense, as well as their spark on defense.

The players to target for both defenses will be Dean on Red Bank and Tassey for Freehold Boro. While Dean is hard to contain off the dribble, Tassey is a do-it-all player who can take over as a scorer or create chances for his talented teammates. At one point this season, Tassey recorded triple-doubles in three consecutive games and he enters Saturday lead Freehold Boro in scoring, rebounding, assists and blocked shots.

Then, there are the x-factors: the players who are not necessarily the stars who can change the game. The two to watch on the Freehold Boro side are Everett and Cranwell, who have been secondary and tertiary scorers while Hamlin-Woolfolk, Tassey and DiGiso have done most of the scoring. Everett might be the toughest matchup for Red Bank because he is both taller and more athletic than any player on the Bucs, plus he is a willing rebounder who can clean up on the offensive glass if the Bucs lose track of him.

Cranwell, meanwhile, could get the assignment on Dean when Freehold is in man-to-man. The Colonials could also opt to put one of their longer players on Dean, but Cranwell is a hard-nosed defender who would welcome the challenge, plus he will have plenty of rangy shot-blockers backing him up with help.

On the Red Bank side, watch out for Ackerman and Fisher. Ackerman is the most likely to catch fire from beyond the three-point arc, while Fisher has shown an ability to become the top scoring threat when teams sell out to stop Dean. Freehold Boro has a collection of weapons that will be hard to hold in the low-40’s for the game, so Red Bank will need its guards to create offense, knock down shots and finish plays.

Prediction

Red Bank is a near-perfect 17-1 on its home floor this season, but will be facing a Freehold Boro team that has a better record as a true road team (10-3) this season than it has on its home floor (10-4). That could be because three of Freehold Boro’s home losses are to St. Rose, Manasquan and Holmdel – the top three teams in the most recent Shore Sports Network Shore 16 rankings – but the 10-3 mark on the road is worth considering.

Freehold Boro’s last two road performances were especially impressive, with the Colonials rallying from a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit to knock off defending Central Group III champion Nottingham on Tuesday, then surviving a comeback by Ewing that erased a 16-point deficit and pulling out the tight win in a hostile environment Thursday night. As sharp as Red Bank has been in close games and as difficult as the Bucs have been to beat at home, those results by Freehold Boro show the sort of mettle it will take to beat the No. 1 seed on its home floor.

That one home loss by Red Bank to Howell in the SCT might provide some pause in picking the Bucs to prevail on Saturday. It also might have been the wake-up call Red Bank needed. The Bucs won an outright division title in what was probably the toughest top-to-bottom division in the Shore Conference (Class B North), suffered a setback and refocused for the state tournament.

Now, one win short of completing the run from No. 1 seed to sectional champion, Red Bank is set up to finish the job. Freehold Boro is the hot team, but the Bucs have been doing this all year long against a tough schedule and finding ways to win. Slowing down Freehold Boro won’t be easy, but Sourlis and his squad will have something drawn up to keep the game under control enough to win it at the end.

The Pick: Red Bank, 49-47