Elijah Barnes

MIDDLETOWN - While Mater Dei Prep has rapidly become the measuring stick for the rest of the teams in the Shore Conference, the Seraphs learned on Saturday that they have a lot of work to do to reach that distinction at the state level. The Shore's No...

Hoop Group Boardwalk Showcase Saturday, Jan. 7 At Collins Arena, Brookdale Community College Game 3: No. 1 Mater Dei Prep vs. Patrick School, 3:20 p.m. Saturday’s Hoop Group Boardwalk Showcase game between the No. 1 team in the Shore Sports Network top 10 and the No...

By Ella Brockway SSN Correspondent LITTLE SILVER - Mater Dei head coach Ben Gamble did not panic as he watched his team’s lead, which had at one point been 14, shrink to one as the opposing Sayreville Bombers staged a comeback with 7:16 left in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s Buc Classic championship game...

LITTLE SILVER - The first-two rounds of the Albert E. Martin Buc Holiday Classic have looked more like a tune-up than an exhibition for the No. 1 team in the Shore Sports Network Top 10, but for Mater Dei Prep senior Elijah Barnes, the Buc Classic has been a trip down memory lane...

Mater Dei Prep senior Elijah Barnes remembers being a sixth-grader who loved playing basketball but, as he put it, could "barely run in a straight line without tripping over my own two feet." Barnes is an example that become a basketball talent is still more about work than about being the tallest kid in the class and Barnes journey from aspiring basketball player to Division I athlete a

Mater Dei Prep Class of 2017 wing Elijah Barnes made a non-binding verbal commitment to play college basketball at Princeton University Tuesday, as first reported by Corey Evans of Roundball Rundown Report. A 6-foot-7 swingman who primarily played a low post role for his high school team, Barnes is a versatile player on both ends of the floor and he helped lead the Seraphs to their first ever Shor

MIDDLETOWN - Not one player who saw a full minute of playing time for the Mater Dei boys basketball team Thursday against newly-established division rival Ranney had ever suited up for a game or spent a minute in a classroom at Mater Dei High School before this school year...

TOMS RIVER - For a program already swimming in uncharted waters, the Mater Dei Prep High School boys basketball team has not taken much time to relish any one of its 13 victories heading into Sunday's Valerie Fund Showcase game against St...

JERSEY CITY - The Mater Dei boys basketball team has already opened eyes around the Shore and are beginning to do the same for people around the state. In the long-run however, the Seraphs players are thinking even bigger under first-year coach Ben Gamble...

LONG BRANCH - The Neptune boys basketball team has proved to be a second-half team during the early part of the 2015-16 season, but Saturday at the Hoop Group Boardwalk Showcase, the Scarlet Fliers faced a second-half buzzsaw. Mater Dei Prep, ranked No...

When Ben Gamble accepted an offer to become the Mater Dei Prep head boys basketball coach in June, he brought a lot with him to the program – more than a decade of experience as an assistant under Bob Hurley at St. Anthony, a one-year turnaround of the Cardinal McCarrick program, and nine transfers who wanted to play for Gamble and be part of a Seraphs turnaround...

MIDDLETOWN – During his coaching career alone, Ben Gamble has been on the bench for NJSIAA Tournament of Champions finals, in front of packed arenas against nationally-ranked teams, and coached the top team in the nation during his time as an assistant to Hall of Famer Bob Hurley at St...