Step By Gepp: Wall Boys Basketball Opens Eyes at WOBM Classic

TOMS RIVER — The seniors on the Wall boys basketball team joined a program four years ago that had made competing for championships part of the annual expectations during the years prior.

With a new group of players, however, the expectations evaporated over the past three seasons, but the winds of championship contention are blowing again for the Crimson Knights, which they showed over the past five days at the WOBM Christmas Classic.

Wall completed an impressive three-game run through the Steve Gepp Bracket of the WOBM Christmas Classic, capped by Monday’s 49-36 win over Middletown North that landed the Crimson Knights their ever first championship at the WOBM Classic in its 40th and final year.

Not only were the Crimson Knights slotted in the bracket with the bottom eight seeds in the 16-team WOBM Classic field; they were the No. 12 seed, which ranked fourth in the Gepp Bracket. After going a combined 19-51 over the past three years, Wall’s players knew they had plenty to prove to earn their due respect heading into 2025 and if an improved, 11-12 2023-24 season was not enough to suggest they would be ready to win in 2025, a 4-2 start and a convincing championship performance will help.

Wall stormed out to a 7-1 lead, which it gave up with a 7-0 Middletown North run. Junior Jacob DeBrito gave Wall the lead back with a three-pointer to beat the first-quarter buzzer, making it 10-8 heading to the second quarter. The two teams played a competitive second quarter, which ended with a tip-in by Wall senior Tom Ekberg (eight points) to give his team a 23-17 lead going into halftime.

In the third quarter, Wall built its lead up to double-digits thanks to a big second half from junior Liam Killea. After a quiet first half, Killea went off for 13 of his game-high 16 points after intermission on the way to earning the Chuck Kearney Award for the 2024 tournament.

Senior Brian McKenna, meanwhile, won the Tournament MVP after scoring all eight of his points in the final during the second quarter while also helping to lead a defensive effort that held Middletown North leading scorer Colin Byrne to eight points. Senior Demitri Tu also earned All-Tournament honors and finished with six points on Monday.

Sophomore Nate Tyburczy led Middletown North with 13 points and the Lions got a lift from 6-foot-6 junior Eddie Lopez, who made his season debut and scored five points in limited action during the second half. Lopez is recovering from a foot injury that caused him to miss Middletown North’s first five games, plus the first half of Monday’s game.

Wall’s lone losses during the start of the season are to Holmdel — a Shore Conference semifinalist a year ago — and Central Regional, which is ranked No. 4 in the Shore Sports Insider Top 10 and lost to Manasquan, 30-28, in the Jim Ruhnke Bracket final on Monday. The Crimson Knights beat Raritan prior to the WOBM Classic and ran through Brick Memorial (5-1), Freehold Township (2-3) and Middletown North (3-3) to claim the title.

Now, Wall turns its attention toward a pursuit of the division championship in the Shore Conference Class B Central division. The Crimson Knights share a division with Neptune, Point Pleasant Beach, Jackson Liberty, New Egypt and Lakewood. None of the team in the B Central division finished with a winning record a year ago, leaving the race wide open.