Manasquan Basketball Hosts Three Other Shore Programs in First Ever Warrior Classic Showcase

First Annual Manasquan Warrior Classic

Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026

At Manasquan High School

Game Lineup

Manasquan (Girls) vs. Trinity Hall, 11 a.m.

Manasquan vs. Rancocas Valley, 12:30 p.m.

Rumson-Fair Haven vs. Holy Cross Prep, 2 p.m.

Montgomery vs. Linden, 3:30 p.m.

Ramapo vs. Westfield, 5 p.m.

Ocean vs. Lawrence, 6:30 p.m.

Two Shore Girls Power Players Clash

Three Shore Conference boys basketball programs and two girls programs will be part of the first Manasquan Warrior Holiday Classic this Saturday at Manasquan High School, which has played host to its fair share of big games. Since the 2011-12 season, Manasquan’s boys and girls programs have hosted a combined 15 NJSIAA sectional championship games and have successfully defended their home gym each time. While visitors don’t typically fair well at the home of the Warriors, at least four visiting teams will leave Manasquan with a win and Manasquan’s two opponents will have a chance to beat the host team as well.

The only Shore-vs.-Shore game is the opener between the Manasquan girls and Trinity Hall —  two teams with 6-0 records and ranked in the top five of the most recent Shore Sports Insider Top 10, as well as in the state’s top 20 by NJ Advance Media. No. 5 Manasquan lost a talented, accomplished senior class to graduation in the spring of 2025 but to no one’s surprise, the Warriors machine keeps on churning. They dominated a pair of Shore Conference teams (Middletown South and Point Pleasant Boro) and beat each of Pingry, Teaneck, Somerville and Hudson Catholic by double-figure margins and by a average margin of 24.5. Senior guard Jordyn Hollawell is the lone returning starter and has given Manasquan exactly what it has needed from its leader by averaging 15.5 points through six games.

While Manasquan currently checks in at No. 5 at the Shore and No. 13 in the state, Trinity Hall stands No. 3 in the SSI Top 10 and No. 7 in the state during the early days of when the Monarchs hope will be their best ever season. Senior Grace Feeney is averaging 16.5 points for a Trinity Hall team that has scored noteworthy wins over St. Rose, Lenape, Demerest and Ewing.

Manasquan Boys Still Searching for Scoring

While the Lady Warriors appear to have reloaded after last year’s graduation wave following a Group II championship, the boys have not found it so easy to return to championship form amid their many losses. In addition to graduating two starters, Manasquan lost All-Shore guard Rey Weinseimer to a knee injury that is likely to keep him out for the season and just welcomed 6-foot-7 junior Logan Cleveland back to the lineup on Sunday after he missed the first four games with an ankle injury.

With the two starters out and a sophomore-heavy lineup trying to pick up the slack, Manasquan is off to a 2-4 start and is averaging 37.5 points per game after putting up only 31.7 per game during its three-game stay at the Kevin Williams Christmas Classic. That included a 40-20 loss to Wall in which the Warriors were outscored, 21-0, in the first 13:48 of the game and a 35-32 consolation loss to Jackson in which the Jaguars overcame a 24-9 halftime deficit and won despite Manasquan outscoring Jackson, 20-0, in the second quarter.

The hosts will try to right the ship against Rancocas Valley, which is off to a 4-2 start and has exhibited the inconsistency one might expect from a team that, like Manasquan, relies on four sophomores to play key minutes. The Red Devils beat reigning South Jersey Non-Public A champion Camden Catholic, 51-36, but later suffered a 71-45 rout at the hands of South Jersey Group I title contender Salem.

Now at Full Strength, Rumson Flexes Heading Into 2026

Following three victories at the Butch Kowal Classic, Rumson-Fair Haven is 7-0 heading into the New Year under first-year head coach George Sourlis, who is already a coaching legend at Rumson after winning more than 600 games as the head coach of the Bulldogs girls team. Rumson won its first four games without 6-foot-9 All-Shore standout Luke Cruz, including a win over Red Bank Catholic in which senior guard Luke Lydon scored 38 points. Since Cruz’s return, Rumson has flourished with wins over Roselle, Westfield and Rahway, with Cruz averaging 20.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocks despite playing only 15 minutes in his first game against Roselle.

