Hodge, Lockdown Defense Lead St. Rose to Second Straight Shore Title

WEST LONG BRANCH — After his St. Rose boys basketball team won its first ever Shore Conference Tournament championship during his sophomore year in 2023-24, Jayden Hodge already had his mind on another title in 2024-25.

During the first half of the Shore Conference Tournament championship game against Christian Brothers Academy Friday night at Monmouth University, he looked prepared to carry the Purple Roses to that second title by himself. Hodge scored all but four of his teams points in the half, but his response was not to continue to score at will or to implore his teammates to raise their collective level. Instead, he wanted to do more to get his teammates involved.

Hodge scored less in the second half, but his team played even better, clamping down against the second-seeded Colts in a 45-36 Purple Roses victory that lands St. Rose its second straight Shore Conference Tournament championship.

After enjoying a on-court and locker room celebration, Hodge’s sentiments reflected those of a player who plays for a team that has raised the bar in Shore Conference boys basketball since Hodge arrived from Belgium for his freshman season in 2022-23.

“This is a great feeling, but I think we’re not done,” Hodge said. “We want to do it again next year.”

Prior to the 2023-24 season, St. Rose had never even reached an SCT final and now, Hodge and his fellow starters on Friday night at OceanFirst Bank Arena have delivered the program two in the last two seasons.

Hodge scored 14 of his 19 points Friday in the first half while also contributing 10 rebounds and three steals in leading the offensive and rebounding effort by St. Rose.

“During the first half, I definitely felt like I was doing too much because my teammates weren’t really involved,” Hodge said. “In the second half, I knew I couldn’t keep doing what I was doing. I had to get my teammates involved, get them going so their confidence was up when we needed it to be. I just told them: ‘Be ready. I got y’all.'”

Jayden Hodge throws down on the break. St. Rose leads 14-13 and Hodge has 10. pic.twitter.com/cqQBgOvoxu

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) February 22, 2025

“He feels the moment, where it’s like, ‘Okay, now I have to step up a little bit more,'” said St. Rose coach Brian Lynch, who won three consecutive Shore Conference Tournament championships as a player at CBA before winning back-to-back titles within his first four years as head coach at St. Rose. “It’s unbelievable. I have seen it in a lot of different games and that, to me, is the true essence of his game. He says, ‘Okay, things are not going great. Now it’s on me to step up.’ Sometimes it’s on defense, sometimes it’s getting a simple layup, sometimes its a big three.”

After heading to the halftime locker room tied, 18-18, with CBA, St. Rose used a more balanced offense in the second half to reach the finish line. Senior Evan Romano scored 11 of his 13 points after halftime, including nine in the fourth quarter to help St. Rose close it out. Fellow senior Bryan Ebeling scored all seven of his points in the second half and also pulled down six rebounds.

“At halftime, we didn’t talk about scoring,” said Lynch, who beat his alma mater for the fifth time and for the third straight season since taking over as St. Rose head coach four seasons ago. “We talked more about getting back to us. I have a passion for basketball. I was not Kobe Bryant — I couldn’t go get you a bucket. I relied heavily on my teammates making good passes, setting good screens and making the right play. I just asked the to go back to doing what is going to make us special, which is making the right play.”

Hodge, Romano and Ebeling are all in their third season as starters for St. Rose, which had already won two NJSIAA South Jersey Non-Public B championships with that trio, plus an overall Non-Public B championship and a Shore Conference Tournament title last season — both firsts for the St. Rose program.

“A lot of people could have been saying, ‘Matt Hodge is gone, Gio (Panzini) is gone, so they are not the same team,'” Romano said. “We came out here wanting to prove it wasn’t just them. It’s a team game. There are five guys out on the court at all times and I think we proved that it wasn’t just those guys that got us that championship. We all contributed.”

St. Rose scores the first 5 points of the 3rd. Tyler Cameron scores off a steal and finds Bryan Ebeling for this layup. 23-18 St. Rose. pic.twitter.com/xfLxIKsovg

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) February 22, 2025

After scoring a team-high 20 points in Wednesday’s semifinal win over Manasquan, Ebeling was a defensive spark for St. Rose again on Friday. With CBA trailing, 34-31, Ebeling defended CBA senior Justin Fuerbacher all the way up to the midcourt line and forced a crucial 10-second violation.

“We’ve got some tough, defensive-minded guys and that’s how we win games,” Hodge said. “Shoutout to my teammates. It’s just a team game.

“Shoutout to Bryan on that ten-second call in the second half. That really gave us an energy boost when we needed it.”

CBA would trim its deficit to 34-33, but St. Rose responded with an 11-0 run that put the game out of reach for the Colts, with the Purple Roses going 9-for-12 from the free-throw line during the run.

“We played a bunch of tough games this year and we knew we were going to be able to wear then down because that’s what happens,” Romano said. “When you guard like that and they have two-minute possessions and they are still getting tough shots, it gets difficult for guys. We just stayed true to what we do, which is defend and guard and it worked in our favor.”

Junior Charlie Marcoullier scored 12 points and handed out three assists to lead CBA, while Fuerbacher finished with seven points, six rebounds and three steals before leaving the game with an ankle injury with just under three minutes to play. Fuerbacher left the game with cramps after the 10-second violation and upon returning for the stretch run, he aggravated an ankle injury he originally sustained in December, taking CBA’s senior leader off the floor as the Colts were trying to make a last-ditch comeback.

“Stopping Fuerbacher and Pikiell was mostly our focus,” Hodge said. “They are the key guys for them. Rebounding was also big for us. They were the bigger team, so we knew we had to be big on the boards and that was definitely something we talked about at halftime.”

Marcoullier, junior Connor Andree and Fuerbacher led CBA’s first-half performance, with the trio combining for all of the Colts’ scoring. Marcoullier scored seven of his points in the first half, Fuerbacher scored five and Andree scored all six of his points and grabbed six of his seven rebounds before halftime.

“We knew this wasn’t going to be easy,” Romano said. “You see the stage they are playing on. They have a bunch of older guys and they were ready to go. I’m glad they gave us a game and I’m glad we were able to pull it out.”

St. Rose has now won 31 straight games vs. Shore Conference opponents dating back to a loss to Marlboro in February of 2023. CBA is just the second Shore Conference team during that run to lose to St. Rose by fewer than 10 points. A year ago, St. Rose won every game vs. Shore Conference competition by at least 21 points and did not lose to an NJSIAA member school in finishing No. 1 in the state. This year, the climb to a championship has come with its share of losses vs. another grueling schedule, but the Purple Roses are a team built for all situations in the postseason.

“We have been through the ups and downs this season,” Hodge said. “At the end of the day, those tough games we lost really helped us coming into this tournament.”

“These guys have put a lot of time and effort into this,” Lynch said. “To see it come to fruition for them, the opportunity of repeating for the guys who came back from last year, it’s really special. If it didn’t work out, I’d be proud of the effort they put in, but I’m really glad to see it pay off for them.”