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Red Bank Boys Basketball Downs RBC to Improve to 8-0

Matt Manley|January 8, 2025|Last Updated January 8, 2025

LITTLE SILVER — The Red Bank Regional boys basketball team is not yet complete, but it is hard to tell when the Bucs keep winning.

The next time they take the court on Thursday, not only will the Bucs still be unbeaten: they will be one player better.

On Tuesday, Red Bank withstood an early three-point barrage by Red Bank Catholic, closed out the Caseys for a 62-52 win, and closed the book on a perfect eight-game stretch to open the season.

Now sitting at 8-0 and one of two remaining undefeated teams in the Shore Conference, Red Bank will welcome 6-foot-4 senior Ron Richardson to the lineup on Thursday at St. John Vianney for his season debut. Richardson is a transfer from College Achieve in Asbury Park who played his first two high-school seasons at Ocean Township. As a senior who has transferred multiple times, Richardson was required to sit for the first 30 days of Red Bank’s regular-season, per NJSIAA rules.

“When I first came here, these guys played hard and I love everything about it,” said senior guard Zayier Dean, who finished Tuesday’s win with 12 points, eight rebounds and three assists. “As (last) season went on, we just kept playing harder and harder and that’s a big head’s up to coach (George) Sourlis because he doesn’t take it light on us in practice. He makes sure we go out and play hard and I think that’s the best thing about us this year. No matter if we’re having a good night or a bad night, we’re going to play hard.”

“I feel like we’re one of the hardest-working teams in the Shore,” said senior Ryan Fisher, who scored 14 of his game-high 19 points in the second half Tuesday and also grabbed six rebounds. “We don’t got air conditioning here, so we’re in here sweating in the summer. We work hard at practice every single day and it’s translating to the games. We have been saying since day one, ‘We’ve got to get through our first eight games and then we get Ron back, which is going to make us that much better.’ Now, it’s finally here.”

Dean is both a soon-to-be and former teammate of Richardson, with whom Dean played at Ocean in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. While Richardson left Ocean for College Achieve for the 2023-24 season, Dean transferred to Red Bank, where he turned in his second straight All-Shore season and helped lead the Bucs to 21 wins, a division championship and to an NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III sectional final.

On Thursday, the two former teammates will reunite on the court for a regular-season varsity game for the first time since their sophomore seasons at Ocean ended with a Central Jersey Group III quarterfinal loss at Ewing.

“Ron’s a really good player and he can help us with literally everything: rebounding, shooting, defense,” Dean said. “I think he is a super underrated player. I don’t think people really know what’s coming. We’re going to see. I know Ron is ready. He is much faster, much stronger, way more aggressive and I feel like his IQ developed a lot over the summer and throughout last season. That was a big jump since the last time I played with him to now.”

Red Bank entered Tuesday one win from going unbeaten prior to Richardson becoming eligible and RBC did its best during the early part of the game to knock the Bucs from the ranks of the undefeated. RBC knocked down its first five three-point attempts of the game and stormed out to a 19-6 lead by the two-minute mark of the first quarter.

From there, however, Red Bank tightened up its defense and the Caseys shooters went cold, missing their next 12 three-point attempts — the first eight of which came during the second quarter. Red Bank answered the 19-6 run with a 12-0 burst to pull within one and took its first lead, 24-23, on a three-point play by Fisher with 2:20 left in the half. RBC countered with a layup by sophomore Gavin Biasi to take a 25-24 lead going to the break.

“Lock down on defense: that was the main thing in the huddle throughout the second half,” Dean said. “They were shooting the lights out. I honestly wasn’t expecting it. They weren’t missing at all in the first quarter, so we were just like, ‘We gotta keep playing. Their shots are falling. Ours aren’t really going in, but our shots are going to go in too, eventually.'”

Neither team built a lead greater than three points during the first 13 minutes of the second half, at which point Red Bank led after Fisher hit a short pull-up jumper to go up 51-50. Dean then buried a three with 2:42 remaining to put Red Bank ahead, 54-50.

“We did a good job staying composed,” Fisher said. “We knew they were shooters. We didn’t execute in the first quarter, they were getting their shots off. In the second quarter, they only had six points, so we did a way better job running them off the line, making them go to the rim. We executed better, but it all just comes down to playing hard.”

Senior Sean Saxton — who led Red Bank Catholic with 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists — hit a pair of free throws to cut the Red Bank lead to 54-52 and RBC had two chances to tie or take the lead after that possession, but the Caseys missed a shot on the first possession and turned it over on a palming violation on the second.

After the palming call, Dean missed a contested shot near the basket, but pulled in the offensive rebound, found sophomore Justin Valentino in the left corner and Valentino drained the three-pointer for a 57-52 Bucs lead. Fisher then scored the final five points of the game to close out the victory.

During Red Bank’s 8-0 start, the Bucs have faced the likes of Southern Regional, Colts Neck and Freehold Boro — all teams ranked in the back-half of the Shore Sports Insider Top 10. After facing St. John Vianney on Thursday, Red Bank will face its first opponent ranked in the top-half of those rankings on Saturday, when the Bucs face No. 4 Central Regional in the Hoop Group Boardwalk Showcase. Central is 6-1 after defeating Toms River North on Tuesday, with its lone loss coming to No. 2 Manasquan, 30-28, on a layup at the buzzer.

“I don’t want to say we look at (Central) like everybody else, but we take everything one game at a time and don’t look past anybody,” Dean said. “We know they’re going to be a tough matchup, so we can’t take anybody we’re playing lightly.”

“We have played a lot of big games over the last two years I think that’s really helped us,” Fisher said. “I had experience from sophomore year, Zayier has been playing varsity basketball since he was a freshman, so our ability to start four seniors and a sophomore who were part of the battles last year, plus having another senior with Ron coming back, plus our ability to stay composed — that’s what makes us tough.”

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