basketball feature

Manasquan's head coach has battled COVID and subsequent heart problems, putting the spotlight on his assistants. What makes a good assistant? Eight Shore coaches tell you.

First COVID-19 took Andrew and Matt Solomon away from their Manasquan basketball teammates. After the virus claimed the life of their father, it brought their team even closer together.

Nearly two years after a near-death experience, Darrell Rogers finally got to wear his No. 5 Matawan uniform again. He is no longer the Huskies' point guard, but he remains their inspiration.

After a significant week of results, the Shore Conference Tournament will be seeded on Sunday afternoon. Here is a look at the 24-team field and how the qualified teams stack up within the field. 1. Mater Dei Prep (19-3, 13-1) Division Wins: Asbury Park (2), Henry Hudson (2), Keansburg (2), Keyport (2), Point Beach (2), St...

WEST LONG BRANCH - In the immediate aftermath of her team's 59-48 victory over Manasquan Saturday to win the program's first Shore Conference Tournament championship in 11 years, St. John Vianney senior Kelly Campbell slipped out of the throng formed by her teammates to find and embrace head coach Dawn Karpell...

In a program that preaches the team concept and requires its players to eschew individual accomplishment with a total focus on the collective effort, Pat Andree might be the closest thing Christian Brothers Academy has ever had to a player that reached “program savior” status...

For the previous decade, the Mater Dei Prep boys basketball has been mostly irrelevant in the Shore Conference Tournament landscape, but a long run of mediocre results is not what would have made the Seraphs’ appearance in Saturday’s Shore Conference Tournament final as the favorite against perennial power Christian Brothers Academy so implausible a year ago...

Shore Conference Tournament Semifinals At Pine Belt Arena, Toms River (1) Mater Dei Prep vs. (4) Toms River North, 6 p.m. Just one year ago, juniors Elijah Barnes and Jaden Rhoden were sophomore teammates at Central Regional High School and as part of an up-and-coming nucleus for the Golden Eagles the two planned on reaching late stages of the Shore Conference Tournament together...

February is Black History Month in the U.S. and while people of different backgrounds celebrate the influence of Black pioneers of the past and acknowledge the influence of contemporary figures, there will be a special tribute to African-American leadership in Shore Conference basketball Sunday at Brookdale Community College...

The Shore Conference regular season ended with eight clear selections for the top eight seeds in the Shore Conference Tournament and the result is splendid day of quarterfinal games at Brookdale on Sunday – even with one of those teams getting bounced on Thursday...

With 29 teams qualifying for the Shore Conference Tournament this year, there were 13 opening-round games on Tuesday and Wednesday and not one of them ended with the road team pulling out an upset. If no underdog could pull off a round one upset, then there is now a real possibility that this tournament goes chalk from start to finish...

The Shore Conference Tournament begins on Tuesday evening with 26 teams playing 13 opening-round games and three more enjoying byes to Thursday’s round of 16, and all 29 of those teams are dreaming big with the entire postseason ahead of them...