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

Matt Manley|January 9, 2025|Last Updated January 13, 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 Holmdel High School
Quarterfinals (Boys): Saturday, Feb. 15 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	Manasquan	278.597	25.327	CJ2	1
2	Red Bank	242.467	22.042	CJ3	1
3	Rumson-Fair Haven	191.448	21.272	CJ2	2
4	Central	229.528	20.866	SJ4	2
5	CBA	184.56	18.456	SJ Non-Pub A	5
6	St. Rose	193.424	17.584	SJ Non-Pub B	3
7	Holmdel	150.876	16.764	CJ2	3
8	Wall	180.829	16.439	CJ2	4
9	Ranney	126.992	15.874	SJ Non-Pub B	5
10	Southern	157.752	15.775	SJ4	6
11	Colts Neck	123.405	15.426	CJ3	5
12	Red Bank Catholic	163.786	14.89	SJ Non-Pub A	7
13	Point Boro	148.33	14.833	CJ2	6
14	Freehold Boro	170.36	14.197	CJ3	8
15	Middletown South	146.748	13.341	CJ3	9
16	Keyport	123.23	12.323	CJ1	4
17	Neptune	109.395	12.155	CJ3	10
18	Brick Memorial	145.512	12.126	CJ3	11
19	Pinelands	118.91	11.891	SJ3	7
20	Middletown North	141.216	11.768	CJ3	12
	Toms River North	115.78	11.578	SJ4	12
	Shore	115.37	11.537	CJ1	5
	Marlboro	121.634	11.058	CJ4	9
	Matawan	119.636	10.876	CJ3	13
	Donovan Catholic	118.591	10.781	SJ Non-Pub A	11
	Henry Hudson	117.41	10.674	CJ1	8
	Howell	93.609	10.401	SJ4	15
	Raritan	100.58	10.058	CJ2	12
	Freehold Twp.	89.775	9.975	CJ4	10
	Point Beach	99.74	9.974	CJ1	11
	St. John Vianney	127.841	9.834	SJ Non-Pub A	13
	Manalapan	78.624	9.828	CJ4	11
	Jackson Memorial	108.075	9.825	CJ3	15
	Barnegat	92.27	9.227	SJ2	12
	Jackson Liberty	62.447	8.921	CJ2	14
	Toms River East	71.613	7.957	SJ3	15
	New Egypt	69.912	7.768	SJ1	12
	Keansburg	77.6	7.76	CJ1	16
	Lakewood	33.595	6.719	CJ4	17
	Brick	73.128	6.648	CJ3	18
	Ocean	73.018	6.638	CJ2	17
	Manchester	62.47	6.247	SJ2	20
	Toms River South	61.7	6.17	SJ3	17
	Monmouth	58.58	5.858	CJ2	18
	Lacey	57.98	5.798	SJ3	18
	Long Branch	47.252	4.725	CJ4	21
	Asbury Park	31.311	3.479	CJ1	28