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Winning Point: Last-Second Shot Sends Point Boro to SCT Round of 16

Matt Manley|February 11, 2026|Last Updated February 11, 2026

TINTON FALLS — At the start of its 2025-26 season, the Point Pleasant Boro boys basketball team had two proven scorers and a supporting cast of players with varsity experience as little more than bench players. In the Panthers’ Shore Conference Tournament opener Tuesday at Monmouth Regional, those two top scorers came through for their team throughout the game and despite that, when the clock was running down and the game on the line, neither touched the ball.

For some teams, that would be a critical error. For coach Kevin Hynes and his program, it is a sign that it is all coming together, which is exactly what happened in the final seconds of Tuesday’s opening-round classic against the Falcons.

With the final seconds ticking away and the game tied, senior Dean Cardia beat his man along the baseline and found junior forward Landon Hoyle, who banked in the game-winner with two seconds left to propel Point Boro — the No. 17 seed in the SCT — to a 60-58 win over No. 16 Monmouth.

“I’ve had a few chances to make a game-winner this year and I haven’t been able to make it,” Hoyle said. “Against (Point Pleasant) Beach, I had one that I missed and that kind of stung. But it felt good to make one when it mattered most, especially in a tournament game.”


Point Boro trailed for the vast majority of the game and by as many as 11 in the first half, but finished with a strong offensive performance in the fourth quarter to earn a round-of-16 date with top-seeded Christian Brothers Academy Thursday at CBA.

Senior Jovin Steinmetz and junior Hunter Hynes have been Point Boro’s top two offensive threats all season long and both came through for their team on Tuesday. Hynes led all scorers with 20 points, including 16 in the first half, while Steinmetz scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, with 12 coming in the third quarter. Steinmetz also pulled in seven rebounds.

“They (Monmouth) started the second half with a box-and-one on Hunter and I was just able to find more space on the floor for me to do my thing,” Steinmetz said. “When you take away Hunter, it gives me a chance to do my thing and it’s the same thing if they try to take me away. Hunter is going to go off.”

In the deciding minutes of the fourth quarter, Point Boro reverted to a more balanced operation on offense that helped counter a Monmouth offense that was also sharp in the final quarter. Cardia scored seven of his 10 points in the fourth to lead the offense, with Steinmetz also making a pair of key layups and Hynes knocking down a pair of free throws. Point Boro’s other starter, senior Nick Carmino, also closed the third quarter with a shot that cut Monmouth’s lead to 47-45 heading to the fourth.

“I think that’s more off the court than on the court,” Steinmetz said of Point Boro’s team-wide trust that showed up in the deciding moments Tuesday. “We’re all really good friends, we spend a lot of time together and really know one another. That camaraderie really translates on the court, especially in key moments like that.

“The biggest thing is confidence. Once those guys learned their roles and started playing with confidence, that’s when we really started to take off.”

Cardia’s jumper kicked off an 8-0 run that gave Point Boro its first lead since its was 3-2 in the opening minute of the game. Steinmetz converted a layup off one of six assists from Carmino to give Point Boro the 49-47 lead and Hynes’s two free throws made it 51-47, which marked the Panthers’ largest lead of the game.

Monmouth answered with a three-pointer by senior Jaylin Reeves and a layup by classmate Michael Griffin off a feed from Reeves to put Monmouth back up, 52-51, which began a back-and-forth finish to the game.

“The phrase we always say to each other is, ‘Dig in,'” Steinmetz said. “It started with the Hudson Catholic game (a 67-62 loss) and it’s just been something we tell ourselves that gets us locked in and focused.”

Cardia hit the first of his two go-ahead baskets in the quarter, the first of which was a bank shot to make it 53-52. Senior Ahmir Wiggins later gave Monmouth a 54-53 lead with a steal and dunk, but Cardia came right back with a go-ahead three-pointer for a 56-54 Point Boro lead. Junior Logan Conrade knocked down a short jumper to pull Monmouth even, 56-56, with 2:10 left.

