Spartans down Falcons in last minute of the game

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

Justice Hodges (3), a junior guard at Ocean made two fouls shots in the last five seconds to earn the Spartans a 46-44 win over Monmouth Regional.

Thursday night, January 22, Ocean Township High School boys’ varsity basketball team traveled to Tinton Falls and faced the Falcons of Monmouth Regional for control of the top spot in the Shore Conference B Central division. It was an exciting game that went back and forth but had some questionable calls late in the game, which Ocean won 46-44.

With the victory, Ocean sits on top of the division at 5-1with a 10-7 overall record. Monmouth Regional fell to 9-5 overall and are in second place in the B Central at 4-2. Following the Flacons in the ranking is Matawan, Neptune, Raritan and Long Branch.

“That was one of the most intense games we’ve had in our rivalry,” said Ryan Pringle, head coach of the Spartans.

The first quarter had Monmouth Regional outscoring Ocean 6-3 in a very tight defensive battle. Second quarter had Ocean besting Monmouth 14-10, taking a 17-16 lead into the halftime break.

The third quarter was all Monmouth Regional as they scored 18 points, more than the entire first half, while Ocean added 12 to their total. Going into the final eight minutes, the Falcons had 34 points while visiting Spartans had 29.

The last 10 seconds of the game the score was tied at 44 points. Monmouth Regional had an inbounds play in front of the “Falcons Nest”, the student section on the gym and opposite side of the Monmouth Regional bench.

Ryan Corwin, sophomore guard, threw the ball inbounds to senior Jaylin Reeves, who passed to Logan Conrade, junior, who  quickly made a pass to a cutting Reeves. However, the pass was stolen by Justice Hodges, junior at Ocean Township, who quickly moved towards half court and is quickly double teamed by Ahmir Wiggins and Corwin. Officials called a foul on Corwin with 4.7 seconds left to play.

Hodges made his first foul shot and Pringle called a timeout. When the teams broke from the timeout, Hodges went back to the line to sink his second foul shot putting Ocean up 46-44. Monmouth Regional called time out with 4.7 seconds left.

When the teams took the floor for the final 4.7 seconds, Corwin threw a full court pass to Conrade, who went up for the ball and appeared to be hit from behind by Ahmad

Logan Conrade (0) of Monmouth Regional goes up for two of his game-high 10 points in the 46-44 loss to Ocean. Going for the block is Aidan Saint Louis of Ocean Township.

Ayyash, freshman forward at Ocean. The ball was knocked loose and a diving Aidan Saint Louis, senior at Ocean, grabbed it while on the floor and tossed it to Hodges. However, officials call Saint Louis with traveling giving Monmouth Regional the ball with 0.9 seconds left.

Timeout was called as both teams prepared for the last shot attempt by Monmouth Regional. Reeves made the inbound pass to Michael Griffin, senior, who threw up a shot from near midcourt, but it missed giving Ocean the 46-44 victory.

“I’m still kind of in shock that we found a way to escape with a win. It was back and forth all night with neither team building a lead bigger than six points in a very packed and lively gym. I was really proud of the mental toughness and grit our kids showed throughout,” said Pringle.

Ocean was missing one of their top players.  Brody Bell, who is shooting 50% from the three-point arch was out with the flu. Saint Louis and Omar Ayyash both finished with 15 points. Saint Louis had four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Omar Ayyash had two rebounds, two assists and two steals. His twin brother, Ahmad Ayyash finished with seven points and 11 rebounds. Hodges also scored seven points and had two assists and two steals.

“I thought guys like Vernon Taylor, Mickey McGovern, Mark Palmer and Jack Bell gave us huge minutes.  Overall, I think our kids locked in on the scouting report and defended well enough to hang around in that game,” said Pringle.

Monmouth Regional was led by Ahmir Wiggins who finished with 15 points. He also had two big crowd-pleasing dunks in the loss. Logan Conrade and Javor Bowles finished with 10 points each. Scoring seven points for the Falcons was Jaylin Reeves and Ryan Corwin had four.

“I have to give a lot of credit to Monmouth Regional because they outplayed us most of the night. Coach Sfraga gets a lot out of that group and they’ll continue to be a tough matchup for everyone they play down the stretch this season,” added Pringle.

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