Sea View Jeep hoping for mileage from Rice and Robinson

Leading ACI/Robin’s Nest in scoring was Regan Burke (22) who had 27 points in the loss to Sea View Jeep.

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

In the 55-year history of the Jersey Shore Basketball League there are only three franchises/teams that have won six or more championships. Sea View Jeep is one of those squads with six JSBL titles. The last few summers they have had one of the most electrifying players in league history with Justin Robinson on their roster. This season they have added Xander Rice to their team hoping for a seventh title.

Robinson, the all-time leading scorer at Monmouth University with 2,000 plus points, second in school history in assists and steals, is now a professional playing in France. His current team is BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque in the LNB ProA league, which is the top tier.

Last summer Robinson set a JSBL single season record averaging 48.8 points per-game, breaking the old record of 43.8 points per-game, which he set in 2019. The record pervious to that was set in 1972 by Bob Verga of 42.31 points per-game.

Sea View Jeep opened the 55^th season of the JSBL on June 28, where they faced ACI/Robin’s Nest. Unfortunately for the team, Robinson was unable to make that game as he was out of state, but should be available next week. However, Sea View Jeep was fortunate to have one of their newest players in uniform, Xander Rice.

The name Rice might sound familiar to basketball fans, as Monmouth University head coach is King Rice. His son is Xander, who scored over 1,000 points while playing at Bucknell. As a graduate student Xander has transferred to Monmouth University where he will play his last colligate season for his dad.

Rice is 6’3”, plays guard, and during the opening game of the summer for Sea View Jeep just missed a triple double. He scored 26 points, had 10 assists and eight rebounds in the 120-90 win over ACI/Robin’s Nest. He was not the high man for Sea View, though. That honor went to Max Mahoney, who graduated from Boston University and plays professional ball overseas. Mahoney also just missed a triple double with 29 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists. He also had one block and one steal in the victory.

Sean Grennan graduated from Monsignor Donovan High School, then played one year at Seton Hall University, transferred to Fairfield and then graduated from San Francisco University. He had 22 points, six rebounds, four assists, one block and two steals for Sea View Jeep.

Playing center for Sea View Jeep is Colin Stewart. who is a graduate of Monmouth University. He finished the game with 19 points and had seven rebounds, one block and one steal.

ACI/Robin’s Nest is a unique team in the Jersey Shore Basketball League. It is comprised of all players from Brookdale Community College. Other teams in the league have Division 1 players along with current or former professionals. ACI/Robin’s Nest have players one or two years out of high school. However, Brookdale Community College did win the junior national title last year.

What they lack in experience, they make up in grit and determination. They were led by Regan Burke who scored 27 points and had 11 rebounds in the loss. Kareem Irby and Josiah Basket each finished the game with 16 points.

All JSBL games are played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at Manasquan High School. The first of two games starts at 7:00 p.m. and the second gets underway at 8:30 p.m.

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