By Jeff Appelblatt
The teamwork and camaraderie of Freehold Township High School’s boys’ basketball team has shined magnificently early in the season.
It showed in the squad’s game Jan. 7 in Freehold Township, where the Patriots hosted the team from Holmdel High School.
The day and time made no difference for Freehold Township, which was playing its first morning game of the season. Starting at 11:30 a.m., the Patriots won handily over the Hornets, 66-46.
Freehold Township coach Brian Golub credited the difference in the game to the second quarter. The Patriots went up, 17-12, by the end of the first, but they pulled away in the contest when they outscored Holmdel, 21-7, in the second.
“We played an awesome second quarter to up the lead,” Freehold Township’s coach said.
Golub didn’t want his players to rest in the second half. The 38-19 lead could have been cut into just as fast as it was built.
The Hornets outscored the Patriots, 15-14, in the third quarter, and Golub wasn’t happy to see his team matched by the Hornets following halftime.
“Most of the second half was even. We need to improve on that,” the coach said. “[We] still need to get better at putting games away.”
The majority of Freehold Township’s opponents know how Holmdel felts in the loss. The Patriots downed seven of its first nine opponents by double figures. Only Toms River High School North and Colts Neck High School were able to avoid being blown out — Freehold Township won in Toms River by six and in Colts Neck by eight.
Golub wouldn’t call his team (9-0) dominant no matter how frequently it has looked it.
“[We’re] just hard to guard. [Defenses] can not focus on one or two guys,” the coach said.
The way Freehold Township has been scoring, every player on the court has been a threat. Only once this season has a Patriots player topped 20 points, and that was against Toms River North when Stephen Staklinski went off for 25. The team’s second leading scorer behind Staklinski has been Ryan Zyskowski. The senior nearly hit the 20-point mark twice — against Neptune High School and Manasquan High School — but he fell short with 17 and 18 points, respectively.
Instead, most Freehold Township games are similar to the most recent. Against Holmdel, five Patriots scored at least 10 points: Staklinski and Zyskowski each scored 15, Greg Billups posts 13, Bobby Weise netted 11 and Ryan Cardone scored 10.
“We shared it real well,” the Patriots coach said after the 20-point win was complete. “We work hard at playing our style every night. We do that by stressing [the] importance of every game, every quarter [and] every possession. We are not that good where we could just show up and win.
“We get every [opponent’s] best effort every night. I tell the team [that] every night is the only one that matters.”
It doesn’t matter who his team is going up against. Freehold Township gets ready for each game the same way.
“We stress work ethic. We are a blue-collar group that works hard all the time,” Golub said. “If you do not work hard, there is a guy behind you who will.”
Howell High School (1-5) was scheduled to be the next team to see the Patriots in action Jan. 10 in Freehold.
The Patriots’ coach doesn’t want his players paying any attention to the Rebels’ record.
“That is a rival game,” Golub said. “Within the district, every game is a rival game.”