Shore Sports Insider 2024-25 Final Boys Basketball Top 20

Shore Sports Insider Boys Basketball Final Top 20

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The 2023-24 was a landmark one for Shore Conference boys basketball thanks to the top team in its collection of 46 teams. St. Rose went 29-2 and finished No. 1 in the state, marking just the second time in the last three decades that a program from the Shore has finished No. 1 in New Jersey, but also the second time in a span of six seasons. Throw in Freehold Boro’s surprise run to the NJSIAA Group III final and last year stands out as a memorable one for the Shore.

The Shore will not have the No. 1 team in New Jersey this season, but in many ways, 2024-25 was an even better year for the conference. St. Rose fell one circus shot by Roselle Catholic short of repeating as Non-Public B champions, but made it all the way to the group final for a third straight year after winning its second straight Shore Conference Tournament championship and authoring a résumé that landed the Purple Roses at No. 4 in the final NJ Advance Media statewide rankings – the highest of any team that did not win an overall state title.

More than St. Rose’s continued excellence, it was the performance of the Shore Conference’s public schools that made this year so special for the conference – specifically two of those schools. Manasquan completed its second Group II championship run in the last three years and this time, the Warriors beat state power Camden to do it. Two years ago, a loaded Camden team was disqualified from participating in the NJSIAA Playoffs and a year ago, Manasquan had a win over Camden taken away by a referee’s decision that both the NJSIAA and the official himself acknowledged were wrong.

Not only did Manasquan complete a state championship season by beating Camden – the Warriors did so by beating almost everybody. They went 25-4 and three of their losses came against St. Rose.

The other public school carrying the Shore Conference’s torch was Colts Neck. The Cougars entered the NJSIAA Tournament ranked No. 9 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 10 and after beating Wall to reach the SCT quarterfinals for the first time since 2012, the Cougars lost to Manasquan by 30 points and went on to lose to Sayreville in a tune-up game ahead of the NJSIAA Tournament.

Following a solid regular season – which also included a public division championship in the Shore Conference Class A North division with a 6-4 divisional record – Colts Neck turned it up for the state playoffs. The Cougars survived a sectional quarterfinal battle with Hopewell Valley thanks to a buzzer beater by junior Dillon Younger, then took down the defending Central Jersey Group III champion Freehold Boro in the sectional semifinals. Colts Neck closed out its second sectional title – and first since 2016 – with a convincing win over Ewing.

Colts Neck extended its season by rallying from a 10-point deficit with 10 minutes left to beat Ocean City in the Group III semifinals, with Younger hitting another game-winning shot in the final 20 seconds. On Saturday, the Cougars finished off their first NJSIAA state championship by playing a near-flawless second half to beat two-time defending champion Ramapo in the Group III final.

The championships by Manasquan and Colts Neck mark the first time two boys basketball teams from the Shore Conference have won overall group titles in the same season since Long Branch and Holmdel in 1997-98. It was also the first time since 2004 that three boys teams from the Shore reached the group finals in the same season, as well as the third straight season in which at least two Shore Conference teams reached the group finals.

All of this to say 2024-25 was a great year for Shore Conference boys basketball, which means it is an especially great accomplishment to appear in the final rankings. The year was so good, we are extending the final rankings to 20. Twenty teams have been listed in the weekly rankings but for the final rankings, there are numbers to match.

1. St. Rose (23-8, 10-0) Preseason Rank: 1

Despite a disappointing finish to the season in the form of a loss to Roselle Catholic in the Non-Public B championship game, St. Rose remains the clear No. 1 team in the Shore Conference for the second straight season. The Purple Roses went 10-0 vs. the Shore during the regular season, rolled through the Shore Conference Tournament to claim their second straight conference title and will enter 2025-26 with a 31-game winning streak against Shore Conference competition. To further illustrate St. Rose’s separation from the rest of the conference, Manasquan is the closest challenger to the No. 1 spot and St. Rose beat the Warriors three times this season by an average margin of 11.7 points.