Monmouth broke the tie with 1:07 on a pair of free throws by Wiggins, but Steinmetz answered with a drive to the basket that made it 58-58 with 40 seconds left. After his 12-point quarter in the third kept Point Boro in the game, his two baskets in the fourth gave Point Boro its first lead of the second half and then tied the game with under a minute to go.

Wiggins earned another trip to the line with 22 seconds left, but both of his attempts rimmed out. Monmouth gave a foul with seven seconds left and used its last timeout, setting up Point Boro with a chance to win it.

Cardia took the inbounds pass, drove the right baseline and found Hoyle on the left block, where he put up a shot off the glass and in for the game-winner as the final two seconds ticked away.

“I saw Dean run to the corner,” Hoyle said. “He drives in and we always have a good dump-down play between each other. When I cut, my guy helped on him on the drive and I was there for the dump-down and layup. We were trying to do it the whole game, but they have a lot of length on their team and a lot of skill, so they saw it coming most of the time, but I just told (Cardia), ‘Keep going, it’s going to work.’ Next thing you know, it’s right there. It went right past the kids hand and I finished it.”

“Limited time left, we had to get a bucket,” Cardia said. “I saw Landon open. That’s my brother and I knew I had to find him. I saw him cutting and right away, I knew he would finish it. We know we can always trust him down low. He has improved so much and he’s got so much more time to improve. He has a whole year left and he’s a hard worker.”

The game-winning shot was Hoyle’s second last-second finish of the game. At the end of the second quarter, Carmino found Hoyle on a designed play on a sideline out-of-bounds opportunity, with Hoyle finishing a wide-open layup after his cut to the rim and pass from Carmino. The layup pulled Point Boro within 33-27 at halftime.

“At the beginning of the year, it was a little tough because we have a lot of scorers on the team,” Hoyle said. “I see myself as more of a guy who can stick us together. I don’t really care about scoring, so when I cut backdoor and whoever has the ball keeps their head up, I want to be there for there when the help gets to them.

“Our on-court chemistry has really grown over the last two months and now, we don’t get down on each other. We’re down 10 points and we only cut it to six by half, but scoring that layup at the buzzer made us feel good because we knew we executed and it got us two points closer to coming back. Then, we just need to get a stop and it’s a whole new game. We’re a tough team, so the next thing you know, we’re right back in the game and it’s coming down to the last possession.”

Wiggins and Griffin each scored 13 points to lead Monmouth’s balanced attack, with Wiggins also handing out seven assists and shooting 5-for-6 from the field. Griffin drained three three-pointers as well.

“He hit a couple shots from the outside that surprised us,” said Cardia of Wiggins, who knocked down a three-pointer and a long two in the first quarter. “(Griffin) was a great shooter; he really gave us problems and we lost track of him too many times. They are a good team.”

Conrade added 12 points, senior Charles Tinsley chipped in 10 and Reeves finished with eight points and five assists.

Tuesday’s game was a rematch of a 53-49 win for Monmouth over Point Boro at December’s Cole Young Memorial Tournament at Point Boro. The Falcons won that game despite playing without Wiggins, who was ineligible for the first 30 days of the season as a second-time transfer. Point Boro, meanwhile, was missing Hoyle and freshman Chase Scarponi (two points on Tuesday) in December due to injury.

“The last three weeks, we have just been getting better,” Cardia said. “The way we have been playing, I have a feeling we can beat any team. We just have to keep playing tough and playing physical.”

After spoiling Monmouth’s first home Shore Conference Tournament game since 2010, Point Boro will now try to play the ultimate spoiler role Thursday on its trip to Lincroft to play the tournament’s top seed. CBA has won four games vs. Shore Conference opponents (Rumson-Fair Haven, Red Bank Catholic and twice vs. Manasquan) by a single digit margin, while Point Boro has a five-point loss to Hudson Catholic that has served as the team’s source of confidence going up against all opponents.

“They are obviously a great team, but it’s a great opportunity for us,” Steinmetz said of CBA. “To go against one of the top teams in the state gives us a chance to show what we’ve got and you never know. We’ll see how it goes.”

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