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State Stampede: Balance Carries Marlboro Back to Central 4 Semifinals

Matt Manley|February 28, 2026|Last Updated February 28, 2026

MARLBORO — In the state tournament, when seasons are on the line every possession of every game, most teams want a player they can turn to when the pressure is at its most intense.

In the case of the Marlboro boys basketball team, the Mustangs don’t have one go-to option. They have five.

Juniors Dylan McEwan and Nolan Gong each hit the 20-point plateau and each of Marlboro’s three other starters scored in double-figures, which powered the Mustangs — seeded No. 2 in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV section — to a 78-68 win over No. 7 Sayreville. The victory propels Marlboro to the Central Group IV semifinals Tuesday at home vs. No. 3 seed and two-time defending sectional champion Montgomery.

McEwan scored 16 of his team-high 21 points in the second half while Gong struck for 16 of his 20 in the first half, giving Marlboro a major scoring burst from two of their more prominent scorers throughout the season. Gong also handed out three assists and nabbed six steals.

“We know our roles very well,” Gong said. “We struggled with that early in the year and we had a game against (Red Bank Catholic) that we won here and we felt like that was really the start of it for us. That was our best game of the year and we knew that if we could continue to replicate that, we would do well.”

The rest of the lineup provided offensive bursts as well, with senior Ajay Mathews — the other of Marlboro’s top three scorers, along with McEwan and Gong — dishing out eight assists to go with his 13 points. Senior Christian Elmasri added 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals and fellow senior Drew Lubeck scored eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter while also pulling in six rebounds.

“That’s been one of our principles forever, not just this year,” Marlboro coach James Reuter said of his team’s balance. “When we’re at our best, we’re balanced scoring, everybody is reaping the wealth. Everybody circles Nolan on the scouting report, Ajay has gotten a lot of attention now, Dylan gets a lot of attention, so they know if they share the ball, everybody eats.”

“When we have a sense that a guy is hot, we’ll run plays for that guy,” Lubeck said. “For example, Ajay was on fire vs. Howell in the Shore Conference (Tournament). He scored sixteen in a row, so we just kept getting him the ball, getting him open in different ways, setting screens for him. Today, Nolan had a hot-shooting first half, so we just kept looking for him and he is really good at getting open and creating good shots for himself.”

After the teams traded baskets in the opening minutes, Marlboro took a 14-10 lead that it would not relinquish. Instead, the Mustangs grew their lead to 63-40 by the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter. Sayreville the chopped the lead with a 24-7 run, which pulled the Bombers within 70-64 on a three-pointer by senior Sam Jones with 1:25 left.

Two missed free throws gave Sayreville a chance to get even closer but Jones missed his next attempt and Gong hit two free throws with a minute left to push the lead back to 72-64. Beginning with Gong’s free throws, Marlboro shot 8-for-10 from the free-throw line and turned the ball over just one time in its final nine possessions to close out the win.

“We knew they were going to make a run,” Elmasri said. “Beginning of the fourth quarter, I said: ‘This game is not over.’ There was like six minutes on the clock and we’re up by 21, but I knew they were not going to give up. They have two kids who are their all-time leading scorers, so they were not going to go out like that.”

Sayreville’s top two scoring threats — Jones and fellow senior Chidi Chukiarah — both exceeded their scoring averages in the game, but the Mustangs did not let both players get hot simultaneously. Chukiarah scored 17 of Sayreville’s first 22 points and finished with 26, while Jones scored 18 of his game-high 27 in the fourth quarter to lead the comeback attempt. Elmasri was the primary defender on Jones, with Gong aiding the effort, while Lubeck battled Chukiarah down low. Marlboro also mixed in plenty of zone looks with a helping of three-quarter-court pressure.

“You would think with a team that shoots the ball like they do, you might not go zone,” Reuter said. “But we notice how they just get so much inside the paint. Sam Jones has over 120 points from the foul line, which is insane. Chidi is just about at 100 points from the foul line. When you get paint touches, you get to the foul line, so a zone will take that away from them. They had some great seals to get Chidi some looks near the basket. He is super athletic and a physical load, but Jones wasn’t beating us. We went in at halftime and we were like, ‘Okay, if we split those points in half, they are well off their average.’ We hung our hat on that and Jones got hot in the fourth quarter when we relaxed a little bit.”

“My goal was to not let (Jones) catch as much, deny him as much as I could,” Elmasri said. “He is a good player. In the fourth quarter, he went off, but I feel like even in the fourth quarter, we gave him problems and everything was hard.”

“I played with Chidi all spring and summer in AAU,” Lubeck said. “I know he is a very physical, aggressive player, so when he goes up for a shot, he is going to go right into your chest. We made adjustments at half. I became more physical with him in the second half. I fronted him and didn’t let him catch it in the post and I think that helped us slow down their offense and kept them from doing whatever they wanted.”

Marlboro took a 38-23 lead to halftime despite foul trouble for four-fifths of its starting five. All but Gong picked up two fouls in the half, which made Gong’s 16-point surge even more essential. Of the other four starters, Elmasri lasted the longest without committing his second foul and helped Gong and Marlboro’s three bench contributors — senior Jake Stone, senior Rob Gloriosi and junior Nate Seidler — keep the lead in double-figures before the Mustangs could regroup at halftime.

“Anyone that goes in or out of the game, we have full confidence,” Elmasri said. “We were in foul trouble a lot today, but everyone who came on the court today had big minutes: defense, offense or just holding it down.”

“I knew that was a good time for me to step up but at the same time, we also trust all those guys coming off the bench,” Gong said. “Jake is a major energy guy, Rob has hit some huge shots and Nate has been cooking us in practice every day. We have been playing together for years, so we know where we are and what everyone can do.”

After two victories by double-digit margins — Marlboro beat Princeton, 68-47, in Thursday’s first round — the Mustangs will play host to Montgomery, which is two wins away from its third consecutive sectional championship in Central Group IV after vanquishing Trenton, 70-60, on Saturday. The 10-point margin of victory is the closest game Montgomery has played in the Central Group IV section since the 2024 state playoffs, with the second closest a 60-46 win over Marlboro in the 2024 sectional semifinals.

“We knew once we got past the first round, it’s juggernauts the rest of the way,” Reuter said. “One through nine were all teams who could make deep runs. We were looking at the power points leading up to it and we’re looking at everything that can happen and after a while, you just say, ‘You know what? We’re going to run into a really good team, no matter what.'”

“Having home-court advantage against a team like Montgomery is huge,” Lubeck said. “It’s going to be packed, it’s going to be loud. This being our last season as seniors, we are going to go all out and I would expect it’s going to be physical. Blood, sweat and tears and just keep going.”

Whatever Tuesday’s result, Marlboro has turned in one of the best in program history this season. This year’s team is just the third team to reach 20 wins — all since 2019-20 — and they are the fifth team in the last six seasons at Marlboro (excluding the COVID-shortened 2021 season) to reach the Central Group IV sectional semifinal round.

“I think once we got to the Shore (Conference Tournament), we hit that moment of realization where it was like this season is actually going to mean a lot,” Gong said. “We knew we could get to twenty wins, we knew we could go on a tournament run, so we just wanted to be there for each other.”

“We played a state-ranked team (Christian Brothers Academy) in the Shore Conference semifinals and that didn’t go our way,” Elmasri said. “We learned a lot from that game and now, we’re going to go play another one. We know they have a great team but we’re at home, it’s going to be a packed gym, everybody is going to be supporting us, so why not go shock everyone in the state?”

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