Shore Conference February Madness at Brookdale
I have always felt like the Shore Conference Tournament was the highlight of the basketball season even more so then the upcoming state tournament.
The SCT has a sort of “March Madness” feel to it a month early and the fact that teams often know one another so well only adds to the building drama that takes place over a span of just ten days. As has been the case in recent years the Boys bracket featured some surprises in the early rounds while on the Girls side it was mostly cruise control for the top teams as the top eight advance to this weekend’s quarterfinals at Brookdale Community College.
Maybe the biggest surprise in last night’s Round of 16 was defending champion Point Beach’s 67-63 victory over #2 seed Lakewood. However the 15th seeded Garnett Gulls are now fully healthy and playing their best basketball of the season having won 5 in-a-row. Senior Jesse Hill scored a game-high 27 points for the Beach and topped the 1000 point mark for his career.
Point Beach will meet Neptune on Sunday with the Scarlet Fliers topping Manalapan. The two best games Thursday saw 5th seed Wall slip by #12 Southern 52-51 on Trent Mitchell’s driving layup with 22 seconds left while #3 Freehold Township fought its way past 14th rated Toms River South 62-59 despite 23 points from the Indians Tymere Berry. In another close encounter
4th seed Toms River North rallied from an early 14-point deficit and topple Shore 57-51 behind Evan Martin’s 23 points while #11 Rumson surprised Red Bank 50-42. Top-seed CBA and #8 Manasquan also won and will meet in one of the quarterfinal round games Sunday at Brookdale. Other matchups will find Toms River North facing Wall and Rumson taking on Freehold Township.
There was little drama on the girls side with the exception of 11th seeded Freehold Townships last-second win over #6 Red Bank Catholic. The top five teams…St. Rose, Manasquan, St. John Vianney, Rumson and Middletown South won by an average of 36 points. The girl’s quarterfinals are tomorrow at Brookdale and an all-Monmouth County affair with the Rumson-Middletown South game expected to be the most competitive of the four.
Our Shore Sports Network will broadcast next week’s semifinals and championship games on 1160/1310AM. For daily updates on the SCT visit shoresportsnetwork.com
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