2025 Boardwalk Showcase Preview: Three Huge Games and a New Setting

The annual Hoop Group Boardwalk Showcase shifts its venue south this year, from Brookdale Community College to Georgian Court University for a three-game slate on Saturday that includes five teams currently ranked among the top six teams in the Shore Conference and one other team that is a top-20 team in New Jersey.

Georgian Court is the fifth host site for the Boardwalk Showcase – formerly known as The Battle on the Boardwalk – and first in Ocean County. Convention Hall in Asbury Park was the original site for the event, which has since made stops at Monmouth University, Brookdale and Long Branch High School.

Saturday’s schedule is the shortest the Boardwalk has featured and will start (and end) later than is usual, but the match-ups carry with them major local implications – both for Shore Conference and state rankings, as well as seeding in the Shore Conference Tournament. Here is the schedule:

2025 Hoop Group Boardwalk Showcase

Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025

At Georgian Court University

Shore Rankings by Shore Sports Insider; State Rankings by NJ Advance Media

Manasquan (No. 2 Shore/No. 11 State) vs. CBA (No. 3 Shore), 5:30 p.m.

St. Rose (No. 1 Shore/No. 10 State) vs. Gill St. Bernard’s (No. 15 State), 7 p.m.

Central (No. 4 Shore) vs. Red Bank (No. 6 Shore), 8:30 p.m.

 

Factor in a game between Shore Sports Insider No. 5 Rumson-Fair Haven vs. No. 7 Freehold Boro in Rumson earlier in the day and Saturday could be the single most consequential day of basketball during the Shore Conference boys regular season as it pertains to seeding for the Shore Conference Tournament – which will now use power points to determine the seeds. As of Wednesday, Red Bank, Manasquan, Central, Rumson-Fair Haven and CBA made up the top five projected seeds in the SCT and St. Rose was at No. 7, just 0.3 power points per game behind Southern Regional for No. 6.

St. Rose’s power-point conundrum is the first issue to touch on in a closer look at each game on Saturday.

Run for the Roses Begins

With four weeks until the Shore Conference Tournament cutoff, St. Rose sits in an unusual position. The Purple Roses – the defending SCT champions and current No. 1 team in the Shore Conference – are currently well behind the top four teams in the Shore’s power-point rankings. With what is remaining on St. Rose’s schedule, it is hard to see the Purple Roses cracking into the top three, let along climbing all the way to No. 1 in four weeks.

So, how is it that the team that has been head-and-shoulders better than the rest of the Shore Conference since December of 2023 will likely not be able to access the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament?

Other than blaming the change in the SCT seeding rules, it comes down to one word: scheduling.

St. Rose has five games vs. team from outside New Jersey on its schedule, including a Friday clash with Faith Family Charter out of Dallas in Newark at the Iverson Classic one night before the Boardwalk Showcase. That is relevant to the power-point conversation because those teams, in most cases, do not carry the power-point impact of NJSIAA opponents. Even the Patrick School – an N.J. team loaded with Division I talent – does not net St. Rose as many power points as Paramus Catholic because TPS is not an NJSIAA sanctioned program, while Paramus Catholic is.

Even though games vs. St. Frances of Baltimore, Archbishop Stepinac of New York, Faith Family, Boys Latin School of Maryland and La Lumiere of Indiana will not net St. Rose the power points that high-level NJSIAA opponents would, coach Brian Lynch has no regrets about loading up his team’s schedule with games that will not have a quantitative benefit to his team. The actual payoff — particularly players like four-star junior guard Jayden Hodge and senior All-Shore guard Evan Romano — is immeasurable.

“I want to give my guys the best possible competition to play because we have kidss who want to play at the next level and are capable of playing at the next level,” Lynch said after his team lost to the Patrick School on Jan. 4. “Playing a team like this, with their size and their athleticism, those are the types of athletes you are going to see at the Division I level and we have guys who I truly believe are Division I players.

“Everybody knows Jayden (Hodge), but I think a guy like Evan Romano – he is a Division I player. I really believe that and if he is going to have the best chance possible to get that opportunity and be ready for that challenge, he has to play in games like this and I think whenever he has been challenged in these settings, he has done really well.”

While there are challenging opponents on St. Rose’s schedule that don’t carry power-point upside, Saturday’s game is not one of those. Quite the contrary: it is a huge opportunity. Gill St. Bernard’s is a 7-2 team that is currently the No. 1 seed in the North Jersey Non-Public B section thanks to wins over Seton Hall Prep (9-1), St. Benedict’s (5-3), Rutgers Prep (5-5) and Phillipsburg (7-3). The Knights boast a balanced attack, led by senior Kobe Closeil and featuring a supporting cast with just one other senior (6-foot-7 senior Stanley Njekwe).

