Golden Ticket: Central Survives Freehold Boro, Prepares for St. Rose in Shore Quarters

BAYVILLE — The expectations and anticipation ahead of the 2024-25 season exceeded any that the Central Regional boys basketball team has ever had and with a regular season that ended with the Golden Eagles sporting a 20-2 record, they were delivering in almost every way.

And yet, Central will have to shock the Shore to get where no Golden Eagles team ever has before in the Shore Conference Tournament and that is after they had to scratch and claw to get by their first SCT game Thursday night on their home floor.

Following a 20-2 season, Central’s first two matchups in the Shore Conference Tournament are against what might be the two must under-seeded teams by the new SCT power-points seeding format. The Golden Eagles earned the No. 5 seed in the tournament despite a better record and a head-to-head win over third-seeded Red Bank Regional, now must play No. 4 seed St. Rose — the defending champion and a team that has not lost to a Shore Conference opponent since the 2023 SCT semifinals — in Saturday’s quarterfinal round at Middletown South.

Before even getting a shot against St. Rose, Central had to get by reigning NJSIAA Group III runner-up and No. 12 seed Freehold Boro, which the Golden Eagles did Thursday night, 46-44. Central took the lead for good in the final two minutes of the first quarter, but had to fight off a fourth-quarter surge by the Colonials to survive Thursday’s round-of-16 challenge.

“We feel like we can compete with anybody,” Central senior Jaycen Santucci said. “This is the first year we have some pretty good size. We feel like you can give us anybody and we’ll go out and compete with them and that’s what it takes in a tournament like this.”

Sophomore Derek Roth led Central with 13 points, seven rebounds and lockdown defense as Central jumped in and out of defensive looks throughout the game. Santucci scored six of his 12 points in the fourth quarter while grabbing six rebounds and handing out six assists and senior Aidan Graham poured in 11 points for Central.

“We have five really good players on the floor any time and Derek really proved that today,” Central coach Mike Clemente Jr. said. “Not only did he do a good job offensively, but he made play after play after play defensively. In these games, the fifty-fifty balls are what usually determine who wins and all five of our guys went after those balls tonight.

“It seems like (Roth) plays better when the lights are brighter. You can see it in practice with the way he likes to go after guys and compete. I think he is just scratching the surface.”

Freehold Boro likely would have been a higher seed under the former method of SCT seeding, but was dragged down by playing in a Class B North division that did not offer opponents with substantial power-point punch and also contained the Shore’s lone winless team in Asbury Park. That meant Central had to play what might have been the most capable of the eight road teams in Thursday’s SCT round of 16 and in the fourth quarter, the Colonials showed why.

With Central leading, 31-22, through three quarters and in the middle of shutting down Freehold Boro’s offense, the Colonials immediately found their offensive rhythm at the outset of the fourth. Senior Qua’Mir Everett hit a jumper, junior Damier Lester scored off a turnover and senior Brian Tassey nailed a jumper — all within the first minute of the quarter — and just that quickly, Freehold Boro was within 31-28.

“Not only are they experienced; they are gamers,” Clemente said of Freehold Boro. “We had our hands full and we knew it. We weren’t looking ahead to St. Rose. We treated this like a state tournament game and that’s pretty much what we got. Our kids responded and made enough plays to win, which is what you’re trying to do at this time of year.”

Central’s offense then came to life, starting with a three-point play by Roth to push the lead back to 34-28.

“I was excited for this game,” said Roth, who transferred from Lacey ahead of his sophomore season. “The crowd loud, it was a tight game, the refs let us play. It was a fun game to play in.”

Tassey scored on back-to-back Freehold Boro possession, but Central had an answer for each one. After two Tassey free throws pulled Freehold within 34-30, Graham drained a corner three-pointer to extend the lead back to 37-30 and Santucci answered a dunk by Tassey with a drive to the basket of his own, making it a 39-32 Central lead.

