State, Shore Conference tourneys rapidly approaching
BY DOUG McKENZIE Staff Writer
With the postseason rapidly approaching, this week is an extremely important one for those teams currently on the bubble.

The cutoff for the state basketball and wrestling tournaments are this weekend, meaning teams need to have a .500 record by the end of action Saturday to qualify. Local ice hockey teams have a little longer to qualify, as the cutoff for that tournament isn't until next weekend.

As far as the conference tournaments go, the ShoreConferenceWrestling Tournament gets underway this week and will be completed on Saturday at Southern Regional, while the conference basketball tournament cutoffs are Feb. 10.

High school hoops

There are a flurry of local boys and girls basketball teams in line to qualify for both the state and Shore Conference tournaments.

On the boys side, Monmouth Regional, who improved to 13-5 with an impressive win over Freehold Borough on Monday, has clinched berths in both tournaments, while Shore Regional also appears to be in good shape after improving to 10-7 with a win over Point Beach onMonday. Red Bank Regional, despite dropping a close game to St. JohnVianney onMonday, has also locked up a spot in both tournaments with a 10-5 mark.

Rumson-FairHavenwillmake its return to the state tournament this year after securing at least a .500 record with a win over Raritan on Saturday.

At 9-6, and with three games on the schedule this week, the Bulldogs have also earned a berth in the SCT.

That leaves two boy's teams- Red Bank Catholic andOcean Township- officially on the bubble. RBC improved to 8-8 on the year with 50-43 win over Holmdel on Monday, and needs to go 1-1 against Rumson-Fair Haven (Thursday) and Barnegat (Saturday) to earn its spot in the state tournament.And with three more games next week, RBC needs to win three of its next five to qualify for the SCT.

Meanwhile, Ocean Township fell to 9-9 with a disappointing 48-42 loss to Pinelands onMonday.With games against Monmouth Regional (today) and RFH (tomorrow), the Spartans need a win to get in the state tournament. As for their SCT chances, they also need to go 3-2 over these next two weeks to qualify.

The girls postseason basketball picture is a bit clearer, as only Ocean Township finds itself firmly on the bubble. The Lady Spartans improved to 10-8 onMondaywith a convincingwin over Pinelands, and needs towin one of its next four games to qualify for the SCT.With just two games thisweek, they are assured of a state playoff berth.

Monmouth Regional sawits state playoff chances dashed onMondaywith a 62-53 loss to Freehold Borough. At 7-10, the Falcons still have an outside chance to reach the SCT, but need to win their next four games (against Jackson Liberty, Ocean, Red Bank Catholic and Middletown South) to be .500 at the cutoff. ShouldMonmouth find away to put together a winning streak against those teams, the Falcons will indeed be a dangerous teamin SCT play.

Among the local girls teams that have locked up berths in both the state and SC tournaments are RBC (14-3), Shore (13-5) and RFH (13-4).

Wrestling

The ShoreConferenceWrestling Tournament was seeded on Monday, and while there were those who believed Long Branch (15-0) had a legitimate claimfor the top seed, the seeding committee did not agree, giving that honor to three-time defending champion Jackson.

The committee also put BrickMemorial, whose only loss came to Jackson this year, ahead of head coach Dan George's Green Wave, leaving Long Branch with the No. 3 seed. Thatmeans theWavewill hostCentral (11-8) inWednesday night's first round,with the winner to face the victor from the Toms River East (7-8)-Toms River North (12-2) match immediately thereafter. TR North is the only team to beat Jackson this year, defeating the Jaguars on criteria.

Ocean Township (11-6)was the only other local team to be chosen for the SCT, and as the ninth seed will take on eighth-seeded Point Boro (17-1) in their first-round match onWednesday at JacksonMemorial.

The SCT semifinals and finals will be held on Saturday at Southern Regional, starting at 3 p.m. Should Long Branch advance as expected, it is likely to seeBrickMemorial in the semifinals, with Jackson expected to face the winner of Wednesday night'smost anticipated quarterfinalmatchup between Southern (11-2) andHowell (17- 2).

As for the state tournament, Long Branch, Ocean, Shore Regional (13-3) and Red Bank Regional (9-4) will all qualify for the teamtournament, which gets underway Feb. 11.

Ice hockey

TheNJSIAAstate ice hockey tournament cutoff is set for Feb. 11, and at this point, it appears Red Bank Catholic (11-2-2) and Rumson-Fair Haven (9-5-1) are locks to get in. That leaves Red Bank Regional with somework left to do. TheBucs, at 6-6-3, took onManasquan last night and have three remaining games (Monday against Jackson, Tuesday at Southern and Thursday at Toms River South) before the cutoff. TheBucs need towin two of four to qualify for the state tournament, which is slated to start on Feb. 25.

After the implementation of a successful regular season for the first-year league, administrators and coaches have been busy trying to launch a conference tournament that could help highlight a growing conference with some very strong teams.

In recent weeks, the Shore Conference ExecutiveCommittee has been exploring different format options, and according to Jim Rochford, the Shore Conference's tournament manager, a decision has been made, setting the stage for the first SCT in ice hockey.

The original plan thatwas rumored to be close to adoption involved an eight-team tournament comprised of squads from all four of the Conference's divisions (A North, B North,ASouth and B South), with the division winners getting automatic bids, leaving four at-large bids (three public and one non-public).

However, a second,more recent proposal was eventually chosen; one that involves two separate tournaments, with six A division teams playing for one cup, and four B Division teams playing for another. This format reportedly gives all division winners automatic bids, leaving six at-large bids for the remainder of the teams.

Regardless of the format, the fact that the tournament is ready to go is good news for the Shore Conference hockey community, as it will add some needed juice to the sport. There are several teams that likely will not qualify for the NJSIAA state tournament, butmay still have a shot atmaking the SCT, which is likely to begin on Feb. 18,with firstround games.

According toRochford, the championship games (a double-header) are tentatively set for Feb. 22 atWinding River.