Wall Handles Howell On Career Night For Brian McKenna

WALL TWP. — To close out 2025, Wall High School senior Brian McKenna won the Most Valuable Player award at the Kevin Williams Christmas Classic on the heels of a defensive performance that sparked his Crimson Knights boys basketball team to a dominant run through the tournament and a 5-0 start to its season.

In Wall’s first game of 2026, against its fourth straight Shore Sports Insider Top 10 opponent, McKenna played another dominant defensive game, but that is not what had his teammates, coaches and the gym at Wall buzzing after yet another marquee win for the Knights on Monday.

McKenna rained seven three-pointers on 10 attempts on his way to a career-high 31 points in leading Wall — No. 3 in the SSI Top 10 — to a convincing, 64-40 rout of No. 7 Howell in a battle of the two champions of the Shore’s two most prominent holiday tournaments.

In addition to the best scoring display of his his high-school career, McKenna delivered his usual stellar effort on defense in another all-around game. He grabbed 12 rebounds, dished out three assists and guarded Howell senior guard Cayden Parker, who finished with six points. Heading into Monday night, Parker was averaging better than 23 points per game and was the MVP of the Albert E. Martin Buc Classic over the break.

“I was just feeling really good,” McKenna said. “To open up division play like that, I was just really hyped up to show what we could do. We knew they were a very good offensive team — they have been scoring in the sixties — so we came in with a defensive mentality and our offense carried us too.”

In its three wins at the Kevin Williams Classic from Dec. 26 to 30, Wall held three teams — No. 4 Red Bank Catholic, No. 9 Manasquan and No. 5 Freehold Township — ranked in the Shore Sports Insider Top 10 to an average of 31.7 points per game, including shutting out Manasquan for the first 13:48 as part of a 40-20 win in the tournament semifinal. In the championship game, McKenna limited Freehold Township leading scorer Jake Schultzel to nine points in a 48-41 Wall win after Schultzel scored 40 over the first two rounds of the tournament.

“Brian gets the toughest assignments every game,” Wall coach Bob Klatt said. “He’s just a great athlete and we knew (Parker) was averaging 23 points per game and he gets them a lot of different ways — driving, shooting, even rebounding. He’s an all-around player. Getting a couple fouls early took him out of his rhythm early, but having Brian on him is going to play a part. We did it all last year, using Brian’s athletic ability and we’re going to continue to do it.”

Howell rolled into Wall Monday on a five-game winning streak after beating Old Bridge, East Brunswick and Marlboro to win the Buc Classic, but after McKenna knocked down his first three-point attempt on Wall’s third possession of the game, the Rebels were never closer than six points against the Crimson Knights.

“We’re not just a defensive team,” McKenna said. “Any of us could go off on any night. We all know our capabilities, so we just play together every night and regardless of whether we’re scoring, we just lock in on the defensive side and the offense will come, but we really showed we’re not just a defensive team today.”

Wall attempted three-pointers on each of its first five possessions and after missing the first, hit four straight. Senior Jake DeBrito made the first one, the McKenna started his offensive game by draining three straight to stake the Crimson Knights to a 12-0 lead on its new Shore Conference Class A Central division foe. McKenna would go on to make his first six three-point attempts before finally missing back-to-back shots from beyond the arc in the latter part of the third quarter.

After trailing, 18-7, at the end of the first quarter, the Rebels cut their deficit to 18-12 and were within 20-14 until junior Nevin Tu scored on a cut to the basket off a feed from classmate Donovan Buist, followed by McKenna’s fifth three-point the first half to put the Crimson Knights back up by 11, 25-14. To make matters worse for Howell, Parker picked up his second foul with 3:23 left in the second quarter and went to the bench for the remainder of the half. Despite Parker’s absence on the floor, the Rebels managed to make it to halftime within single-digits, 27-18.

Senior Liam Killea hit the first of two free throws and McKenna scored on a putback after Killea missed the second to give Wall a 30-18 lead on its second possession of the third quarter. From that point on, Wall maintained a double-digit lead and a 13-1 run grew the advantage to 43-21, with McKenna scoring nine of Wall’s first 15 points in the quarter. The senior guard nailed his seventh three before the end of the third and Wall rolled into the fourth with 48-30 lead.

“I think that’s the experience,” Klatt said of his team turning Monday’s game into a blowout. “These kids have so much experience. Four of them played a lot of minutes last year, so they have been here and I don’t think they get rattled too easily. They know if we lock up on defense, give them one shot, we’ll be okay. Somebody is going to hit a shot for us when we need to. I think that’s just the confidence they have in their ability.”

McKenna finished his night 12-for-23 from the field and 0-for-2 from the free-throw line, with six of his misses from the field coming on layups — the only blemish to his offensive performance on Monday night.

DeBrito was Wall’s second-leading scorer at nine points, while both Killea and fellow senior Dan Hennessy turned in solid all-around games while scoring seven points and three steals apiece. Killea also dished out four assists, while Hennessy handed out three and also pulled down eight rebounds.

Junior Jay Parker led Howell with 19 points and three assists and classmate Noah Musto blocked three shots in the first half when Wall tried to balance out its shooting with attacks on the rim.

Both Parker brothers and Musto were starters last season, when Howell won at Wall in the only meeting between the two teams. Of Wall’s six losses last season, the one 45-39 defeat at the hands of the Rebels was the only loss to a team that did not finish the season ranked in the SSI Top 10. Both teams brought three starters each back from last year’s teams: McKenna, Killea and Hennessy for Wall and Cayden Parker, Jay Parker and Musto for Howell.

“We’re equal,” Klatt said of Wall and Howell. “We shot lights-out: Brian hitting 31, Jake hitting a couple (shots). We shot lights-out early, we got on them early and went from there. This division, the winner is going to have three losses. We’re going to get knocked off, because this is one of the toughest divisions. I didn’t expect this tonight. I thought it was going to come down to the wire.”

Monday marked the first divisional game for both Wall and Howell and the two will meet again on Jan. 22 at Howell. Between then and now, both teams will have to navigate a division that features the Kevin Williams Classic runner-up in Freehold Township, a Middletown South team with a standout freshman tandem in Ryan Gannon and Evan Wells, a Manalapan squad that will soon welcome back College Achieve transfer and junior guard Joe Farino to an already skilled lineup, and a junior-heavy St. John Vianney team.

While Klatt is mentally prepared for the division schedule to bring his team back to earth at some point, he can rest assured his players are not looking past any one challenge.

“Our message coming in was, ‘Yeah, we won the Christmas Tournament, but that’s done with,'” DeBrito said. “Now, we have division play ahead of us and we want to win a division.

“We like when we’re slept on. We just love proving people wrong. After every game, even after a win like this, we put it behind us. It’s a good win, but there is so much more to be done.”