Santucci Shines in Central’s Impressive Boys Basketball Opener

BAYVILLE — The Central Regional boys basketball team was two baskets away from playing eventual sectional champion Lenape for the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV championship last March. Beating Lenape would have meant winning Central’s first ever sectional title, but the season instead ended with a three-point loss at Eastern in the sectional semifinals.

There is an entire season to be played between opening night of 2024-25 and the sectional final that the Golden Eagles — ranked No. 4 in the Shore Sports Insider Preseason Top 10 — are hell-bent on winning this season, but opening the season up with a win over the team that won last year’s South Jersey final is a satisfying appetizer before the main course.

Central opened up its season with a 60-48 win over Lenape Tuesday night behind standout performances from its two returning senior guards, Jaycen Santucci and Jayson King. Santucci put his entire repertoire on display in scoring 24 points on 9-for-15 shooting, grabbing seven rebounds, handing out six assists, blocking two shots and swiping three steals. King, meanwhile, poured in 18 points, hauled in six boards and dished out three assists in the win.

In the first game of his anticipated senior season, Santucci showed off his full array of skills from the opening tip. He put a defender on the floor with a spin-dribble into a step-back jumper, split a pair of defenders with a crossover, finished a reverse layup off an offensive rebound, found teammate Luke Denning on a kick-out for a buzzer-beating jumper to end the first quarter and nearly threw down what would have been a spectacular put-back dunk that he slammed off the back iron. And that was all just in the first half.

In all, Santucci threw down four dunks among his nine made field goals, showed off his range on his lone three-point make and the first of his two blocks was an attempted layup that he pinned on the glass.

Lenape cut Central’s six-point halftime lead to one, 31-30, in the middle of the third quarter, at which point Santucci took over. On four consecutive possessions, he fed classmate Royalty Riley for a layup, hit the aforementioned long three-pointer, drove the lane for a dunk and scored off an inbounds pass from King for a 9-0 run and a 40-30 Central lead.

After finishing second in the Shore Conference in scoring and earning a First-Team All-Shore spot with averages of 21 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.7 steals and 1.4 blocks per game, Santucci opened his senior season in similar form on Tuesday night against the runner-up for the overall Group IV title a year ago.

Central graduated a 1,000-point scorer in Miles Chevalier from the 2023-24 team, plus two other senior starters from last year’s 22-win squad. On opening night, the Golden Eagles looked to have those losses covered, most notably by the improvement of the stronger, more physical King at point guard. The senior handled Lenape’s pressure and dished out some of his own against the freshman, Thorp.

The Golden Eagles also brought in sophomore transfer Derek Roth, who made an immediate impact with 11 points in his Central debut. Roth was a freshman standout at Lacey a season ago.

The rebounding efforts of King, Riley (four) and 6-6 junior Elijah Reeder (seven) were an encouraging development for the Golden Eagles, who relied heavily on Santucci and Chevalier for rebounding last season.

Tuesday’s result was a brand-name win for Central, but it remains to be seen how good the new-look Indians will be this season. Lenape opens the new year attempting to reload after losing its top six scorers from 2023-24 — five to graduation and one to transfer. Despite the lack of returning production, the Indians expect to compete in South Jersey Group IV again with a young team, let by junior returnee Nolan Barnes (13 points on Thursday), sophomore guard Jadyn Boyd (seven), 6-foot-5 senior forward Mehki Carter and talented freshman point guard Tyree Thorpe (14 points).

In addition to winning its first sectional title, Central is seeking its first tournament title of any kind with what has a chance to be its best team ever. Last year’s group was the first Central team to win 20-plus games, reach the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals, and reach the NJSIAA sectional semifinal round all in the same season.

The WOBM Christmas Classic, which tips off on Dec. 26, will be Central’s first test in how the Golden Eagles stack up in the Shore Conference Tournament. They have never won a WOBM Classic and will be the No. 2 seed behind only Manasquan — a team that has played in the Shore Conference final in each of the last six seasons and is ranked No. 3 in the preseason Shore Sports Insider rankings.

No Ocean County team has won the SCT since Lakewood in 2012-13 and with Manasquan playing St. Rose close in a 50-45 Purple Roses win on Monday, the SCT figures to be a more competitive tournament than it was last season, when St. Rose dominated every Shore Conference opponent it faced during the year.

Central will also begin its quest to win a Class A South championship, which the Golden Eagles have never done. All of Central’s division championships have come in Class B South. The Golden Eagles open divisional play on Jan. 7 against reigning Class A South champion Toms River North.