Despite Roster Overhaul, Holmdel Returns to NJSIAA Sectional Semifinals

HOLMDEL — Going into a 2024-25 season that featured another daunting divisional schedule and a roster that graduated two 1,000-point scorers and another senior who would have scored 1,000 if not for an injury, veteran head coach Sean Devaney did not know what the results would look like for his Holmdel boys basketball team.

From an early part of the season, however, Devaney knew his squad would have a chance to compete because they understood their only chance was to play and be coached as a team.

A team that lost three major scoring threats and returned only a handful of players who were fourth and fifth options on offense kept its season alive Monday with a 57-48 win over Point Pleasant Boro in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II quarterfinals. With its 17th win of the season, Holmdel is doing more than just surviving with a new-look roster this season.

The Hornets — ranked No. 8 in the latest Shore Sports Insider Top 10 — are in the sectional semifinals for a second straight year and just four wins off last year’s pace despite a more challenging divisional schedule.

Ben Kipnis and Nick Seeloch were 1,000-point scorers before graduating in 2024, and classmate James Vallillo was equally important as a scorer and interior presence. Vallillo missed almost his entire junior season due to a foot injury, which prevented him from giving Holmdel three 1,000-point scorers in the same class.

Junior Jack Valillo and current senior Daxx Corneiro were the other two starters and senior C.J. Karis was a key piece off the bench for last year’s 21-4 Holmdel squad that went to the semifinals of both the Shore Conference Tournament and Central Jersey Group 2 playoffs. That trio played narrower roles as younger players on a team led by the senior trio, but have emerged as starters and leaders this season for a team that has accomplished almost as much as last year’s team, with an opportunity for even more.

“The one thing I can say about our kids is they are committed to playing here,” Devaney said. “I think it was a real challenge for them knowing that most people probably didn’t think we were going to be very good. Having a good year the last few years, I don’t think they wanted to be known as the team that couldn’t get it done, so to speak. They have really bought into our team approach, and that’s critical for us.”

“We’re all one group,” Karis said. “It’s not two groups. It’s one team and we’re all together. No one is over another. They weren’t alone last year, Ben, Nick and James. We were there, too. We always stayed with it and did what we needed to help us win. Last year, we were a team, too. We were at those practices, we had the same mentality, and it carries over. Just because we lost players doesn’t mean other people can’t step up.”

Devaney has coached teams that have overachieved with modest individual talent, but he has also coached a team with immense talent and taken them farther than most Shore Conference teams have gone. Between his two separate stints at Holmdel, Devaney coached a Raritan team with two Division I talents in Qa’rraan Calhoun (St. John’s and Houston) and Marques Johnson (Boston University) to a Shore Conference Tournament championship and an overall Group II title in 2004.

Now in his second stint with the Hornets, Devaney has taken them to two NJSIAA Group II championship games — in 2012 at Ewing and 2020 at Manasquan — and to two Shore Conference Tournament semifinals — both in the past six seasons. He has also seen two outstanding underclassmen — Kyle Cardaci in 2016-17 and Evan Romano in 2022-23 — transfer to local non-public powerhouses after promising starts at Holmdel. Cardaci helped lead Mater Dei Prep to a second consecutive Shore Conference Tournament title as a junior after two standout years at Holmdel before going on to play collegiately at Coppin State and St. Peter’s.

Romano, meanwhile, is currently a senior three-year starter on a St. Rose team that finished No. 1 in New Jersey a year ago and just won its second straight SCT title. Romano was part of an exciting underclass quartet with Kipnis, Seeloch and James Vallillo as a freshman in 2021-22 before deciding to challenge himself with a move to St. Rose.

Despite losing that talent, Holmdel has remained competitive on a year-to-year basis.

“We need every intangible,” Devaney said. “So if you’re not going to buy in, you have to get out. So our kids are all like, ‘Okay, let’s do this.’ I always joke: we are always swimming with sharks, but we’re not really sharks. It’s tough, but these kids, to their credit, they have been great all year.”

Holmdel reached this year’s SCT quarterfinals and lost to second-seeded Christian Brothers Academy. The Hornets have already made it just as far as last year in the state tournament, even beating Point Boro in the sectional quarterfinals for a second straight year.