2026 Forecast: Star junior Jayden Hodge has already said he is ready to pursue a third straight SCT championship and fourth straight trip to the state finals when he returns as a senior, so expect the Purple Roses to enter next season No. 1 at the Shore once again.

2. Manasquan (25-4, 8-2) Preseason Rank: 3

For the seventh straight season, Manasquan finishes the season either No. 1 or No. 2 in the Shore Conference, with the Warriors beating out preseason No. 2 Christian Brothers Academy for the second spot this season and doing so by a rather clear margin. All four of Manasquan’s losses were to non-public programs ranked in the top 10 in the state and three of those were to St. Rose. After conquering Camden in the Group II semifinal and winning the Group II championship with a 25-4 record, Manasquan cemented its own spot in the state top 10 to end the year. With wins over the next six teams on this list, the Warriors made it abundantly clear this is where they belong in the top 10 for 2024-25.

2026 Forecast: Even though Manasquan graduates a group of 10 seniors led by four-year starter Griffin Linstra, the Warriors are set to bring back three starters in Rey Weinseimer, Logan Cleveland and Jack O’Reilly. Life without Linstra will be different, but the future remains bright at Manasquan.

3. Christian Brothers Academy (21-5, 10-0) Preseason Rank: 2

Four of CBA’s five losses (Madison, Manasquan, St. Rose and St. Peter’s Prep) this season were to teams that played in a sectional championship game and the lone exception was a Morris Catholic team that was ousted in the NJSIAA Tournament by the Roselle Catholic team that beat St. Rose in the state final. The Colts ran through the Class A North schedule, including two convincing wins over Group III champion Colts Neck, and reached their first Shore Conference Tournament final since 2016.

2026 Forecast: Justin Fuerbacher and Kevin Pikiell will be difficult to replace, but CBA is set to return the next five players in its rotation, led by soon-to-be four-year contributors Connor Andree and Charlie Marcoullier and 6-foot-8 rising junior David Buley. With that mix due back, CBA will again be a favorite to play in the SCT final.

4. Central (24-4, 10-0) Preseason Rank: 4

Like CBA, the few games Central lost this season were mostly to decorated teams. The Golden Eagles lost at the buzzer to Manasquan, lost a hard-fought road game to eventual South Jersey Group IV champion Lenape and dropped a game to St. Rose in the SCT quarterfinals. The only exception was a one-point loss to Cinnaminson in which senior starter Royalty Riley did not play because he was on a college visit. As for their wins, the Golden Eagles also beat a pair of sectional champions in Lenape and Colts Neck and beat a Red Bank squad that won the Class A Coastal division and was the No. 1 seed in Central Jersey Group III.

2026 Forecast: Central will look much different next year without senior standout Jaycen Santucci and his integral classmates Riley, Jayson King and Aidan Graham. Derek Roth and Elijah Reeder will be around to help transition to the next era of the program, but this is a special era for Central boys basketball that is coming to an end.

5. Colts Neck (20-9, 6-4) Preseason Rank: Not ranked

The Cougars opened the NJSIAA Tournament with 14 wins and as the No. 9 team in the rankings after they lost, 61-31, to Manasquan in the SCT quarterfinals and dropped a state tournament tune-up game to Sayreville. Then, Colts Neck found itself in time to make an improbable run to the program’s first Group III championship. The six state tournament wins – capped by a near-perfect second half to beat Ramapo in the Group III championship game – are enough for the Cougars to jump both Red Bank and Rumson-Fair Haven, even though Red Bank beat the Cougars in Colts Neck’s season-opener and Rumson’s season ended in a sectional final loss to No. 2 Manasquan. This is a classic case in which Group championship hardware trumps regular-season results.

2026 Forecast: Dillon Younger is the only starter due back for Colts Neck, although Nate Sloane will be entering his sophomore season after making a major impact as a freshman sixth man. This year’s team replaced two leading scorers from a year ago, but replacing Lukas Sloane, Bryce Belcher, Jack Freid and Dan Buoncore in the starting five will be much more difficult.

