Blue Devils Comeback Sends Them to the Semifinals

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

Shore Regional senior Andrew Barham (22) goes up for two oh fis game-high 13 points in the NJSIAA quarterfinal win over New Providence.

March 2, the boys’ basketball team at Shore Regional High School hosted the Pioneers of New Providence in the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 1 state quarterfinals. The game didn’t start well for the Blue Devils as the Pioneers took a 16-9 first-quarter lead and then outscored Shore 15-9 in the second quarter.

The second half was all Shore Regional, as they came out from the halftime break a much more aggressive squad. During the first half, the Blue Devils were making sloppy passes, not pounding the boards, and were not playing their tight defense. Erik Mazur, head coach at Shore, must have had one heck of a talk with his team during the break. The adjustments the Devils made in the second half resulted in their come-from-behind 51-45 victory.

“It was a great win for us. Down 13 at the half, we made some defensive adjustments at halftime and the kids did a great job of executing those adjustments,” said Mazur. He added that New Providence was a well-coached team, and that Shore needed to stick with their gamer plan. “Really proud of the kids for staying focused and executing at a high level, especially in the second half.”

In the third quarter, Shore outscored New Providence 19-11. However, it was the final eight minutes of the game that were the shining moments for the Blue Devils. In the fourth quarter, Shore added 14 points to their total and held the Pioneers to only three points.

Shore made up the 13-point deficit of the first half and had a 33-14 point advantage in the second half of action. Seniors Finn Watson and Andrew Barham led the Blue Devils with 13 points each.

Fin Watson (24), a senior guard for the Blue Devils of Shore Regional had 13 points in the 51-45 win over the Pioneers.

Maddox Paulin, junior, finished with 12 points, Kedo Sayson, junior, scored six, and seniors Ryan Barham had five points while Jasias Colon finished with two.

The Blue Devils entered the tournament this year as the fourth seed out of the 16 teams. They faced 13 seed Roselle Park in the opening round. Shore won that game 65-41. In that win, Sayson was high man with 14 points. He also had four rebounds and two assists. Watson scored 13 points, had three rebounds and four assists. Three players each scored 10 points; Ryan Barham also had five rebounds and two assists, Andrew Barham who had six rebounds and three assists, and Paulin who had two assists and two rebounds.

With the win against New Providence, the Blue Devils improved to 21-6 on the season. They will now face top seed Thrive Charter 19-5 in the semifinals on Wednesday night in Hamilton. “Thrive Charter is the defending Group 1 Champs; they defend really well,” said Mazur. “They utilize a lot of pressure on the defensive end. Tyler Hammond, one of their best players, has 79 three-point shots this season.”  This is the third time in four years that the Blue Devils have made it to the semifinals. “Going on the road against a really good team, we need to take care of the basketball and run our stuff well on offense. We also need to keep them off the glass and limit them to one shot per possession,” he said.

The other semifinal game in this bracket has number two seed, Point Pleasant Beach 20-7, facing sixth seed Manville 19-8.

Shore had a great season, they were the C North Division Champs and qualified for the third time in four season for the Shore Conference Tournament. “We have a senior loaded group and they have done a great job in leading this season,” said Mazur.

Team Leaders:

Andrew Barham is averaging 15.8 points per-game and 8.7 rebounds.

Ryan Barham is averaging 13 points per-game and 6.5 rebounds.

Finn Watson is averaging 10.8 points per-game and 2.3 rebounds.

Jasias Colon is averaging 5.6 points per-game and 4.5 rebounds.

Maddox Paulin is averaging 7.9 points per-game and 2.5 rebounds.

Check out www.Facebook.com/TheLinkSports for additional photos.