Gill St. Bernard’s fits the criteria of a challenging opponent for his team while also giving St. Rose an opportunity to close the power-point gap between itself and the current top-five.

“The one thing losing some of these big-time games does is it gives us some urgency when we do play teams from the Shore,” Lynch said. “We’re 4-3 after losing (to Patrick School) so when we go to Point Boro, that’s now a must-win game. Last year, we had one loss for most of the regular season so there was never that sense that we were fighting for our lives, but that’s probably going to be what it feels like for a lot of this year.”

Red Bank for Real?

The last game of the night in Lakewood has a case to be the most interesting of the Saturday lineup. Central Regional is on the Boardwalk stage for the first time, but Red Bank has as much on the line as any team playing on Saturday.

The Bucs are the last remaining undefeated team in the Shore Conference and the No. 1 Shore Conference team in power points after improving to 9-0 with a win over St. John Vianney on Thursday. Of those nine wins, Red Bank has beaten every ranked team in the latest Shore Sports Insider Top 10 that is not ranked ahead of the Bucs: No. 7 Freehold Boro, No. 8 Ranney, No. 9 Southern and No. 10 Colts Neck. It is also worth noting that Freehold Boro was ranked ahead of Red Bank when the Bucs beat the Colonials, so Red Bank has already shown it can go above and beyond the call during this 9-0 start.

“It’s really been about staying locked in on one opponent at a time, not looking forward to any one game,” senior Zayier Dean said. “Every team we play is good and we know we want to keep getting better, so it’s just keeping that focus on one day at a time.”

Over the next six days, the Bucs will face their two toughest tests to date, starting with Saturday against No. 4 Central and later in the week vs. Ridge Road rival Rumson-Fair Haven.

Red Bank has played Red Bank Catholic in each of the last two Boardwalk events and lost both games. This year, the Bucs are playing a well-rounded Central team that is inching its way toward a state ranking and is currently No. 3 in the conference in power points. The winner of Saturday’s game is likely to begin the week in the No. 1 spot on the power-points list with a chance to climb into the state rankings and the top three of the Shore Sports Insider rankings.

“I think the mindset is the same for a game like that as it is every game,” senior Ryan Fisher said. “We put a lot of focus and energy on every game, which is a big reason for our success so far. Obviously, (Central senior) Jaycen (Santucci) is a great player. That’s my boy over there, so we know he’s a great player and he’s got a great team around him, so it’s going to be a challenge.”

Saturday will also give Red Bank a chance to showcase the newest member of its team. Senior forward Ron Richardson scored seven points in his season debut Thursday at St. John Vianney and will be a key weapon for the Bucs against Central. Dean, Fisher, senior Anthony Moore, senior Trey Moore, sophomore Justin Valentino, sophomore Will Galligan and junior Bennett Lopez have all been key contributors, so adding Richardson makes a deep team deeper.

“I think he is a super underrated player,” Dean said of Richardson, who played with Dean at Ocean Township when the two were freshmen and sophomores. “I don’t think people really know what’s coming. We’re going to see. I know Ron is ready. He is much faster, much stronger, way more aggressive and I feel like his IQ developed a lot over the summer and throughout last season. That was a big jump since the last time I played with him to now.”

Central’s Proving Ground

On the other side of the Boardwalk finale, Central will have another opportunity to play a Monmouth County opponent and the Golden Eagles are determined to make sure the outcome of this one is better than the outcome of the last one.

The only loss of Central’s season so far came against Manasquan in the WOBM Christmas Classic final – a 30-28 defensive struggle in which the Golden Eagles erased a 26-11 second-half deficit to tie the game at 28 before Manasquan won it at the buzzer. Saturday represents another chance for the Golden Eagles to prove themselves against one Monmouth County’s top teams – something that matters to their players.

“As an Ocean County team, we’re definitely doubted when it comes to basketball,” said senior Jaycen Santucci, alluding to Ocean County’s drought of 11 straight seasons without a Shore Conference Tournament champion. “Monmouth County basketball has been where it’s at. We just want to prove we can play with the best, so any time it’s a team from Monmouth County, we definitely play with a chip on our shoulder.”

In total, Central is 2-1 vs. Monmouth County this season, with wins over No. 10 Colts Neck and a 7-2 Wall team. Saturday’s game is also a major power-point opportunity for the Golden Eagles, who are already perched at the top of the field in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV section and can gain an inside track to the No. 1 spot in the SCT field by beating the undefeated Bucs.

For a team that had its best season in program history in 2023-24, but still fell short of reaching the SCT semifinals and an NJSIAA sectional final, the focus has been proving itself from the outset of 2024-25.

