Jackson Memorial 50-33 over Ocean

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr

Last week the Ocean boys basketball team hosted Jackson Memorial as their second to last regular season game. The game started off very competitive and the first quarter ended with Jackson Memorial holding a slight 18-12 lead over the Spartans.

The second quarter was much tighter on defense for both schools and Ocean had outscored their opponents 8-5. However, going into the halftime break Jackson Memorial was leading Ocean 23-20.

Ocean’s downfall occurred during the first eight minutes of the second half. Jackson Memorial outscored the Spartans 17-3 in the third quarter. Jack Miller was the only Ocean player to score and that was a three-point hoop.

In the fourth quarter both teams added 10 points to their totals. Jackson Memorial had enough in the tank to capture the 50-33 victory.

The Spartans didn’t have a single player score in double digits. Darius Brown and Andrew Seager both had nine points, Miller finished with eight and the only other Ocean player with points was Chris Vivian with seven.

Following the loss to Jackson Memorial the Spartans traveled to Donovan Catholic to close out their season. They put forward a better effort and beat Donovan Catholic 63-50. Seager was high man with 26 points, Miller scored 12, Vivian had 10, Brown 5, Tim McMahon and David Yatcilla each scored four and Luke Yates had two points.

Ocean plays in the Shore Conference B North division and finished 7-7 in the division and 16-9 overall. They also qualified for the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 3 tournament. The Spartans were given the seven seed and will host the tenth seed Matawan in the opening round.