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Housewarming Party: Jackson Boys Basketball Knocks Off Manasquan

Matt Manley|December 20, 2025|Last Updated December 20, 2025

JACKSON TWP. — George Boley is used to acclimating to a new school and a new basketball home, something he did last season after transferring to Jackson Memorial High School from College Achieve in Asbury Park, which came after he spent his freshman year at Roselle Catholic.

For the fourth time in four years, Boley is calling a new gym home, but this time, that decision was out of his hands. He is now getting used to his new home gym along with the majority of his Jackson Township High School teammates, who on Friday hosted the highest-profile game in their first season since consolidating Jackson Memorial and Jackson Liberty High Schools into one high school, which is at the site of what was formerly known as Jackson Liberty.

It should be no surprise that in the third game in Jackson’s new singular home court, it was Boley who made himself right at home early on before his team followed.

Boley set the tone with 13 of his game-high 17 points in the first 11 minutes of the game, then the Jaguars eventually turned the game over to their defense to lock up a 48-42 win over defending NJSIAA Group II champion Manasquan on Friday night.

“To us, this game was personal,” Boley said. “Last year, Manasquan beat us twice — beat us at home and beat us away — so today, we wanted to come with a chip on our shoulder. We wanted to prove to everybody that we’re a good team. I felt like people doubted us because of the teams we played, so we today was a good opportunity to prove them wrong.”

Classmate Jimmy Pappalardo and sophomore teammate Mi’Aire Anderson made their respective presences felt as well, but as the rest of the Jaguars settled in to the game on offense, Boley carried his team by scoring 15 of its first 25 points and staking Jackson to a 25-21 lead. From there, Boley scored only two points for the remainder of the game, but the Jaguars opened up a lead that grew as high as 16 in the fourth quarter.

After starting the season in a three-game shooting slump that yielded him 17 points combined in the first three games and three each in the last two, Pappalardo caught fire in the second quarter on Friday night to turn a close, low-scoring half into a comfortable lead for Jackson heading into intermission. The senior hit three straight three-point attempts in the final two minutes of the first half to carry the lion’s share of an 11-2 run that turned a one-point game into a 31-21 halftime lead for the Jaguars.

“The first couple games, I have been struggling,” Pappalardo said. “Just to get those few shots to go down and give us a ten-point lead going into halftime, it just felt good. We had the momentum from halftime coming out in the third quarter and we just had to take it from there.”

Pappalardo then banked in a shot on Jackson’s second possession of the third quarter, giving him all 11 of his points in a span of under three minutes between the second and third quarters. He also grabbed five rebounds and blocked two shots.

“The key to our defense tonight, other than our defense, was Jimmy,” Holmes said. “He caught fire today. When we’re firing on all cylinders, it’s hard to beat us. He makes the defense honest. They can’t double or triple-team or spy on people because he has ridiculous range and that extends the defense.”

Anderson, meanwhile, helped set the tone early with his work on the paint on both ends of the floor. The 6-foot-2 sophomore blocked a shot within the first two minutes of the game, scored four points off offensive rebounds in the first quarter and swatted away two shots within seconds of one another early in the second. Anderson finished with nine points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.

“I am willing to sacrifice my body on defense and on the glass,” Anderson said. “I’m really just trying to fit in. I get my points here and there but I really focus on the glass. That’s what the team needs and that was the main goal tonight.”

When Anderson beat his man for a driving layup with just under 6:30 to play in the fourth quarter, Jackson held a commanding 48-32 lead over a Manasquan team that struggled to find answers against the Jaguars defense. Sophomore Sean Bilodeau matched Boley with a game-high 17 points — 14 in the first half and all 17 before the fourth quarter — but the Warriors labored for points for a second straight game as they try to overcome the injury absences of returning starters Rey Weinseimer (knee) and Logan Cleveland (foot). Manasquan lost its season-opener to Seton Hall Prep, 58-39, on Dec. 13.

