#image_title

The Long Game: Defensive Switch Sparks Matawan Comeback Win

Matt Manley|January 7, 2026|Last Updated January 7, 2026

OCEAN TWP — Following the biggest win of their season to date, Matawan’s boys basketball players and their head coach cited a defensive adjustment that seemed obvious in hindsight for a major turnaround during the Huskies Shore Conference Class B Central showdown at Ocean on Tuesday.

Prior to first-year Matawan coach Jim Macomber activating a 1-3-1 zone, however, it did not seem so obvious. As the Huskies search for their 2025-26 identity, its trial-and-error start to the season has yielded mixed results, with equal parts promise and frustration. For the first 20 minutes Tuesday, it was more of the latter, but once Matawan settled into a zone that accentuated the team’s length, the Huskies could not be stopped and walked out of the gym at Ocean feeling like they found something.

After trailing by 11 points in the third quarter, Matawan turned the game on its head by shifting to the 1-3-1, creating a swath of turnovers, holding Ocean scoreless for more than eight minutes and securing a 42-37 road win that bumps the Huskies up to first place in Class B Central through 20 percent of the division schedule.

“Honestly, we did not know we were going to play that defense today,” senior guard Colin Reitmann said. “Coach pulled it out last minute during a timeout. We came out in it, and it worked. Now we’ll probably play it more, so that’s good.”

“We’re still trying to learn what we are night in and night out,” said Macomber, who was the head coach at nearby Old Bridge High School before taking the Matawan job ahead of this season. “We played some very tough teams early on in the season. We went to Rahway (for the Butch Kowal Classic), played some tough teams from Union County, and it was a different level of basketball. It could be good for us. We’ve seen what really good basketball looks like and hopefully that gets us ready to play in our division.”

From 1:50 left in the third quarter until after the 1:30 mark of the fourth, Matawan outscored Ocean, 18-0, to flip a 31-20 deficit to a 38-31 lead. In the first half, the Huskies were out of sorts on offense and turned the ball over nine times. In the second half, they flipped the script by forcing 13 Ocean turnovers. By the final buzzer, Matawan had won the turnover battle, 19-16.

“It was really just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks,” Macomber said of the switch to the 1-3-1, with 6-5 forwards Trevor Cole and sophomore Cayson Williams, plus 6-3 senior Daamir Darby, wreaking havoc in the defense.

“We’re very long. It gave them problems, probably because we haven’t done that much this year, so they probably weren’t prepared for it. They made some threes at the end, and we had to jump out of it, but I’m proud of our guys for being able to do it on the fly. These kids are learning how to play basketball. We’re very athletic, so when we learn how to play basketball as a team, we can be very good.”

Reitmann led Matawan with 16 points while also grabbing five rebounds and dishing out three assists. His lone steal of the game came at the most opportune of times: with Ocean trailing, 40-37, in the final 10 seconds. Reitmann took the ball away while helping to trap Ocean leading scorer and senior guard Aidan Saint Louis. He was then fouled with 3.2 seconds left and hit two free throws to seal the victory.

“It just rattled them a little,” Reitmann said of the switch to the 1-3-1. “We’re long. We have a very big team, so that definitely helped us a lot. Then we just had to hit some shots down the stretch, which is what we did.”

“Colin did a great job for us,” Macomber said. “He was thrown into the point guard role with a couple of our ball-handlers out with injuries. “He handled the ball well, got the ball where it needed to go and knocked down his foul shots when he needed to.”

Matawan’s game-clinching run was preceded by a big run by the Spartans, specifically freshman Omar Ayyash. With Matawan ahead, 14-11, near the midway point of the second quarter, Ayyash had yet to score. From that point until the 1:50 mark of the third, the freshman scored 14 points in a 20-6 Ocean run that established the 31-20 lead, with Ayyash drilling a three from the right corner with 1:50 left to make it an 11-point Spartans lead.

Matawan got five points back before the end of the third on a jump hook by Cole and a three-point play by Reitmann, pulling the Huskies within 31-25 heading to the fourth. The surge continued to start the fourth, with Cole scoring again in the post and junior Christian Baskerville scoring off a steal to cut Ocean’s lead to 31-29. Following a turnover on Ocean’s fourth straight possession, Baskerville connected on a three-pointer that gave Matawan a 32-31 lead.

Reitmann hit a jumper to make it 34-31, and four consecutive turnovers by Ocean fed into a floater by Cole and a drive to the rim by Williams that completed the 18-0 run.

Ocean, however, had one last swing before going down. Sophomore Brody Bell ended a scoreless drought of 8:25 by canning a corner three-pointer to slice the deficit down to 38-34 with 1:25 to go.

Ayyash then hit a three-pointer from the opposite corner on the right side to pull the Spartans within 38-37 with 55 seconds left. When Baskerville made one of two free throws with 29 seconds left, Ocean brought the ball up with a chance to tie the game with a two or take the lead on a three. Saint Louis launched a fadeaway three that came up short, and Reitmann corralled it before he was fouled.

Reitmann hit the first of two free throws with 13 seconds left, but missed the second before tracking back on defense and forcing the turnover with less than five seconds left.

“We know they (Ocean) are probably the best team in the division besides us,” Reitmann said. “It was a big one for us coming off Raritan last night. We wanted to come in here and execute our game plan.”

Baskerville and Cole each scored 11 points to back up Reitmann’s 16, with Baskerville also contributing three assists and four steals.

On the Ocean side, Ayyash led the way with 17 points, seven rebounds and three assists, while Bell chipped in nine points on three 3-pointers. Saint Louis (16.1 points per game entering Tuesday) had a quiet scoring game by his standards with eight points, but still managed eight rebounds and four steals to keep Ocean in the game.

“He is a nightmare for everyone,” Macomber said of Saint Louis, a six-foot guard built like a bulldozing running back. “We just want to make things difficult for him. He’s got a high release on his shot, and he is going to shoot the ball most times he gets it, and we just needed to get a hand up high and make sure everything is contested. He didn’t try to impose his will physically, and he stayed on the perimeter more than we expected. He made a couple, but he was a focal point for us.”

Cole’s contribution continued a recent trend of success for the senior, who is just now coming into his own at the varsity level following two seasons lost to injury. Two years ago, Cole was poised to move into a starting role for a talented Matawan team loaded with juniors, but he suffered a torn ACL that ended his season. As a junior in 2024-25, another spell of injuries limited him to seven games.

Nine games into his senior season, Cole is averaging 11.3 points and was coming off a 23-point outing Monday in a win over Raritan.

“He hasn’t had a chance because of the injuries,” Macomber said. “He’s finally healthy this year. I told him he should be an all-division kid this year. It’s how bad do you want it? He has been competing and the ball goes through him right now for us, because we’re more of an interior team.”

After enduring a difficult schedule through the holiday break — Matawan’s losses are to Toms River North, Point Beach, Brick Memorial, Westfield and Scotch Plains-Fanwood — the Huskies have won two games in as many days to grab an early lead in the division race. They hope to bring back two key guards currently out due to injury: senior Ben Morales and junior Christian Brown.

“Chemistry. That’s the biggest thing for us,” Reitmann said. “We had a good win (Monday), and starting with that, everything started to click. Now, we’re just playing basketball. We’re good friends, which really helps and with coach, we’re adapting to his coaching style. He has been a great coach for us. I think we’re definitely one of the most underrated teams in the Shore.”

Related Articles