Beach Buzz: Edgecomb, Crowley Heroics Send Point Beach to Sectional Semis

POINT PLEASANT BEACH — Scot Crowley is the only senior on the Point Pleasant Beach boys basketball team, but he insists he feels like he is playing on a team full of them with the way he feels supported by his teammates during what is his last shot at an NJSIAA Tournament run.

For just about the entire length of the Garnet Gulls’ Central Jersey Group I quarterfinal game vs. Henry Hudson on Saturday, Crowley carried his team through the highs and unsettling lows of the Shore Conference showdown. Then, in the final seconds, one of his teammates — one with a knack for the big moment in his three varsity seasons — made the play of the game.

Crowley hit a pair of game-tying free throws with 13.8 seconds left and junior Jacob Edgecomb capped his second-lowest-scoring game of the season with the biggest shot of his career — a right-handed scoop shot with one second left after stealing the ball on the other end. Time ran out on the game and Point Beach — the No. 3 seed in the section — celebrated a wild, 62-60 win over the sixth-seeded Admirals to send the Gulls to the sectional semifinal Tuesday at home vs. No. 10 New Providence.

🚨BEACH AT THE BUZZER: Crowley hits 2 clutch free throws to tie it and Jacob Edgecomb hits the winner off the steal to give Point Beach a thrilling 62-60 win over Henry Hudson. pic.twitter.com/0ONxLrmUVJ

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) March 1, 2025

“That might be my favorite game of all-time,” Crowley said. “From the start of the game to when that buzzer sounded, we were all together throughout. Seeing (Edgecomb) put that shot in at the buzzer after making all those timely shots, it just shows the work we put in throughout the season.”

Crowley turned in a career-best performance with his high-school career hanging in the balance. The 6-3 senior scored a career-high 29 points while pulling down 11 rebounds, including the defensive rebound that led to the foul that put him on the free-throw line for the tying foul shots with 13.8 left.

“He was the first freshman we put on (varsity) from his class,” fifth-year Point Beach coach Ed Goodman said. “The rest of the team is sophomores and juniors. We ate it last year so we could have these moments now. I’m just incredibly proud of Scot. He is our only senior and he has shown up with his leadership so many times this year.”

Edgecomb, meanwhile, hit a three-pointer in the first quarter and did not score again until the final second of the game. With Henry Hudson searching for the game-winning basket on its final possession, Point Beach’s left-handed junior guard picked off a crosscourt pass with six seconds left, navigated into the frontcourt and hit a driving, right-handed, under-handed shot in the paint. Henry Hudson had no timeouts remaining to stop the clock.

“When I saw him intercept that ball with six seconds left, I looked up and it was a two-on-one and I just knew,” Crowley said. “Jacob told me two minutes before that happened, ‘I got us. I’ll do this for you.’ Then he went out and closed the game. You can’t ask for anything more.”

“Jacob is an incredible human before he is even a basketball player,” Goodman said. “He has a work ethic better than anyone I have ever seen. Today was just a credit to that.

“We didn’t call timeout. There was no need to adjust anything. This is what we practiced and this is what we prepared for. Jacob prepared himself for that very moment and it showed.”

The game-winner by Edgecomb helped Point Beach avoid a fourth-quarter collapse after Henry Hudson erased a 12-point deficit with six minutes left and an 11-point deficit with 4:51 to go. Point Beach led, 54-42, and later went up, 56-45, on a layup by sophomore Danny Cavanaugh with under five minutes to go.

Cavanaugh, however, was called for his second technical foul of the game, which disqualified him the rest of the way. The 6-4 sophomore was a major factor in the game, finishing with 12 points and nine rebounds and his loss was a problem for Point Beach, who also lost starting point guard Tyler Preston to his fifth foul with 5:34 left in the fourth quarter. Preston finished with eight points, five rebounds and five assists before fouling out.

Cavanaugh picked up his first technical foul on an exchange with Henry Hudson junior Masio Tucker after the whistle. Both players were issued a technical foul and Tucker was ejected for taking a swing over Cavanaugh’s head.

“We know there are going to be situations where stuff doesn’t go our way,” Crowley said. “That’s why everyone on our bench knows all the plays and they know when it’s their time to step up, they are ready.”

With Point Beach down two starters for the final four-plus minutes, Henry Hudson made its move. The Admirals set sail on a 12-0 run that gave them the lead, with sophomore JoJo Newell and senior Jack Fitzpatrick hitting back-to-back three-pointers to catapult Henry Hudson into the lead for the first time all day, 57-56, with 2:19 to play.