6. Red Bank (22-5, 10-0) Preseason Rank: 7

After winning 21 games and its first outright division title in 17 years a season ago, Red Bank built on those milestones by winning 22 games and going a perfect 10-0 in one of the Shore’s more difficult divisions. The Bucs also delivered George Sourlis his 700th career win as a high school head coach. Unfortunately for the Bucs, their season stalled in the tournaments, with a loss to Rumson-Fair Haven in the SCT quarterfinals and another to Freehold Boro at home in the Central Group III playoffs. The Bucs settle into the No. 6 spot to end the year thanks to that perfect division mark, the two wins over Rumson and an excellent overall body of work that includes a win over Group III champion Colts Neck.

2026 Forecast: The Bucs will look much different next season after the graduation of five key players: Zayier Dean, Ryan Fisher, Ronald Richardson, Anthony Moore and Trey Moore. Justin Valentino stepped forward as an all-around player and Will Galligan is also set to return as a junior guard and three-point specialist.

7. Rumson-Fair Haven (20-7, 7-3) Preseason Rank: 5

The Bulldogs continue to churn out competitive teams that make noise throughout the season and show they can play with anybody on their schedule. That resulted in trips to the SCT semifinals for the first time in seven years and a second straight trip to the Central Jersey Group II championship game. Rumson could not solve either CBA or Manasquan in those two games, but still highlighted its season with an SCT quarterfinal win over Red Bank and three wins over Holmdel – including in the Central Group II semifinals.

2026 Outlook: Junior standout and UPenn commit Luke Cruz is set for one more season, which will help the Bulldogs offset the graduation of senior starters David Carr, Riley Gill and Carson Memmott, plus backcourt spark plug Nic Economou.

8. Freehold Boro (20-8, 10-0) Preseason Rank: 6

For the second straight year, Freehold Boro hit its stride in the NJSIAA Tournament, culminating in a Central Jersey Group III win at Red Bank for a second straight season. The Colonials looked primed for another run to a sectional title and, perhaps, to the Group III championship game, but ran into the Colts Neck buzzsaw that went all the way in Group III. Overall, Freehold Boro delivered a strong follow-up to last year’s Group III runner-up performance, winning 20 games, beating Wildwood Catholic, Phillipsburg and Red Bank, while losing competitive games to Central in the SCT, Rumson, Red Bank and Colts Neck.

2026 Forecast: Freehold Boro will bid farewell to its transformative 2025 class, which includes its big three of Brian Tassey, Aidan Hamlin-Woolfolk and Qua’Mir Everett. The program went from winless when that group was in its freshman season to back-to-back 20-win seasons with the program’s first sectional title in more than 50 years.

9. Holmdel (17-9, 6-4) Preseason Rank: Not ranked

In a lot of ways, this year’s Holmdel team went through what Freehold Boro will go through next year in replacing three major sources of production. Despite losing two 1,000-point scorers and another who would have reached 1,000 if not for a season lost to injury, Holmdel cobbled together another competitive squad that reached the SCT quarterfinals and Central Jersey Group II semifinals for a second straight year. Seven of Holmdel’s losses came against three ranked opponents – Rumson (three), Red Bank (two) and CBA (two) – and one of its other two losses was to South Jersey Group IV champion Lenape.

2026 Forecast: Four more key players graduate from Holmdel later this spring, but the Hornets have the foundation for another solid season with the return of a proven scoring guard in Jack Vallillo, a high-energy 6-foot-4 forward in Connor Paul and breakout freshman Anthony Serini.