Holmdel lost December games to Lenape and Trenton at the Score at the Shore Tournament at Southern Regional, and its only losses within the Shore Conference have been two times each to teams ranked within the top seven of the Shore Sports Insider Top 10: No. 3 CBA, No. 5 Rumson-Fair Haven and No. 7 Red Bank Regional.

“A lot of the guys this year either didn’t play last year or got very little minutes, but we expected them to step up,” Corneiro said. “We work at it every day with those guys, and we built that trust in each other over time. It was definitely an adjustment over time, because we hadn’t really played with each other as a group, but once we got in that flow, it’s been great.”

Holmdel will now get a third crack at Rumson-Fair Haven — the team that ended the Hornets’ season last year in the semifinals. After hosting Rumson in last year’s sectional semifinals and getting swept by the Bulldogs in Class A Coastal divisional play this season, Holmdel will travel to Rumson to play the No. 2 seed on Wednesday night.

Overcoming a Slow Start and a Tough Opponent

Earning a second straight trip to the sectional semifinals did not come easy for Holmdel against Point Boro, which stormed out to a 9-2 lead. After Holmdel went on a 9-2 run of its own to go up 18-15, the visiting Panthers responded with a 10-0 run to go up 25-18.

“We played them last year, so we knew they were physical, we knew it was going to be a battle down low,” Corneiro said. “We just had to stay with it and keep battling them to the end, and we felt like, eventually, we would find a way to win.”

“We didn’t turn it over in the fourth quarter,” Devaney said. “Every time I thought we had a little rhythm, we turn it over. We went up three (18-15), (Hunter) Hynes hit his only three from the corner, then got a steal for a layup and then they get another steal. We were up three and now, suddenly we’re down seven like that. Our turnovers were really leading to a lot of their points, but in the fourth quarter, we stopped turning the ball over.”

Point Boro took its largest lead of the game when junior Jovin Steinmetz hit a three-pointer 18 seconds into the third quarter to put the Panthers ahead, 32-23. From there, Holmdel chipped away at the deficit and took a 39-38 lead on a score in the paint by senior Joe Currieri off a find from Connor Paul with just under 2:30 left in the third quarter. After Point Boro pulled even, Vallillo scored on a putback in the final seconds of the third quarter to send Holmdel to the fourth with a 43-41 lead.

Jack Vallillo works for the finish to end the 3rd quarter and Holmdel leads Point Boro 43-41. It’s been a physical, fast-paced, well-played game. pic.twitter.com/uabyWdae43

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) March 3, 2025

The Panthers battled back in front and took their final lead of the game on a drive by senior Drew Cardia with under six minutes to go that put Point Boro ahead, 47-45. Corneiro tied the game off a feed from Paul for a layup and Karis scored on a driving layup for a 49-47 lead with 4:24 left. Karis then knocked down a key three-pointer from the top of the key for a 52-48 lead, and Corneiro hit two free throws to stretch Holmdel’s lead to 54-48 — its largest lead to that point.

CJ Karis hits a big three and Holmdel takes a 52-48 lead with under 4 to go. pic.twitter.com/bNUN2Ikj82

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) March 3, 2025

“Early in the game, we weren’t getting much transition at all,” Corneiro said. “We were just a half-court offense, because they were hitting a lot of their shots. Off of their misses, we were able to push it down and convert — either a layup or an open three. And once we started to get those and make them, I feel like it changed the game.”

Cardia kept Point Boro’s hopes alive with a three-point play on the other end, but Vallillo came right back with a three off a tap-out by Paul after a miss for a 57-51 lead with 2:54 left. Cardia then missed a shot in the paint after a steal and Corneiro made the Panthers pay with a pull-up jumper that stretched Holmdel’s lead to 59-51. Karis later buried another top-of-the-key three for a 62-53 lead with 1:52 left.

Jack Vallillo with a big answer after Point Boro cuts Holmdel’s lead to 3. Holmdel now up 59-53 with 2:09 left. pic.twitter.com/M555CCKtnH

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) March 3, 2025

Despite the rare miss on the fast break, Cardia kept hitting shots to keep Point Boro alive, but Holmdel continued to bury free throws to put the game away. Paul and Vallillo each hit a pair from the foul line and Karis capped the scoring by hitting one of two.

