With the postseason rapidly approaching, this week is an extremely important one for those teams currently on the bubble.
The cutoff for the state basketball and wrestling tournaments are this weekend, meaning teams need to have a .500 record by the end of action Saturday to qualify. Local ice hockey teams have a little longer to qualify, as the cutoff for that tournament isn’t until next weekend.
As far as the conference tournaments go, the Shore Conference Wrestling Tournament gets underway this week and will be completed on Saturday at Southern Regional, while the conference basketball tournament cutoffs are Feb. 10.
Therewill also be a Shore Conference Ice Hockey Tournament for the first time ever this year, scheduled to begin on Feb. 23.
High school hoops
There are a flurry of local boys and girls basketball teams in line to qualify for both the state and Shore Conference tournaments.
On the boys side, Monmouth Regional, who improved to 13-5 with an impressive win over Freehold Borough on Monday, has clinched berths in both tournaments, while Shore Regional also appears to be in good shape after improving to 10-7 with a win over Point Beach on Monday. Red Bank Regional, despite dropping a close game to St. John Vianney on Monday, has also locked up a spot in both tournaments with a 10-5 mark.
Rumson-Fair Haven will make its return to the state tournament this year after securing at least a .500 record with a win over Raritan on Saturday.
At 9-6, and with three games on the schedule this week, the Bulldogs have also earned a berth in the SCT.
That leaves two boy’s teams – Red Bank Catholic and Ocean Township – officially on the bubble. RBC improved to 8- 8 on the year with 50-43 win over Holmdel on Monday, and needs to go 1-1 against Rumson-Fair Haven (Thursday) and Barnegat (Saturday) to earn its spot in the state tournament. And with three more games next week, RBC needs to win three of its next five to qualify for the SCT.
Meanwhile, Ocean Township fell to 9-9 with a disappointing 48-42 loss to Pinelands onMonday.With games against
Monmouth Regional (today) and RFH (tomorrow), the Spartans need a win to get in the state tournament. As for their SCT chances, they also need to go 3-2 over these next two weeks to qualify.
The boys state tournament is slated to begin on Feb. 25.
The girls postseason basketball picture is a bit clearer, as only Ocean Township finds itself firmly on the bubble. The Lady Spartans improved to 10-8 on Monday with a convincing win over Pinelands, and needs to win one of its next four games to qualify for the SCT. With just two games this week, they are assured of a state playoff berth.
Monmouth Regional saw its state playoff chances dashed on Monday with a 62- 53 loss to Freehold Borough. At 7-10, the Falcons still have an outside chance to reach the SCT, but need to win their next four games (against Jackson Liberty, Ocean, Red Bank Catholic and Middletown South) to be .500 at the cutoff. Should Monmouth find a way to put together a winning streak against those teams, the Falcons will indeed be a dangerous team in SCT play.
Among the local girls teams that have locked up berths in both the state and SC tournaments are RBC (14-3), Shore (13-5) and RFH (13-4).
Wrestling
The Shore Conference Wrestling Tournament was seeded on Monday, and while there were those who believed Long Branch (15-0) had a legitimate claim for the top seed, the seeding committee did not agree, giving that honor to three-time defending champion Jackson.
The committee also put Brick Memorial, whose only loss came to Jackson this year, ahead of head coach Dan George’s Green Wave, leaving Long Branch with the No. 3 seed. That means the Wave will host Central (11-8) in Wednesday night’s first round, with the winner to face the victor from the Toms River East (7-8)- Toms River North (12-2) match immediately thereafter. TR North is the only team to beat Jackson this year, defeating the Jaguars on criteria.
Ocean Township (11-6) was the only other local team to be chosen for the SCT, and as the ninth seed will take on eighthseeded Point Boro (17-1) in their firstround match on Wednesday at Jackson Memorial.
The SCT semifinals and finals will be held on Saturday at Southern Regional, starting at 3 p.m. Should Long Branch advance as expected, it is likely to see Brick Memorial in the semifinals, with Jackson expected to face the winner of Wednesday night’s most anticipated quarterfinal match-up between Southern (11-2) and Howell (17-2).
As for the state tournament, Long Branch, Ocean, Shore Regional (13-3) and Red Bank Regional (9-4) will all qualify for the team tournament, which gets underway Feb. 11.
Ice hockey
The NJSIAA state ice hockey tournament cutoff is set for Feb. 11, and at this point, it appears Red Bank Catholic (11-2- 2) and Rumson-Fair Haven (9-5-1) are locks to get in. That leaves Red Bank Regional with some work left to do. The Bucs, at 6-6-3, took on Manasquan last night and have three remaining games (Monday against Jackson, Tuesday at Southern and Thursday at Toms River South) before the cutoff. The Bucs need to win two of four to qualify for the state tournament, which is slated to start on Feb. 25.
In addition, the Shore Conference Ice Hockey Tournament is officially ready to debut.
After the implementation of a successful regular season for the first-year league, administrators and coaches have been busy trying to launch a conference tournament that could help highlight a growing conference with some very strong teams.
In recent weeks, the Shore Conference Executive Committee has been exploring different format options, and according to Jim Rochford, the Shore Conference’s tournament manager, a decision has been made, setting the stage for the first SCT in ice hockey.
The original plan that was rumored to be close to adoption involved an eightteam tournament comprised of squads from all four of the Conference’s divisions (A North, B North, A South and B South), with the division winners getting automatic bids, leaving four at-large bids (three public and one non-public).
However, a second, more recent proposal was eventually chosen; one that involves two separate tournaments, with six A division teams playing for one cup, and four B Division teams playing for another. This format reportedly gives all division winners automatic bids, leaving six atlarge bids for the remainder of the teams.
Regardless of the format, the fact that the tournament is ready to go is good news for the Shore Conference hockey community, as it will add some needed juice to the sport. There are several teams that likely will not qualify for the NJSIAAstate tournament, but may still have a shot at making the SCT, which is likely to begin on Feb. 18, with first-round games.
According to Rochford, the championship games (a double-header) are tentatively set for Feb. 22 at Winding River.
One thing about the SCT that is all but certain is that the top seed in the A Division bracket will go to the St. John Vianney Lancers. SJV (11-1-1) remained undefeated against Shore Conference foes, by knocking offMonsignor Donovan (11-3- 1), 6-3, on Friday in a battle of two of the league’s top teams. With the win, the Lancers reaffirmed their status as the Shore’s team to beat. Their only loss this year has come to the state’s top-ranked team, Christian Brothers Academy, which still plays in the Gordon Conference.
Red Bank Catholic, ranked third in the Shore behind CBA and SJV, is another team that will be in both postseason tournaments, as the Caseys are in the midst of another strong season. RBC (11-2-2) is in the midst of a tough stretch of its schedule, with games this week against Manasquan, Wall and Notre Dame scheduled for this week. Last week, the Caseys won three impressive games, as the team appears to be playing its best hockey of the season at the right time.