Ebb & Flow: Ebeling Steps Up, St. Rose Reaches SCT Final with Win Over Manasquan

TOMS RIVER — Bryan Ebeling has not had the individual senior season he had hoped to have in his third year at St. Rose, but now that the Purple Roses are playing for championships the rest of the way, his only concern is helping his team repeat as Shore Conference Tournament and NJSIAA Non-Public B champions.

On Wednesday against Manasquan in the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals, just as he was during last year’s championship runs, Ebeling was there for his team when it needed him most.

Ebeling scored 17 of his season-high 20 points in the second half and St. Rose stormed past the rival Warriors, 59-42, and into the Shore Conference Tournament championship game for the second straight season.

“It’s all mental,” Ebeling said. “You can struggle through a year, but it doesn’t matter, because these are moments where it just happens. Since yesterday, I was locked in.”

Bryan Ebeling is up to 18 points and St. Rose leads Manasquan 51-38 with 3:26 left. pic.twitter.com/WDDV7FWnXI

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) February 20, 2025

“It hasn’t gone the way it should have for him this year, I think, for what he is capable of doing,” St. Rose coach Brian Lynch said. “But he has been working his tail off to get back to that. I almost had a tear in my eye in the locker room when I talked about him because I know much adversity he has felt this year. He has wanted to play so much better, and he showed what he is capable of tonight.”

Entering Wednesday night, Ebeling was averaging 6.9 points per game after putting up 7.4 as a junior on a St. Rose team that went 29-2 en route to SCT and Non-Public B championships. He scored 10 points or more in six games prior to the SCT semifinals and through one half, Ebeling sat at three points on a three-point shot as St. Rose led, 20-15, after a physical, defensive-minded half.

“Brian has had some moments this year where he may have doubted himself for whatever reason,” Lynch said. “I just kept telling him that the only thing that gets confidence back is work, and that’s why I have been making the point about how hard he has been working to try to get back to the level I think he can play at.

“Maybe this is the start of a run to end the season. I’m a big fan of the saying, ‘It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish.’ If he finishes playing like this, I’ll take that all day.”

Manasquan stayed close early in the third quarter and trailed, 29-24. St. Rose then blew the game open with a 16-4 run, led by nine points from Ebeling during the run. Senior Evan Romano hit three free throws to finish off the burst and give St. Rose a 45-28 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Ebeling banged his knee during the third quarter and came out of the game before assuring Lynch that he was all good to continue. He finished off his game with a three-point play, then hit a pair of free throws.

Bryan Ebeling hits a three then converts this tough drive for a 40-26 St. Rose lead. He is currently being treated for what looks like a cramp. pic.twitter.com/4VS5Gi46Rq

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) February 20, 2025

“When I got hit in the knee and had to come out, coach asked me if I wanted to play and I was like, ‘I need to play the fourth quarter,'” Ebeling said. “I want to finish this.”

St. Rose’s top three scorers all had modest scoring games, making Ebeling’s 20 points all the more imperative. Junior Jayden Hodge scored 12 points to go with seven rebounds, senior Evan Romano poured in nine points while dishing out three assists and sophomore Avery Lynch — who burned Manasquan for a team-high 17 points in a Jan. 22 St. Rose win — did not score against Manasquan’s airtight defense.

Junior Tyler Cameron and freshman Izayah Cooper also gave St. Rose an offensive boost, with each scoring eight points. Cooper came off the bench and matched up, on occasion, with Manasquan sophomore and leading scorer Rey Weinseimer on the defensive end.

“Tyler Cameron has been fantastic and Zay, for a freshman, never looks like he is nervous out there,” Lynch said. “He is just so smart for a freshman, so it’s awesome being able to bring him off the bench. He is good enough to start for us, but he understands his place as a freshman, and he has embraced coming off the bench with that spark.”

