By Jeff Appelblatt
Freehold Township High School’s boys’ basketball team had won each of its first 10 games. It won a few games by single digits, but the majority were decided by double figures.
Regardless, coach Brian Golub refused to guarantee a victory, especially if his club was going up against another team from the Shore Conference A North Division.
“Within the district, every game is a rival game, and we get everybody’s best effort every night,” Golub said before his team defeated Howell High School, 62-53, Jan. 10. “I tell the team every night, ‘This is the only one that matters.’ ”
Marlboro High School beat Freehold High School earlier in the day, Jan. 10, 35-32, but coach Mike Nausedas knew that his team would have to play much better in order to compete with Freehold Township Jan. 13.
“It’s going to be a great game. [They’ll be] 10-0 probably after tonight. We’ll see what happens,” he said ahead of facing Freehold Township.
His team had a comfortable 10-point lead at halftime in the game vs. the Colonials, but the Mustangs gave it away at the start of the third quarter. That’s something the Mustangs have frequently done this year, so much that Nausedas more or less stopped looking for a way to solve that problem.
“I don’t really know how fix that,” he said. “We just have to get more experience and definitely have to be more confident in the third quarter.”
It wasn’t a problem Marlboro had in Freehold Township. The Mustangs were losing at the start of the third.
“We were playing down in the third quarter, so that’s definitely a good sign for us that we came back,” Nausedas said. “Hopefully, we could keep our third quarters going that way.”
As he expected, the game at Freehold Township was a battle from start to finish and one the Patriots won, 51-48.
“We played exactly how we came to play today. We played hard, and I can’t fault my guys at all [for losing],” Marlboro’s coach said after the game.
He especially couldn’t blame P.J. Ringel, who had just seen the court for only the second time of the season, even though the senior missed a crucial shot in the final moments of the game.
“He played almost the whole game, and he fought,” Nausedas said. “He hit a big [3-pointer toward] the end when he had no legs whatsoever. He played 12 minutes [his first game], so to come in, play a full game and hit a three at the end like that, good things are coming.”
Freehold Township’s coach couldn’t help but brag about Ringel, too.
“[Ringel’s] a kid that makes them go on the offensive and defensive end,” Golub said. “He was the best player on the court in the second half. He made play after play for them.”
However, the player Freehold Township’s coach was thinking about most after the game was Greg Billups. The sophomore left the game with an injured ankle in the third quarter, and his father left the stands to take his son for an x-ray before the contest was complete.
“I’m afraid of how long we’re going to lose Billups for,” the coach said about the first-year athlete. “Billups is our pressure release in a lot of situations.”
Fortunately, when it came to the game with Marlboro, Golub knew his bench went deep.
“Ja’Zeem Foster and Brian White stepped up. They’ve been begging for playing time, and they got it in a big moment tonight,” the Patriots coach said.
They made sure to take advantage of their time on the court.
“They both knocked down a huge three. Ja’Zeem made a huge layup. They did a great job defensively for us, too,” Golub said. “I’m really proud of those two guys off the bench.”
Foster was hoping his workload would grow without an injury to one of his teammates.
“It’s a big loss. He’s a big part of the team,” the junior said about Billups. “But coming off the bench, we’re going to have to step up.”
Every member of Freehold Township understands he must give his all to continue with the team’s winning ways.
“We just need to play hard as a team. We [need to] grind it out,” Bobby Weise said.
“We’re just going to keep doing what we do,” Ryan Cardone said. “We play defense, and we’re working on our offense to make it quicker.”
The Patriots made sure to play like no one was missing a day later at Hammonton High School. Behind 26 points from Stephen Staklinski and 21 from Ryan Zyskowski, Freehold Township made it to a 12-0 record with a 77-57 win over the Blue Devils.
Freehold Township looked to make a clear sweep through the first round of its A North competition when it took on Manalapan High School Jan. 17. Then Freehold looks for revenge Jan. 19 at Freehold High School. The Patriots defeated the Colonials, 58-39 in the first game of the season.
Marlboro, meanwhile, played at Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) Jan. 17. The Mustangs play again Jan. 19 in Marlboro against Neptune High School at 4 p.m. Marlboro beat Neptune in its opener, 39-38.
Eventually, Golub and Nausedas anticipate seeing each other again more than once like their schedules indicate.
“We’ve played a lot of really good teams this year. [But Marlboro] presents more scoring options than anybody else. They shoot the ball really well. And the bottom line is, they got P.J. [Ringel] back,” the Patriots coach said about the Mustangs. “[Ringel] is going to be healthy. He’s going to be going. And it’s going to be another war. And if we get fortunate enough, we get a win.”
“I have a feeling we’re going to see Freehold Township a couple more times,” Nausedas said.
One of Marlboro’s assistant coaches, Salomon Nachum, can’t wait for the Feb. 7 rematch.
“I’m positive we’re going to beat them in our last home game of the season,” he said.