10. Red Bank Catholic (14-12, 5-5) Preseason Rank: Not ranked

The No. 10 spot comes down to Red Bank Catholic and Wall, and the Caseys get the nod despite a record just two-games over .500 and seven fewer wins than the Crimson Knights. It helps that RBC beat Wall head-to-head, albeit in a game that was effectively a tune-up for the Shore Conference Tournament, played after the SCT cutoff but three days before both teams played their first SCT games. RBC also played the much tougher schedule, with losses to Holmdel (three times), Red Bank (twice), Rumson, CBA, Colts Neck, Seton Hall Prep, Lawrence and Notre Dame. RBC also picked up a win over a top 10 opponent by beating Rumson in Class A Coastal play.

2026 Forecast: RBC graduates two more accomplished seniors in Ryan Prior and Sean Saxton, but got widespread contributions for a group of new starters and rotation members who are all due back in 2025-26.

 

The Next 10

11. Wall (21-6, 10-0) Preseason Rank: Not ranked – The Crimson Knights returned to prominence in 2024-25 with 20 wins, a division title and a run to the Central Group II semifinals, which ended at Manasquan. With a strong junior group, Wall is set up to be even better next year and figures to move into a more competitive division with a roster ready for the challenge.

12. Southern (18-9, 7-3) Preseason Rank: 8 – The Rams rode the dynamic duo of Jake Sliwinski and Noah Perna to 18 wins and a second-place finish in Class A South behind Central. Both guards return next season, when Southern will have a chance to be Ocean County’s best team.

13. Middletown North (17-9, 9-1) Preseason Rank: Not ranked – After going 0-10 in division and crossover games a season ago, Middletown North nearly pulled a complete 180 by going 9-1 in divisional play and winning the Class B Coastal division for its first division championship in 14 years. Colin Byrne will be hard to replace, but plenty of talent is set to return in 2025-26.

14. Ranney (13-11, 5-5) Preseason Rank: 9 – An injury to sophomore Brody Mauro was too much to overcome for Ranney in its pursuit of a top 10 finish, but the team eventually adjusted and created even more depth and experience on the roster heading into next season, when all but three players (MeSean Williams, Justin Buck and Ethan Cherrier) return.

15. Freehold Township (14-13, 4-6) Preseason Rank: Not ranked – With a rotation heavy on sophomores, the Patriots endured their share of growing pains, but peaked in the NJSIAA Tournament and were just a bounce of the ball away from reaching the sectional final in Central Jersey Group IV. With a talented, athletic,  junior-loaded team due back, Freehold Township will be a team to watch in 2025-26.

16. Point Pleasant Beach (20-8, 8-2) Preseason Rank: Not ranked – Another candidate to take Central’s title of Best Team in Ocean County next season, the Garnet Gulls lose just one starter and will have three juniors in the starting five next season after winning a game in the 2025 SCT and two more in the NJSIAA Tournament — including one at the buzzer vs. Henry Hudson.

17. Howell (14-12, 3-7) Preseason Rank: Not ranked – With point guard Cayden Parker and breakout sophomores Noah Musto and Jayden Parker set to return, Howell has the makings of a 2025-26 sleeper after qualifying for the SCT and posting a winning record while playing in a loaded Class A Central division this season.

18. Jackson Memorial (10-16, 5-5) Preseason Rank: 10 – Jackson Memorial was never quite able to field a fully-healthy, eligible team this season, but the good news for most of the players is they are all set to come back in 2025-26. There is uncertainty surrounding the coaching staff in light of the upcoming merger with Jackson Liberty High School and the hiring process that will ensue, but with so much talent in place and some more help coming with the addition of Jackson Liberty’s roster, the Jaguars have top-five potential next season.

19. Marlboro (10-16, 4-6) Preseason Rank: Not ranked – Another team that struggled to stay healthy, the Mustangs will graduate a trio of contributors, but return plenty of varsity experience as juniors and seniors next year. Even with the injury issues, Marlboro reached the SCT and even advanced a round.

20. Barnegat (16-10, 7-1) Preseason Rank: Not ranked – With a senior-heavy team, the Bengals won their first outright division championship by conquering Class B South, while also picking up big non-division wins over Neptune and Point Pleasant Boro that helped Barnegat qualify for the SCT for a second straight season.