Hodge took on the bulk of the workload guarding Weinseimer, who scored 17 points in the first three quarters of the first game vs. St. Rose this season. Hodge switched onto Weinseimer for the fourth quarter of that game and since then, Weinseimer scored 22 points in nine quarters. The Warriors sophomore scored nine points Wednesday night on 3-for-10 shooting.

“In Rey’s defense, I honestly think Jay is one of the best defenders in the state,” Lynch said of Hodge. “He is 6-foot-6, he can guard a 6-8 or 6-9 guy because he is strong and, for some reason, he is able to stick with 6-foot guys because of his speed. He’s a special defensive guy and our focus was we might as well put our best defensive guy on their most explosive offensive player.”

With St. Rose prioritizing stopping Weinseimer, Ebeling was tasked with guarding Manasquan’s other major offensive threat, senior Griffin Linstra. Linstra led Manasquan with 18 points and eight rebounds.

“When it comes to defense, it’s just all effort,” Ebeling said. “I was just going at him (Linstra). In my mind, I know that he has (college) offers and stuff like that, so I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to stop this guy.'”

Manasquan jumped out to a 9-6 lead through one quarter before St. Rose’s offense got in gear. Cooper and Hodge spearheaded a 9-0 run that pushed St. Rose into the lead, 17-11. Cooper scored the first four points of the run and Hodge followed with a three-point play off a feed from Romano.

Wednesday’s win was the 30th straight for St. Rose against Shore Conference competition and fifth straight against Manasquan — all in the past two seasons. It also snaps Manasquan’s streak of six straight trips to the Shore Conference final, which is one shy of tying the record set by Neptune from 1961 to 1967.

“I’m going to say that the Shore Conference ended that streak more than we did,” Lynch said, referencing the controversial change to the seeding procedure that led to St. Rose and Manasquan meeting in the SCT semifinals instead of in the final.

Manasquan was the No. 1 seed in the Shore Conference Tournament despite losing to St. Rose twice during the regular season. The tournament was seeded by NJSIAA power points, which resulted in St. Rose and its 30 straight wins vs. the Shore Conference as the No. 4 seed.

“It’s a huge accomplishment (to beat Manasquan three times) because Manasquan is one of the best teams in the state,” Lynch said. “They got all the way up to number 1o in the state and deservedly so. They are one of the most well-coached teams, they have good senior leadership in Linstra, they have those athletes that are just really strong, and then Rey has played like a superstar this year. So that’s not an easy game to win.”

St. Rose’s semifinal win at RWJ Barnabas Health Arena was its first trip to the building since losing to Ranney in the 2023 semifinal. Hodge, Ebeling and Romano were all starters on that team, which held a 13-point lead with under 2:30 left in the fourth quarter before ultimately losing in overtime. Even after winning two championships last season, that loss has remained a source of motivation for that trio and it guaranteed that this year’s version of Purple Roses was not about to let up on Manasquan once the lead ballooned to 17.

“That was on my mind every single moment of yesterday and today,” Ebeling said. “I was just thinking, ‘I can’t lose here again.'”

On Friday night at OceanFirst Bank Arena on the campus of Monmouth University, St. Rose will attempt to become the seventh Shore Conference boys basketball program to win consecutive Shore Conference championships. The Purple Roses will face Christian Brothers Academy, a team that has won consecutive titles eight times in its history while winning 16 total championships. Lynch played on three of CBA’s four consecutive SCT championship teams during the 1990’s and was teammates with his coaching counterpart on Friday, CBA coach Geoff Billet.

“They are a very well-balanced team,” Lynch said of CBA. “They have real good senior leadership in (Kevin) Pikiell and (Justin) Fuerbacher, so this is a very good team. They deserve to be in the finals. They ran through the other side pretty easily so we’re going to have to bring everything we have to beat them.”

“We want it so bad,” Ebeling said. “We want to repeat, no matter what. We want to repeat states, repeat Shore Conference. That’s all that’s on our mind.”