“We had a tough game on opening night (against Lenape) and we came out ready,” Santucci said. “This year, we have six seniors, we have all been playing with each other and we did not want to come out slow. We’ve had a couple of those slow starts the last few years, so the focus has been on being ready, playing hard from day one and I think we’re seeing that pay off to start the season.”

CBA’s Early Depth Test

With four returning starters from a quality 2023-24 team, CBA already had lofty goals heading into the season and the belief of those four players and coach Geoff Billet was only strengthened once they grasped the depth the Colts had beyond those four.

Nearly a month into the season, the depth is the most important aspect of CBA’s team, but not for the reasons Billet and his team had hoped. Two of those returning starters – Justin Fuerbacher and Charlie Marcoullier – have been dealing with ankle sprains since both sustained their respective injuries in a win over West Morris Central on Dec. 27. In Thursday’s 68-64 win over Ranney, both Fuerbacher and Marcoullier left the game and did not return after re-aggravating the injuries. Billet said he expects both to be out Saturday vs. Manasquan and to give both extra time to heal after both players missed only one full game following their initial injuries.

“It’s the same exact thing that happened in our third game of the year,” Billet said. “We’ve got a team that can handle it, but it’s just hard to adjust in-game. You can’t control injuries and I feel for them. Justin is a senior, so he doesn’t want to be sitting out a bunch of games. But they will be back and in the meantime, guys will step up.”

With Fuerbacher – a Second Team All-Shore selection as a junior – and Marcoullier out, senior Kevin Pikiell and junior Connor Andree have stepped up as leaders, including in the win over Ranney. Andree had one of the best statistical outputs of his career (22 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and three blocks) while Pikiell leaned into the ball-handling duties and scored 17 points.

“We’ve got a really deep team and we’ve got a lot of weapons, so we’ve just got to have other dudes ready to play, ready to step up and ready to win,” Pikiell said.

For CBA to stay in the race for the No. 1 seed in the SCT and the No. 2 ranking in the Shore Conference, the Colts will need the players around Andree and Pikiell to elevate their play. Six-foot-8 sophomore David Buley has made an immediate impact in that department, including a 10-point, eight-rebound performance off the bench vs. Ranney. Guards Gavin Marlin, Charlie Messano, Nick Lane and Cam Reynholds have pitched in more while Fuerbacher and Marcoullier have been either out or limited and will be put to the test Saturday vs. a Manasquan team that is 7-1 against the toughest schedule in the Shore Conference outside the one St. Rose has played.

“We play against these guys every day in practice and it’s always a competition,” Andree said. “When they come in, we know they are going to perform.”

Last year, CBA had Manasquan on the ropes, but the Warriors pulled out the victory in overtime after then-freshman Rey Weinseimer hit a game-tying three-pointer at the fourth-quarter buzzer to send the game into overtime.

Pikiell and Andree have that game fresh in their memories heading into Saturday and if nothing else, they would like to avenge that loss.

“We lost last year in a close one, so we have that fuel,” Pikiell said. “We’ve just got to come out and play our game. Whoever is playing, we’ll give it our all.”

Rey of Fire

Speaking of Weinseimer, the sophomore has been one of the most improved players in the Shore Conference, even with the bar set high after he was already the Shore’s best freshman a year ago.

His most memorable moment from that freshman season was the buzzer-beating three to deny CBA the Boardwalk win over Manasquan and as his team prepares to take on CBA again, Weinseimer has been Manasquan’s No. 1 option on offense as a sophomore – even with four-year starter and 2024 All-Shore First-Teamer Griffin Linstra still leading the team as a whole.

For Weinseimer, like so many players before him, Manasquan’s culture has helped him get the most out of his abilities and for those abilities to help Manasquan win.

“Every year, we pride ourselves as a program on having great leadership,” Weinseimer said. “Griff (Linstra) is a great leader and all the seniors are great leaders and mentors. We’ll even have former players stop by practice and give us some points and talk to the team. Everyone is always involved trying to help with the program and that’s always been a big thing for us.”

Through eight games, Weinseimer is averaging 19.6 points, seven rebounds and two assists and has led Manasquan in scoring in six of its eight games. In his last two games, Weinseimer has scored 27 points vs. Freehold Boro and 26 points to go with 13 rebounds, three assists, five steals and three blocks vs. Jackson Memorial.

After last year’s Boardwalk finish and his fast start this year, Weinseimer is sure to be a focal point of CBA’s defense on Saturday.

“My mindset is different this year” Weinseimer said. “Last year, I was lacking confidence a lot. This year, the coaches and the players have done a great job talking to me and giving me the confidence to go out there and play hard and play my game.

“My teammates do a great job of driving and kicking. I feel like I’m just open because of them. It’s nothing special. We just move the ball really well as a group and that leads to good shots.”