2025 Boys Basketball SCT Watch: A Week-to-Week Look at the Field

Matt Manley|January 9, 2025|Last Updated January 9, 2025

Exactly one month until they are officially seeded, the Shore Conference Tournament in boys and girls basketball is set for its biggest structural change in two decades. After years as a tournament reserved for the top 16 teams in the Shore Conference, as selected by a seeding committee, the criteria to qualify since the early 2000’s has simply been for a Shore Conference team to sport a winning percentage of .500 or better by the designated cut-off date. From there, however many teams that qualified would be seeded by a seeding committee based on general criteria: record, strength of schedule, head-to-head results, etc.

At the end of play on Saturday, Feb. 8, every team in the Shore Conference will know where they stand with respect to the Shore Conference Tournament and it will not require a seeding meeting to line up the field. That is because, for the first time in 20 years, the Shore Conference Tournament will have a fixed number of teams, with a provision to potentially allow an additional few into the field.

Here are the new rules for forming the Shore Conference Tournament bracket, which apply to both the boys and girls tournaments:

Teams will be seeded based on the NJSIAA power points formula (power points divided by games played) as of games complete on Saturday, Feb. 8. The top 20 seeds will qualify for the Shore Conference Tournament. The remaining teams will be entered into the Shore Conference Coaches Cup.
In addition to the teams ranked within the top 20 in power points, teams that win a Shore Conference division championship that are not within the top 20 will be eligible to enter either the Shore Conference Tournament or the Coaches Cup. If such teams opt into the Shore Conference Tournament, said teams will be seeded according to their power points.
If two teams that played one another during the regular season are seeded consecutively on the list of seeds, head-to-head results supersede power points. Starting from the bottom of the 20-team field, any team that holds the head-to-head advantage over the team immediately above them on the seeding list will jump up one spot in seeding. Teams may not jump more than one spot in seeding based on head-to-head results.

The Shore Conference Tournament schedule will be as follows:

First Round: Tuesday, Feb. 11
Round of 16: Thursday, Feb. 13
Quarterfinals (Girls): Saturday, Feb. 15 at Middletown South High School
Quarterfinals (Boys): Sunday, Feb. 16 at Middletown South High School
Semifinals (Girls): Tuesday, Feb. 18 at RWJ Barnabas Health Arena, Toms River
Semifinals (Boys): Wednesday, Feb. 19 at RWJ Barnabas Health Arena, Toms River
Championship: Friday, Feb. 21 at Monmouth University

In the middle of each week between now and Sunday, Feb. 9, we will update the power-point standings for the Boys Basketball SCT. Division champions are not yet factored into the projection given that few teams have played more than one division game, but will be as the cutoff gets closer.

2025 Boys Basketball Shore Conference Tournament Seeding through Wednesday, Jan. 8

SCT Seed	Team	Power Points	PP/Game	NJSIAA Section	Section Seed
1	Red Bank	148.464	18.558	CJ3	1
2	Manasquan	147.831	18.479	CJ2	1
3	Central	126.49	18.07	SJ4	1
4	Rumson-Fair Haven	102.204	17.034	CJ2	2
5	CBA	89.304	14.884	SJ Non-Pub A	5
6	Southern	113.344	14.168	SJ4	5
7	St. Rose	111.032	13.879	SJ Non-Pub B	2
8	Holmdel	96.082	13.726	CJ2	3
9	Colts Neck	67.685	13.537	CJ3	4
10	Ranney	63.47	12.694	SJ Non-Pub B	6
11	Wall	112.905	12.545	CJ2	6
12	Shore	86.303	12.329	CJ1	2
13	Point Boro	97.392	12.174	CJ2	8
14	Freehold Boro	106.293	11.81	CJ3	6
15	Brick Memorial	106.292	11.81	CJ3	7
16	Neptune	82.272	10.284	CJ3	9
17	Toms River North*	70.56	10.08	SJ4	10
18	Red Bank Catholic*	81.936	10.242	SJ Non-Pub A	8
19	Middletown South	79.488	9.936	CJ3	9
20	Manalapan	46.89	9.378	CJ4	7
	Freehold Twp.	55.56	9.26	CJ4	8
	Middletown North	81.648	9.072	CJ3	11
	Marlboro	78.534	8.726	CJ4	10
	Keyport	60.13	8.59	CJ1	7
	St. John Vianney	76.374	8.486	SJ Non-Pub A	11
	Donovan Catholic	67.446	7.494	SJ Non-Pub A	13
	Raritan	51.653	7.379	CJ2	13
	Point Beach*	54.064	6.758	CJ1	12
	Lacey*	40.974	6.829	SJ3	13
	Barnegat	53.944	6.743	SJ2	11
	Henry Hudson	47.082	6.726	CJ1	14
	Pinelands	47.047	6.721	SJ3	11
	Howell	46.032	6.576	SJ4	19
	Matawan	52.6	6.575	CJ3	14
	Brick	55.836	6.204	CJ3	15
	Jackson Liberty	24.732	6.183	CJ2	15
	Keansburg	36.276	6.046	CJ1	16
	Toms River East	41.993	5.999	SJ3	15
	Lakewood	16.269	5.423	CJ4	16
	Toms River South	37.87	5.41	SJ3	16
	Jackson Memorial	42.32	5.29	CJ3	17
	Manchester	39.208	4.901	SJ2	19
	Ocean	29.104	3.638	CJ2	19
	Monmouth	26.296	3.287	CJ2	20
	Long Branch	22.407	3.201	CJ4	21
	Asbury Park	14.94	2.49	CJ1	27