Crowley hit 1-of-2 free throws to tie the game at 57-57, to which Fitzpatrick responded with a drive to the basket for a 59-57 lead. Crowley again made 1-of-2 from the line to pull Point Beach within 59-58 and Henry Hudson junior Billy Quinn knocked down the first of two free throws with 14.8 seconds left to push the Henry Hudson lead to 60-58. Quinn, however, missed the second and Crowley was fouled as he grabbed his 11th rebound of the game, giving him a chance to tie the game with two free throws.

Point Beach’s lone senior calmly sank both foul shots with 13.8 to go to tie the game, 60-60.

“I was just thinking the second I miss one of those, my career is over,” Crowley said of stepping to the line with his team down by two. “I knew that if there was a time to make those free throws, it was then and there. I took a deep breath, blocked out all the fans and shot it just like I do in practice.”

“This is a March win and those mean the most,” Goodman said. “Playing those bigger, better teams and not being successful, we learned some things. Playing those games helped us in that when we get in these situations, we’re ready to handle it.”

Fitzpatrick concluded his standout career at Henry Hudson by leading his team with 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists on Saturday. Younger brother, Michael Fitzpatrick, added 13 points thanks to three first-half three-pointers and Newell finished with 11 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots, including a pair of clutch three-pointers in the fourth quarter.

“Credit to Brian Kelly and his team,” said Goodman, whose team is 3-0 vs. Henry Hudson over the last two seasons. “Jack has a phenomenal career and Brian is an awesome coach. I hate that it had to end that way for them, but it’s got to end.”

Jack Fitzpatrick, fellow starter Kevin Pharo and Phinn Kozic were the only three seniors to play for Henry Hudson on Saturday, but the class will be missed after what they accomplished over the past two seasons. That especially applies to Fitzpatrick, who scored 1,463 points in his four-year varsity career, leading the Shore Conference in points-per-game as a junior on a 2023-24 Admirals team that won a division title and 20 games for the first time in more than 30 years and reached the Central Group I semifinals.

“The one word to sum it up is grateful,” Kelly said. “I’m grateful to be able to coach them and I’m so proud of the fight they showed. They fought until the very end. We dealt with a lot of adversity this season and we stuck together through all of it. We were stuck (trailing) in that 8-to-11 range the whole game, but they never gave up, they never faltered and they were in it until the last play. It hurts, but it’s a privilege to be in these positions, on this stage.”

This season began with Henry Hudson playing without Fitzpatrick due to his late transfer back from College Achieve in Asbury Park. Fitzpatrick enrolled at the Neptune charter school in the summer and returned to Henry Hudson late in the fall, which required him to sit out for the first 30 days of the season as an in-season transfer.

Once eligible, Fitzpatrick dealt with a bout of pneumonia that kept him out of action for three games in January. He finished his senior year averaging 18.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists.

“In Jack’s four years, it’s crazy to see the growth of the program and he was a vital part of it,” Kelly said. “It would have been tough to imagine this scenario during his freshman year, so as much as this hurts, the opportunity to play in this atmosphere, with this much on the line is a testament to the work that those seniors, including Jack, have put in to help build this program.”

The free-throw line was a significant part of Henry Hudson’s undoing Saturday, with the Admirals shooting 14-for-27 (51.8 percent) — including a 2-for-8 game from Jack Fitzpatrick. Point Beach was only marginally better from the foul line, finishing 13-for-22 (59.1 percent).

While Henry Hudson attempts to reload without its 1,000-plus-point scorer next season, Point Beach is in the middle of building what it hopes will be a multi-year run challenging for the Central Jersey Group I title. This is the fifth straight NJSIAA Tournament in which Point Beach has won at least one game, including four with Goodman at the helm. It is also the second time in the last three seasons the Garnet Gulls have reached the Central Group I semifinals.

Now, Point Beach will host New Providence Tuesday with a chance to punch its ticket to a sectional final for the first time since winning Central Group I in 2017-18. That was also the last season in which Point Beach won 20 games — a feat the Garnet Gulls once again reached with their win on Saturday.

“It’s great having the support of these guys,” Crowley said. “They are treating this like they’re all seniors. They know this is my last ride, so they want to make sure it’s a memorable one and make sure we do as much as we can this year.”