Point Boro’s 2-3 zone managed to slow Holmdel down in the first half and early in the third quarter, but the Hornets gradually acclimated to the Panthers’ length and took advantage of offensive rebounding opportunities down the stretch.

“We play a lot of teams that play (man-to-man) on us, but we’re all very unselfish,” Karis said. “No one is on the court just to score points. We’re all on the court just to win the game.”

“That is their defense and they are really used to it, so they are good at it,” Corneiro said. “They force a lot of tips and deflections. We just stayed composed, tried to find the open guy and limit our turnovers if we can. The first half was hard because they were boxing us out really well, but as the game went on, the more we kept crashing into the paint, the harder it was for them to find us and get a body on us, and we were able to get more rebounds and tip-outs.”

Karis and Corneiro were two of four Holmdel players to crack double-figure scoring in the game. Vallillo finished with 15 points and Currieri chipped in 12. Holmdel also got major contributions off the bench from Paul and freshman Anthony Serini. Serini scored seven points and Paul grabbed seven rebounds, collected five assists and blocked four shots, with all of his blocks coming in the first half.

“He is very versatile, because Connor can also dribble,” Corneiro said. “He is not just sitting inside and just posting up. On the defensive end too, he is long, so it makes us better as a team. Also, for me, I’m typically a wing. I’ll go down low when I need to, but have Connor as another option to play in the paint frees me up to play more of my game.”

“I thought Connor Paul and Serini coming off the bench gave us a huge lift,” Devaney said. “We were kind of reeling a little bit and Connor had some blocks, Anthony’s defensive intensity picked up the pace, so I thought that gave us a little burst with those two coming in. Connor Paul had four blocks in the first half and if those are layups, then we really could have been scrambling. I thought that was real important.”

Currieri has been a steady contributor for Holmdel as a senior in an expanded role this season, while Paul and Serini have been impact newcomers to the Holmdel operation. Senior starter Ire Adesina also played in spots as a junior and has contributed to Holmdel’s transition to another season in which the Hornets are squarely among the Shore’s Top 10 and one of the last four teams standing in Central Jersey Group II.

Good start for Point Boro on the road at Holmdel. Drew Cardia with a pair of buckets and Point Boro leads 8-2 midway through the 1st. pic.twitter.com/8Hmo5ajN3s

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) March 3, 2025

Cardia carried the Point Boro offense with a game-high 25 points despite sitting on the bench for the majority of the second quarter after picking up two fouls. Steinmetz also chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds in the loss. Holmdel’s defense held sophomore guard and leading scorer Hunter Hynes to seven points, five of which came in a span of 13 seconds to start the 10-0 run in the second quarter.

“It was a no-catch situation for (Hynes) and then the other four defenders help off when need to,” Corneiro said. “Cardia had a great game, but I feel like we did our job on Hynes.”

Back to the Semifinals

Holmdel and Rumson are two of four Shore Conference teams occupying the four spots in the Central Group II semifinals. Top seed Manasquan will host No. 5 Wall in the other semifinal on Wednesday night.

Manasquan and Rumson met in a classic championship game a year ago, which Manasquan won by closing the game on a 13-0 run in the final two minutes to win, 36-30. Holmdel is hoping to prevent a Manasquan-Rumson rematch by doing its part and knocking off Rumson after losing both regular-season games to the Bulldogs.

In the first meeting between the division rivals, Rumson overcame a 10-point first-half deficit on the road to beat the Hornets, 54-48. In the second match-up, Rumson stormed out to an early double-digit lead at home, Holmdel rallied to tie the game by halftime, and Rumson broke it open with a big third quarter en route to a 58-49 win.

Holmdel had no answers for 6-foot-9 Rumson junior Luke Cruz, who scored 24 points in the more recent of the two games after going for 20 and 15 rebounds in the first meeting. Holmdel is hoping for its second trip to a sectional final in the last five NJSIAA Tournaments while seeking its first sectional title since 1999.

“They’ve got Cruz down low and we’ve got to center on him,” Corneiro said. “It’s going to be hard knowing we don’t have too much size. We’ve got Connor, but Cruz is still a really good player and we know that they run through him and then they have a bunch of shooters. It’s definitely going to be a physical game, but we know what we’re capable of and we’ll leave it on the court.”