Blue Devils making history in 2024

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

Shore Regional junior Reese Fiore (holding the ball) scored her 1,000th point on February 27. Here she is with her starting teammates; Kimi Sayson (3), Antonette Russo (22), Conley Smolokoff (13) and Ava Coyle (4).

The 2024 basketball season for the lady Blue Devils of Shore Regional High School is already a record-breaking season, and they are two games away from setting a new school record. William Wishart, who is in his eighth season as head, coach reached his 100th career victory this season, and junior guard Reese Fiore became the tenth player in school history to reach 1,000 career points.

Shore is also just two games away from setting a school record of being the first Blue Devils basketball team to three-peat as an NJSIAA state champion. It is something that Wishart and his players have been thinking about since the end of last season. Shore is a Group 1 school in the NJSIAA, which is the smallest of the groups, and this season Wishart looked to play a tougher schedule and it showed in their 15-11 record.

The Blue Devils opened the 2024 NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 1 tournament as the three seed. They hosted 14 seed Florence in the first round. Shore easily won that game 78-24. Fiore had 26 points, five rebounds and three steals. That gave her 965 total points, 35 away from making the list of 1,000-point scorers for the Blue Devils. Ava Coyle also had a great game in that opening round scoring 12 points and having one assist and five steals. Finishing with 10 points, five rebounds, five assists and six steals was senior Conley Smolokoff.

That win set up a quarterfinals match with sixth seed Highland Park, when Shore hosted the Owls  winning 80-54. The first quarter was the difference in the game as the Devils outscored the Owls 22-4. They forced 12 first-quarter turnovers and capitalized on all of them. Fiore needed 35 points to reach 1,000 and was playing very aggressively and her teammates were doing everything they could to help her reach that elite status.

Highland Park settled into the game and the second, third and fourth quarters were very tight. Shore had a 13-10 advantage in the second quarter taking a 35-14 lead into the break. The third quarter was the highest scoring for both schools with the Devils holding a 25-22 advantage.

Going into the final quarter Reese needed just three points to break the 1,000-point mark. With 4:08 left in the game, Kimi Sayson of Shore Regional stole the ball from Highland Park and made a great pass to a fast-breaking Fiore who made the layup getting her name in the record book. It also put the Blue Devils up 71-43 at the time.

Leading up to that point you could see the desire and pressure on Fiore to reach that level. She was going 100 percent the entire game. “We decided that if she was close, we were going to let her go after the points,” said Wishart. He added that the last player to score 1,000 points was Rylee Drahos who did so in 2023 against Highland Park in the quarterfinals. “Reese is a dynamic player and all the girls were helping her tonight. I’m proud of her and the team.”

Fiore finished the game with 39 points, Sayson had 15, Smolokoff had nine and Coyle scored eight. The Blue Devils advance to the semifinals and they will host seventh seed New Egypt on Thursday night, February 29. The other semifinal game has top seed Middlesex facing fourth seed Point Beach.

The 1,000 point club at Shore Regional is led by Patricia Delehanty who set the school and state record in 1978. That record was broken this year by a Manchester player.

Patricia Delehanty           1978       2,534 points

Rylee Drahos                     2023       1,660 points

Heidi Waterman               1991       1,601 points

Madison LaRose               2021       1,182 points

Elizabeth West                  2010       1,133 points

Goya Qualls                      1978       1,088 points

Melissa Lehman                2004       1,076 points

Emily Bahrs                       1988       1,050 points

Kathy Leslie                      1973       1,009 points

Reese Fiore                      2024       1,004 and still going

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