Boys Basketball – OC Sports Medicine Week 4 Player of the Week Winner: Brandon Loughlin, Ocean
Ocean County Sports Medicine Week 4 Player of the Week
Brandon Loughlin, Ocean
Ocean has followed the lead of its talented group of sophomores, but Loughlin has been an important senior presence throughout Ocean's 12-4 start to the 2022-23 season.
Last week, the 6-foot-5 forward had his best stretch of the year to help the Spartans net three more wins as they prepare for a Class C South championship push and postseason tournament run. Loughlin went for 17 points, six rebounds and four blocks in a win over Donovan Catholic, netted 13 points in a win over Jackson Liberty and closed out the week with 20 points in a Spartans overtime win over Toms River East.
Loughlin's 16.7 points-per-game average last week is the best three-game average during any part of his career and his 20 points against Toms River East set a new career-high for the Ocean senior. Ocean managed to escape with an overtime win over division rival Monmouth Regional on Tuesday despite Loughlin being out of the lineup and the Spartans hope to have the senior back for the rest of the week and into the final stretch of the regular season.
Loughlin won the Week 4 Player of the Week poll with 32.5 percent of the vote, pulling away from runner-up Dylan Csik of Middletown South by a margin of 10 percent. St. John Vianney sophomore Aiden Ur came in third place with 12 percent of the vote and Toms River North senior Delani Hyde hit double-digits by collecting 10 percent in his fourth-place finish in the latest poll.
Csik's second-place finish is the second straight runner-up finish for a Middletown South player after fellow senior Pat Brown came up just short in last week's contest.
For winning the first Player of the Week contest, Loughlin will receive a $25 gift card to Burger 25.