Manasquan High School and St. Rose High School of Belmar are separated by a mere four miles on Route 71 in Monmouth County at the Jersey Shore, but until recently their boys basketball programs were galaxies apart. The Manasquan Warriors under coach Andrew Bilodeau are the defending Shore Conference and New Jersey Group II State Champions and they just smashed Holmdel 66-43 in the Shore Conference Tournament (SCT) semifinals to make their sixth consecutive SCT Final. The St. Rose Purple Roses’ history on the boys side in recent decades is best described as “meh”, especially compared to the St. Rose girls basketball team which regularly wins state and SCT titles. Prior to 2022, the Purple Roses had never made it further than the SCT Quarterfinals, had not won a sectional title since 2004, and their last of five state titles was winning the Non-Public B group in 1977.
The Rose Renaissance started with the hiring of Belmar homegrown legend Brian Lynch in Late Summer of 2021. Lynch was a standout player for Christian Brothers Academy, Villanova University, and several European clubs mostly in Belgium in a 9 year professional career overseas before moving into coaching. The 2015 Belgian Professional League (PBL) coach of the year with Limburg United would certainly be able to turn around one of the smallest high schools in the Shore Conference. In less than three seasons, Lynch has done all that and more with his younger brother Pat as one of his assistants setting the tone creating a tight knit squad. The team went 12-11 In year 1, then in year 2 the 2022-23 Purple Roses powered on the court by Matt Hodge and Gio Panzini reached the semis of the 2023 SCT before falling to Ranney and won their first South Jersey Non-Public B sectional title in 19 years before falling to Roselle Catholic in the Non-Public B state final. This season in Year 3, the Roses had a clear goal to sweep all three trophies, Shore Conference, Sectional, and State. Matt Hodge, now a senior committed to play next season at Villanova has been joined by his younger brother Jayden (sophomore), and St. Rose has run off to a 24-2 record losing only to The Patrick School of Hillside, NJ on opening night and to USA Today #1 ranked Montverde Academy of Florida on February 3. The Purple Roses got their first trophy in convincing fashion first by crushing CBA in the semis 76-38 and then dethroning the Warriors 48-27 on Sunday at OceanFirst Bank Center on the campus of Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ. St. Rose grabbed a stranglehold in the second quarter and never let up. Jayden Hodge led St. Rose with 19 points and Griffin Linstra led the Warriors in defeat with 12 points.
The opening tip of the game was won by the Warriors and scored the first points a mere four seconds into the game, a strong opening salvo from a team that’s been here before. Griffin Linstra paced the Warriors with six points to a quick 12-8 lead with 1:53 left in the first quarter. Brian Lynch called time out to calm the nerves of a team playing in their first SCT Final. A switch seemed to flip on as Jayden Hodge hit two shots down the stretch to knot the game at 12 at the end of the first quarter. Jayden accounted for 10 of the Roses 12 points in the quarter.
In the second quarter St. Rose jumped on Manasquan turnovers early and often. The Warriors’ Alex Konov slipped just past midcourt and Jayden Hodge stole the ball and drove down the other end for a dunk to give the Roses their first lead, 14-12. The Warriors got sloppier with the ball with several more turnovers, but Linstra added in four points to get Manasquan back to within two points at 18-16 with 2:54 left in the second quarter. Back to back threes from Avery Lynch and Matt Hodge put St. Rose up 24-16 and the Purple Roses got into a defensive groove that stopped the Warriors dead in their tracks before halftime.
The Warriors nightmare continued in the third quarter and just continued to get worse. Matt Hodge opened up the quarter with a three point play drawing a foul sinking a putback from an offensive rebound to push the lead to double digits, 27-16. Gio Panzini threw down a dunk and picked up a foul doing so for another three the hard way to put the Roses up 30-18. Manasquan got absolutely nothing going, failing to make a shot from the field for the entire third quarter and mustering only four points from the charity stripe. Meanwhile the Hodge brothers combined for ten more points pacing the Purple Roses to a 41-20 lead by the end of the third.
The fourth quarter continued the carnage with a Jayden Hodge layup and some free throws pushed the lead up to 46-20 with five minutes left in the game. Jason Larned hit a layup at 4:40 to finally break the streak of futility for the Warriors. Larned’s shot was the first made field goal for the Warriors in almost 15 minutes of game time, nearly half the game since the second quarter. Both teams cleared their benches as time ticked away in a 48-27 coronation win which put the rest of the state on notice that the small school at the shore is a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming NJSIAA state tournament.
News and notes:
- In addition to Jayden Hodge’s 19 points, Matt Hodge chipped in 11 points, Avery Lynch had 7, and Gio Panzini 5 for St. Rose.
- Griffin Linstra was the only Manasquan Warrior in double figures with 12. Jason Larned tossed in 6 and Rey Weinseimer 4.
- St. Rose (25-2) is ranked #3 in New Jersey by MaxPreps and #18 in the country by USA Today
- Manasquan (19-6) is ranked #21 in the state by MaxPreps.
- Manasquan is the #1 seed in Central Jersey Group 2 in the state tournament, and they begin their Group 2 state title defense on February 21 against #16 seed South River.
- St. Rose is seeded #1 in South Jersey Non-Public B and will face the winner of the Ranney-Wildwood Catholic first round game on Monday February 26.
JD Walker is one of the co-founders of Stream Punk Entertainment and has covered the Philadelphia Union, Big East Basketball, and New Jersey high school basketball since 2022. He has a wide-spanning career with experience in a variety of roles inside and outside the world of sports including basketball operations, gameday entertainment, promotions, broadcasting, and finance. He’s a Jersey Shore native sprung from a cage on Highway 9, and loves to geek out on the business and legal side of the games we all love.