Colonials senior Aidan Hamlin-Woolfolk drained a three-pointer to cut Central’s advantage to 39-35, but Santucci followed with a trip to the foul line that he optimized with two makes and a 41-35 Golden Eagles lead.

Freehold Boro finally got its deficit down to two at 43-41 and after senior Royalty Riley scored off a feed from classmate Jayson King to bump the lead back up to four, Hamlin-Woolfolk hit a three that pulled the Colonials within 45-44 with 46.9 seconds left.

“We would go on a seven-point run and they would come right back with one,” Santucci said. “It was a game of runs the whole night, they made some tough shots and they were right there. A lot of our guys had to step up really big. It was not a one-man show at all.”

The Colonials got the ball back with a chance to take the lead, but Roth knocked the ball away from Tassey going toward the basket and the Colonials turned the ball over even after securing the rebound.

Freehold Boro then fouled Graham with 8.5 seconds left and the senior missed the first attempt before draining the second for a 46-44 lead. The Colonials brought the ball up with a chance to tie or win the game and Hamlin-Woolfolk slipped past a pair of defenders for a scoop shot in the final seconds, but it missed the mark.

“They were making tough shots,” Santucci said. “They hit some threes while we were in their face, so we were just trying to limit them to no threes on that last play and if they drove, give a hard contest and get the rebound.”

Hamlin-Woolfolk led Freehold Boro with 19 points and eight rebounds and Tassey pitched in 13 points and five assists in the loss. King finished with eight points for Central and Riley hauled in 11 rebounds and grabbed four steals to go with his four points for the Golden Eagles.

“It was kind of like looking in the mirror a little bit, because they play how we play,” Clemente said of playing against Freehold Boro. “We are aggressive defensively, in passing lanes, making things happen in transition and go on spurts and this is a spurt team that we played today.”

Central’s close-out effort Thursday earns the Golden Eagles a chance to play a St. Rose team that is the favorite to win this year’s tournament by virtue of its dominance winning the 2024 title and its two regular-season wins over top-seeded Manasquan. The Purple Roses are only the No. 4 seed because they went 5-7 against teams outside the Shore Conference, including 2-3 vs. out-of-state teams. By the NJSIAA power-point rule, out-of-state games were effectively limited to 30 power points for a win and seven for a loss — values that made St. Rose’s results less valuable than they would have been against teams of lesser talent that were inside New Jersey.

St. Rose has won 28 straight games vs. Shore Conference competition and the only three that were decided by a margin fewer than 20 points all came against Manasquan.

“At the end of the day, you want to try to get things right for the kids and the way that it worked out this year, it just wasn’t right,” Clemente said. “But we can’t complain about it. You’ve just got to face what happened. I like to say once the ball gets thrown up in the air, there are no more seeds. It’s just two good teams playing.”

What is at stake Saturday is the potential first ever trip to the SCT semifinal for Central, which lost in each of the last two SCT quarterfinals — to Raritan in the 2023 quarters and to Holmdel in last year’s quarterfinal. There is additional urgency for Central this year because of the Golden Eagles’ reliance on their four senior starters: Santucci, King, Riley and Graham. Central had reached the SCT quarterfinals just once before the 2022-23 season and with Santucci helping lead the way over the past three seasons, the Golden Eagles have become regulars.

To take the next step, however, Central has to find a way around a St. Rose team that has been untouchable vs. the Shore over the last two seasons. Its last loss to a Shore Conference team was state-tournament tuneup loss at Marlboro, which came after Ranney shocked St. Rose in the 2023 Shore Conference Tournament semifinals.

It may not be fairest of draws for Central, but the senior-led Golden Eagles will get a chance to show how good they are Saturday against the Shore’s best.

“This group as a whole, they like to be challenged,” Clemente said. “We know we’re going to be challenged on Saturday, but we are pretty damn good ourselves. We’re going to play our game and see what happens.”

“The way the seeding went, you can’t control that at all,” Santucci said. “We knew we were going to have to play St. Rose eventually if we wanted to go as far as we wanted to go, so we’re ready to go.”