Justin Robinson and Xander Rice drive Sea View Jeep to victory

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

Leading Sea View jeep from a 20 point deficit to a 116-109 win over Sterns Trailer was Justin Robinson (8) who scored 40 points in the win.

The Jersey Shore Basketball League is in its 57th season of summer hoops. One of the biggest highlights of the JSBL are the local stars that excelled in high school, college and professionally that continue to play and support the league.

One of the biggest names in the JSBL is Justin Robinson, the 5’8” guard who plays for Sea View Jeep in the summer. He is a graduate of Monmouth University and is the all-time leading scorer for the Hawks with 1,334 points. Since his time as a Hawk, Robinson has played professionally oversees for the past 10 years.

Since 2018, Robinson has played in the JSBL and holds the scoring records for 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2023 averaging over 40 points per-game. This season, Sea View Jeep are the favorites to win the 2025 title. Also playing for Sea View Jeep is Xander Rice, another Monmouth University alumni and whose father, King Rice, is the head coach at Monmouth University.

Chris Brady and Collin Stewart are two other former Hawks that play for Sea View Jeep. Also on the roster is local standout Roy Mabrey, Max Mahoney, Tyrone O’Garro. Colin Cavanaugh, Josh Cohen, Alihan Demir, CJ Ruoff and Kevin Telesford.

Sea View Jeep also added a new player for 2025 in Scottie Lewis, who played his high school ball at Ranney School and then at Florida State. Lewis also played in the NBA for the Charlotte Hornets.

Scoring 40 points for Sterns Trailer was Jakari Spence (3).

Greg Kapalko, who coached for many years in the JSBL and has five championships to his credit is now the Chairman of the Board of Governors for the league. “For the past three seasons, Sterns Trailer has won the championships. However, this summer it looks like Sea View Jeep will be the team to beat,” said Kapalko.  Sea View Jeep started the 2025 season with a 122-110 win over Intern Helpers back on June 25.

June 30, was the first meeting this summer between Sea View Jeep and Sterns Trailer. They played the second game, which starts at 8:30 p.m. at Manasquan High School. The JSBL holds a NCAA sanction and are prohibited from paying players or coaches, so its always hard to determine who will show up on game night.  And for the big game on Monday night, only five players for each team were dressed for action.

JSBL games have four 10-minute quarters, so all 10 players had 40 minutes of game time. Sea View Jeep had Robinson, Rice, Mahoney, Ruoff and Mabrey show up. The team is coached and owned by Tyler Schmelz. Sea View Jeep joined the JSBL back in 1986 and have been in seven championship games with six wins.

Fred Stern is the owner of Sterns Trailer which joined the league in 1989. They have appeared in 10 championship games with five victories, including the past three consecutive seasons. Former head coach Ron Pastore is the general manager now with head coach is Christine Hatfield, who last season became the first woman head coach to win a JSBL title.

Sterns Trailer also has a former Monmouth University player on its roster; Jakari Spence. Also on the squad this summer are Parker Dortch, Kessly Felizor, Alanzo Frink, Jalen Gaffney, Christian Lyons, Kevin Mateo, Rasheen Merlin, Anthony Selby, Larry Smith and Derrick Woods.

The five players that showed up to face Sea View Jeep on Monday night were, Smith, Dortch, Gaffney, Merlin and Spence.

Considering that neither team had any reserve players, the guys on the floor never slowed down and played hard the entire 40 minutes. At the end of the first quarter, Sterns Trailer was up 32-29, and outscored Sea View Jeep 33-23 in the second quarter taking a 65-52 lead.

The second half had Sterns outscoring Sea View Jeep, 34-30 in the third quarter. At one point, Sterns Trailer had a 78-58 lead over Sea View Jeep. However, the fourth and final quarter was all Sea View Jeep, with Robinson taking charge. Those final 10 minutes had Sea View Jeep outscoring Sterns Trailer 34-10, taking the 116-109 victory and improving to 2-0 on the summer.

Robinson had 40 points, four rebounds, nine assists and four steals. Rice had a great game adding 33 points, 11 rebounds for a double-double. Also getting a double-double was Mahoney with 20 points and 19 rebounds. Mabrey finished with 14 points and Ruoff had nine.

Sterns Trailer had all five of their players in double digit scoring. They also had two players getting a double-double; Spence had 40 points and 10 rebounds while Merlin finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Smith scored 25 points, had 8 rebounds, and three assists. Gaffney had 19 points, four rebounds, and five assists. Finishing with 12 points was Dortch who also had nine rebounds.

Foul shooting was an issue for Sterns Trailer as they went 4 of 9 in the first half and 3 of 8 in the second half. They also had a lower production of three-point shots in the second half only making 5 of 12 attempts. Sea View Jeep had an 18-1 run on Sterns Train in the second half which was the game changer.

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