Jayden Hodge puts his stamp on a second straight SCT title for St. Rose

WEST LONG BRANCH – Since moving from his native Belgium to Belmar in 2022, St. Rose junior forward Jayden Hodge always had the security of playing with his older brother as they navigated a new country and high school.

This season marks the first time that Jayden has been on his own, with the added pressure of being the team’s top player.

If he had a clunker of a game as a sophomore last season, his older brother, current Villanova freshman Matt Hodge, could paper it over with a monster game of his own. If the team needed to look to a leader, the elder Hodge and current Cornell freshman Gio Panzini were there to play that role.

“He could hide sometimes last year,” St. Rose coach Brian Lynch said. “We had a lot of guys around them, and then this year obviously we still have our senior captains, but we’re young. We have (sophomore) Avery (Lynch) as a starter, we have two freshmen coming off the bench, so there’s a lot more younger pieces, and he can’t afford to have a game-or-two slide. It would hurt us bad. So he’s taken on such a great responsibility, and he’s really embraced it and played really well for us.”

If St. Rose is going to win championships, Hodge has to play well in every big game. He has been up to the challenge, with Friday night’s Shore Conference Tournament championship game as the latest example.

“It’s a bigger role,” Hodge said. “It’s not easy, but I think that I’ve been doing that pretty well. It’s not just only me, I’ve got great teammates. I’ve got some tough guys, defensive-minded guys, and that’s how we win games, so shoutout to my teammates. I couldn’t have done this without them. It’s just a team game.”

On Friday night, he and his Purple Roses teammates showed there would be no letdown after graduating a great senior class from last season’s No. 1 team in the state.

They captured their second straight SCT title by grinding out a 45-36 win over Christian Brothers Academy at Monmouth University’s OceanFirst Bank Center. Hodge was front and center with a game-high 19 points along with 10 rebounds and 3 steals in the win.

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 also had a little extra juice after speaking with his brother before the game.

“We’ve been here last year, and we just talked over it,” Hodge said. “He really motivated me. He just told me ‘I’ve been with you since you were a kid, and I know how you play, and I know that you can lead this team to a win. Just do you.’”

The Hodge Brothers Era

The Purple Roses have now won 31 straight against Shore Conference competition after becoming the first back-to-back SCT champs since Ranney in 2018-19. Much like that Shore Conference era was defined by McDonald’s All-Americans Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine on Ranney, the Hodge brothers have put their stamp on this current stretch of Shore history at a program that had previously never reached such heights.

“I think my brother taught me a lot because he was a great leader last year,” Hodge said. “To see the stuff he did, I could take tips from that. He told me this is going to be your team, and the team is going to be good, so I got to be a leader and speak up. That’s what I did, and I really appreciate him for telling me stuff like that.”

Lynch got an early glimpse of what the team would look like with the younger Hodge as its centerpiece when they played in the Philly Live showcase this past summer.

“I think it’s been very clear with his play and his assertiveness on both sides of the ball,” Lynch said. “Honestly, you saw it right from the beginning. We played at Philly Live. I was curious to see what it was going to like without Gio and Matt, and we actually did pretty well, and (Jayden) was a whole different monster.

“It was like, ‘big brother’s gone, I don’t have to play behind him.’ I kind of expected him to be aggressive this year, and I think he’s been doing that.”

Hodge, who is averaging 19.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game, has emerged as one of the top prospects in New Jersey for the Class of 2026. Two days before the SCT final, he added an offer from Mississippi State to his double-digit Division I offers.

Jayden Hodge takes on a leadership role

Besides his stellar numbers, he also has embraced a leadership role alongside seniors Evan Romano and Bryan Ebeling. It all starts with his on-court demeanor.

“He’s a great leader because first of all he never gets flustered,” Lynch said. “He never complains. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him yell at a teammate, really. (He) holds himself accountable.

“I can say whatever I need to say to him, and he just accepts it and moves on. I think those are great characteristics of a leader because when one of your best players can handle adversity and get held accountable and step up and play with a good reaction as opposed to a bad reaction, it says a lot about your leaders.”

It’s also crucial considering St. Rose plays a host of young players. When things get dicey, they will be looking to their best player to see how he reacts.

“It keeps us together,” freshman guard Izayah Cooper said. “If he’s on, we’re all on. He’s taught me a lot.”

Despite being tied with CBA at half and only up a point midway through the fourth quarter, Hodge and St. Rose never flinched. They stayed poised and locked down the title with an 11-0 run.

“I’ve always been a chill guy,” Hodge said. “I don’t get rattled like that. I just try to stay calm because at the end of the day if we just play our game, I know that we’ll come out with the win. The younger kids and my teammates look at me to stay composed and still have the belief that we could do this.”

Now the Purple Roses are on the doorstep of history. Only two teams have ever won at least three straight SCT titles. CBA won four in a row from 1993-96 with Lynch starring on three of those teams, and Neptune won a record seven straight from 1961-67.

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

Scott Stump is a reporter, newsletter writer and editor who first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999 and has covered basketball, baseball and seemingly every other Shore Conference sport at some point. 

Contact him at [email protected]