“Respectfully, that’s not a normal Manasquan team based on what we’re used to seeing,” Holmes said. “Normally, they have someone who can get them a bucket, get them in and out of their offense and they can move a little quicker laterally. We were able to exploit some mismatches and some of their defensive assignments. We knew they we going to play hard, so the key for us was to match that energy.”

“They are going to be a good team,” Pappalardo said. “They are down players but they are a good program so it was always going to be tough to beat them. We had to  be aggressive, come with more heart and if we play aggressive for four quarters, we’re going to come out on top.”

Manasquan’s defense remained pesky throughout the game and after struggling with Boley in the first half, the Warriors found their defensive chops in the fourth quarter. For the final 6:28 of the game, Jackson did not score a point against the Manasquan defense.

“We were up by 16 points and won by eight, so we look at things like that,” Boley said. “Obviously, we’re happy that we won, but we felt like we should have beat them by more so we have to come back and work on what we did wrong.”

Fortunately for Jackson, its defense was up to the challenge of bringing home the win. While the Jaguars went scoreless over the final 6:28, Manasquan managed 10 points during the same stretch, including only two points in the final 2:05 after cutting the Jackson lead to 48-40.

“From the top of the summer, our coaches have always instilled defense first,” Boley said. “The average height on the team is like six-two, so we’re a long team and a big team. We know how to jump and we’re athletic, so we want to use our size to our advantage on the defensive end: hands in the lane, grab rebounds, so we made sure from day one to instill defense and practices are hectic.”

With Boley and Pappalardo going quiet for most of the second half, senior Yaseer Johnson delivered two jumpers in the third quarter and a pair of free throws in the fourth to give him all six of his points in the second half.

“Offense comes and goes; defense is a mainstay,” Holmes said. “It’s about effort. Sometimes we’re going to hit shots and sometimes we’re not. We always preach that if your effort is there, you’re always going to have a chance.”

Pappalardo’s flurry and Anderson’s work on the inside were instrumental to Jackson’s win and the Jaguars defense was the constant throughout the 32 minutes, but it started with Boley’s play in the first half. The 6-foot-3 guard shot 6-for-10 during the first half, including 3-for-5 from three-point range and eventually collected five rebounds for the game.

With Boley in the lineup from the start and senior Randy Holmes Jr. back healthy after missing the second half of the 2025-26 season with a knee injury, Jackson is in a better place as a roster and rotation to open this season than Jackson Memorial was at any point last year. Boley was not eligible for the first 30 days of the 2025-26 campaign after transferring from College Achieve.

This year, the pieces were in place from the beginning, which includes incorporating players from the Jackson Liberty program into the fabric of Holmes’s program with Jackson Memorial. Jackson Liberty head coach Don Connor Jr. joined the staff as an assistant and the players have embraced the idea of being one school and one town in Jackson.

“It’s a great environment,” Pappalardo said. “We didn’t have anything like this last year (at Jackson Memorial). To see the school come out and support us is great.”

While Jackson celebrates its first marquee win as a program, it could see the same team before the end of 2025. Manasquan and Jackson are the top two seeds in the Kevin Williams Christmas Classic during the holiday break and if each team wins their two first-round games, they would meet again in Toms River with the championship on the line.

“Last year, we were never really all together,” Boley said of his Jackson Memorial team. “Over the summer, we came together and this is like a brotherhood. From day one, we had a goal and we feel like we’re on our way to accomplishing it.”

“We know what we’re capable of,” Pappalardo said. “To have us all there, we need that. If players go down, we’ve got people to come off the bench who can play too, so we trust in all of our guys.”

Holmes has won a Shore Conference Tournament as a both player (1991) and a head coach (2013) while at his alma mater Lakewood. His Piners were routinely a contender near the top of the Shore Conference and his current team has a chance to go deeper into the postseason than at any point during Holmes’s previous five seasons with the program. The deepest Jackson Memorial advanced in the previous five years was a trip to the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals in 2022.

“I’m proud of the guys,” Holmes said. “They played hard, they stuck to the blueprint. We’re going to be a force to be reckoned with and, barring injuries, we’re going to keep getting better.”

 

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