Both Sourlis and Rumson return to a gym that has been a house of horrors for both the coach and program. Manasquan beat Sourlis’s Rumson team in both the 2015 and 2016 Central Group II championship games in Manasquan and, more recently, the Manasquan boys have won nine straight straight games against Rumson, including each of the last two Central Group II championship games — both in Manasquan’s gym. Rumson will get its chance to end that streak vs. Manasquan when the teams play the first of two Shore Conference Class A division games on Jan. 15 in Manasquan, but in the meantime, the Bulldogs would like to experience the feeling of walking out of that gym with a win when they take on 5-0 Holy Cross Prep.

Four Top Teams Travel South

The third and fourth boys game of the day will feature three teams ranked in the state’s preseason top 20, starting with a showdown between No. 9 Montgomery and No. 13 Linden. Prior to the game, Montgomery coach Kris Grundy and Linden coach Mike Rice can commiserate over heart-breaking losses to Plainfield. Montgomery reached the Group IV championship game last March and fell to the Cardinals and on Dec. 23 of this year, Plainfield beat Linden, 64-61, at the buzzer on a three-pointer by star junior Micah Gordon.

Linden’s losses during its 5-2 start to the season are to Plainfield and Morris Catholic, while the Tigers have beaten Gill St. Bernard’s, Rutgers Prep and College Achieve. Seniors Jayden Holmam and Jekhi Burnam are both averaging 16 points per game to lead the way for Linden.

Montgomery, meanwhile, surges into Saturday 8-0 with an impressive, 19-point win over Don Bosco Prep to open the season and no win on its résumé to date closer than 10 points. Six-foot-5 guard and University of Pennsylvania commit Ethan Lin is averaging 20 points per game and breakout sophomore Mike Simborski is at better than 17 per game through his first eight games of the season.

In game four, preseason No. 19 Ramapo clashes with Westfield in a game between two teams hovering around .500 so far. Ramapo is 3-2 with a win over Hudson Catholic to open the season and just one in-state loss — a 62-54 defeat at the hands of Teaneck. Ramapo has played in each of the last five Group III championship games and won back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024 before losing to Colts Neck in the final last March.

Westfield has also felt the wrath of a Shore Conference opponent more recently, with Rumson-Fair Haven handing the Blue Devils one of their losses during a 3-4 start to the season. Two of Westfield’s other losses are to, arguably, the two best teams in the state: Plainfield and Roselle Catholic.

Ocean Returns to Showcase Scene with Bright Future

Bringing back senior Aidan Saint Louis and sophomore Brody Bell from last year was already reason for Ocean to feel optimistic about improving on its 9-17 record in 2024-25, but the Spartans got two more reasons to be excited about 2026 at the start of the new school year.

Freshman twins Omar and Ahmad Ayyash have made an immediate impact for Ocean and have joined Saint Louis and Bell to form a solid nucleus that has a chance to carry into next year with three of the four players. Omar Ayyash already has a 28-point game to his credit, which came in a win over Neptune that got Ocean (4-3) off to a strong start in its pursuit of a division championship.

Ocean’s opponent in the Warrior Classic finale is a Lawrence team that is already familiar with the Shore Conference this season after two close, entertaining games against Shore-ranked teams. The Cardinals lost a 53-50 battle with No. 7 Freehold Township at the Shore-vs.-CVC Challenge at Manchester on Dec. 20 and later knocked off No. 5 Southern, 66-65, in overtime in the Score at the Shore Holiday Tournament semifinals on Monday at Southern. Senior Marvin McNeill is averaging better than 16 points per game and put up 33 in the win at Southern while also delivering the game-winning free-throw with two seconds left.