Center Stage: Shore Big Men Make Impact on JSBL Thursday

MANASQUAN — Dane Moran spent his sophomore season of high school basketball battling a future Big Ten center two years his senior during practice at Christian Brothers Academy.

Those experiences competing against 6-foot-10 teammate and All-Shore center Josh Cohen not only prepared him to ascend to the starting center spot for CBA in the subsequent two years. It also prepared him for a successful college career at both Trinity College and Dickinson College, as well as an eventual reunion with his former CBA teammate.

Thursday night at Manasquan High School, Moran and Cohen played on opposing sides of the first game in the Jersey Shore Basketball League doubleheader, and Moran played his part in a 109-95 win for his RKE Athletic team over Cohen and Sea View Jeep.

“Coming up at CBA, Josh was the guy,” Moran said. “I came in as a freshman looking up to him and learning from him. Those were big shoes to fill after he left. He has had so much success in college and now playing pro basketball, to be able to play against him is kind of a full-circle moment.”

Former Mater Dei Prep star Kyle Cardaci led the RKE scoring effort with 33 points, including a tie-breaking four-point play with just over six minutes to play in the fourth quarter that gave his team an 85-81 lead it would not give back. Moran, meanwhile, played his role, scoring seven points, grabbing four rebounds and blocking three shots in an effort to slow down Sea View’s imposing front line of Cohen and fellow 6-foot-8 big man Emmett Hall.

“Back in those high school days, I was probably more timid,” Moran said. “Now, it’s just fun. I have grown a little bit and gotten stronger, so now I just see it as an opportunity to see how I stack up against him. He’s a great player, and for a guy like me, he has been a really good inspiration.”

Moran has learned to fit in with a winner, starting with three years at Trinity, where Moran was part of a team that reached the Division III Final Four in 2023-24. This past season, Moran transferred to Dickinson and was a First-Team All-Centennial Conference selection for his averages of 14.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.

“Having (Cohen) when I got to CBA was a big help because it showed me really quickly that high school ball is a big jump in physicality, which got me ready for college, which is an even bigger jump,” Moran said. “I realized on Trinity a little bit and definitely at Dickinson that I had to be a do-it-all guy — just doing whatever it takes. Here (in the JSBL), we have so many skilled guards that if I can do my job as a bigger guy on the team, that works. I pride myself on being able to wear down other big guys with my physicality. I realize I might not get up as many shots per game and I don’t really care.”

Cardaci scored 21 of his points in the second half to help RKE close out the victory while also adding five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Former Mater Dei Prep High School teammate Pete Gorman added 13 points and six rebounds in the win, while both Nico Galette and Alex Massung each poured in 18 points while grabbing seven rebounds apiece.

With former Monmouth University star Justin Robinson absent, Cohen led Sea View with 42 points on 18-for-29 shooting with 16 rebounds. Cohen played at St. Francis of Pennsylvania before one-year stops at UMass and USC, averaging 5.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in his one season in the Big Ten in 2024-25.

Former Red Bank Catholic guard and current Catholic University standout C.J. Ruoff poured in 30 points to go with seven rebounds in Thursday’s loss. Ruoff was an All-Landmark Conference First-Team selection as a senior this past season.

 

Generational Win for JSBL Leader

County Line Auto Body steamrolled Stern’s Trailer, 103-63, to improve its 2026 summer record to 5-0, with Leon Daniels (34 points, 11 rebounds), Josh Treadwell (23 and 10) and Brendan Mariani (11 points, 15 rebounds and five assists) each posting a double-double.

Without a full complement of players, County Line’s only two players on the bench both share the same name. Dan O’Neill and Dan O’Neill Jr. provided depth for the first-place team at the JSBL Thursday, with O’Neil Jr. — a rising St. John Vianney senior — providing seven points and his father scoring four points in the final five minutes of the rout.

Dan O’Neill Sr., now 46, made his first appearance in a JSBL game since 2019, with his son in attendance for a few of those games.

“I barely remember it,” the younger O’Neill said. “I just remember not wanting to sit still in the bleachers.”

The elder O’Neill is a North Jersey native, a former player at Franklin Pierce College, and was a Jackson resident before a recent move to South Brunswick. Dan O’Neill Jr., meanwhile, began his high school career at Trenton Catholic Academy and, after that school closed and reopened as Thrive Charter, transferred to St. John Vianney ahead of the 2024-25 school year.

This past winter, O’Neill Jr. was St. John Vianney’s leading scorer and rebounder at 11.4 points and six boards per game.

“I have been working a lot on my defense, trying to transition more to a guard,” O’Neill said. “In high school, I’m one of the bigger guys, so I kind of have to play the role of a big guy.”

Before he even made it to the end of his high school career, O’Neill Jr. not only got to play in the summer league that his father called home for more than a decade, but he got to share the court with him.

“I can’t believe he scored,” O’Neill Jr. said. “That was impressive.”