Shore holds off Long Branch, for a second time

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

Driving to the hoop is Maddox Paulin (14), who was high scorer for Shore Regional with 12 points. Playing defense for Long Branch is Quentin Fisher during the loss to the Blue Devils.

For the second time in 17 days the Blue Devils of Shore Regional High School escaped with a last-second win over the Green Wave of Long Branch in a Shore Conference B North divisional boys’ basketball game. Monday night, 02-03-25, Shore left Long Branch with a 45-42 win.

It was a very exciting game, as the Green Wave had an impressive 18-14 lead after the first quarter. The second quarter was tight, as LB had a 6-5 advantage over the Blue Devils and took a 24-19 lead into the halftime break.

During that opening half, Long Branch used the speed and intensity to grab that early lead. “We have made a lot of progress since the start of the season. Our players are comfortable with our plays and playing together,” said Darnell Tyler, head coach at Long Branch. He stated that leading the charge all season has been Havi Gonzalez, senior guard. “He goes all out the entire game. He never slows down in his attack on offense or defense. You can’t teach that. Also having a good season are Josh Da’Cruz and Joshua Guzman, both juniors.”

As the Blue Devils took the floor to warm-up before the start of the second half, Erik Mazur, head coach of Shore Regional stated that his team was ready. “The first half we were struggling with speed and not playing our game. We need to shoot more and attack the rim,” said Mazur.

That is exactly what Shore Regional did in the second half. They outscored the Green Wave 18-14 in the third quarter. And just like the first half, they followed a strong high scoring 10 minutes with a low scoring performance.

With 8.2 second left to play, Long Branch was down 45-42 and needed a three-point shot to send the game into overtime. Back on January 16, when the two teams faced off in West Long Branch, Shore was down by three points with seven seconds left on the clock. They hit the shot and eventually won in overtime.

The game on Monday night, Long Branch took out the ball from under the Shore basket, raced to halfcourt and called timeout. With 4.1 to play, Quentin Fisher made a perfect pass to Da’Cruz who had a clear look at the hoop from outside the arch, and the ball spun around the rim but came out. Shore’s Andrew Barham grabbed the rebound securing the Blue Devils 45-42 victory.

Max Paulin was high man for Shore with 12 points, Andrew Barham had 11 points, Finn Watson scored eight, Ryan Barham had seven, Bryce Crowe finished with six and Jasias Colon had a foul shot. The Devil are 15-4 overall and 5-5 in the division.

Leading the Green Wave was Joshua Guzman with 11 points, Cameron Dejesus had 10, Fisher finished with nine, Da’Cruz scored six, Havi Gonzalez scored four and Chris Moses had two points. Long Branch slips to 7-13 overall and 5-5 in the B North.