Matawan Boys Basketball Named Week 5 OIB Ortho Team of the Week | Shore Sports Insider
Week 5 OIB Ortho Team of the Week: Matawan Boys Basketball
Shore Sports Insider is proud to partner with OIB Ortho this winter to present our weekly OIB Ortho Boys Basketball Team of the Week Award, recognizing standout Shore Conference programs for their accomplishments on the court.
We are also thrilled to welcome Joe Leone’s Italian Specialties as a co-sponsor, providing a generous $250 gift card each week to celebrate the winning team.
The Week 5 recipient of the 2026 OIB Ortho Boys Team of the Week is Matawan, the team that earned the final spot in the Shore Conference Tournament by winning four straight games, including two during Week 5.
Back on Jan. 27, a 44-42 loss to Neptune dropped Matawan to 6-11 with the team’s sixth loss in a row. The losing streak all but ended Matawan’s pursuit of a Shore Conference Class B Central division championship and left the Huskies with long-shot odds to qualify for the Shore Conference Tournament.
The turnaround began modestly with a 30-19 win over Long Branch to close out January, which was the lowest-scoring game of the Shore Conference season, as well as the lowest winning total by any Shore Conference team in 2025-26.
Although it was not the most aesthetically pleasing victory, the win over Long Branch got Matawan back on a winning course and over the following three games, the Huskies would look the part of SCT qualifier. It started on Feb. 2 with a 52-40 win over Monmouth Regional while the Falcons were still in the mix for the Class B Central championship. Senior Colin Reitman scored 23 points and senior Trevor Cole added 13 to pace the Huskies, who opened up a 12-3 lead on Monmouth through one quarter and never looked back.
The win to open last week gave Matawan the power-point boost it needed to start dreaming about a spot in the SCT heading into last week, which opened with another division-title contender. On Feb. 5, Matawan hosted Class B Central division champion Ocean and to have any hope of making the SCT, the Huskies would have to defeat the Spartans for a second time. Earlier in the season, Matawan erased an 11-point second-half deficit to beat Ocean on the road, 42-37.
The second time around, Matawan would not need a furious second-half comeback, instead beating the Spartans in more convincing fashion, 57-45. Senior Colin Reitmann led the way with 23 points, junior Christian Baskerville scored 23 and senior Trevor Cole threw in eight to highlights the Huskies on the offensive end.
“We knew what we were capable of,” six-foot-5 sophomore Cayson Williams said. “We have working hard in practice, just trying to get better and we are starting to see it pay off.”
Even with wins over the top two teams in Class B Central to open the week, Matawan still needed some help from other teams in the Shore Conference to have a chance to qualify for the SCT on the final day of play before the seeding meeting on Sunday. The Huskies got the help they needed in the form of losses by Red Bank to Manalapan and Toms River East to Brick Memorial — both of which were decided by one score.
That made Saturday’s home game against Pinelands a winner-take-all game for the final spot in the SCT, at least once Henry Hudson clinched its spot at around the same time with a win over New Egypt. Reitmann again stepped up in the big moment with nine of his 14 points in the first half and sophomore Cayson Williams helped bring it home for Matawan with 14 of his 15 in the second half as the Huskies took down Pinelands, 60-50, to earn the last spot in the SCT. Cole also made an impact with nine points, including a pair of key baskets late in the fourth quarter, while junior Christian Baskerville and Sean Euell each added 10 points.
“Early in the game, it wasn’t working that well for me but we made some adjustments that worked for us,” Williams said. “We hit some shots in the first half and in the second half, we started getting the ball into the post and it was hard for them (Pinelands) to stop it.”
Matawan finished 24th in the Shore Conference in power points at the SCT cut-off date, which gave the Huskies the final spot in the 24-team field. As the No. 24 seed, Matawan will take on Rumson-Fair Haven in the first round of the tournament on Tuesday in Rumson.
On Monday, Shore Sports Insider visited practice to present Matawan head coach Jim Macomber and the team with a commemorative game ball and a $250 Joe Leone’s Italian Specialties Gift Card, courtesy of our partners at Joe Leone’s, for a well-earned team meal.
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