Boys Basketball Ousted by Manasquan in State Playoffs

MANASQUAN–The Summit High School basketball team started the season with high hopes for making the state tournament this season but wound up playing their last game of the year after being ousted by a determined Manasquan High School team in the first round of the NJSIAA State Playoff's for Central Jersey Group II, in Manasquan. The final score was 59-35.

Summit went into the game without three important players, junior center Ryan O'Malley, senior forward Dwaine Dabney, and senior forward David Newton, one of the team's top scorers. Newton could not play due to a chronic knee injury. O'Malley and  Dabney could not play due to a suspension.

Manasquan's top scorer, senior guard Matt Vadas, opened the game with a quick three, which was immediately answered by Summit's Cris Cafiero, who hit a two point jumper.  After a Summit turnover, Vadas hit another deep three for Manasquan which was followed with an assist by Summit senior Matt Rea who made a great pass to Shawn Hillas for a nice drive to the basket for two.

Summit got the ball back after a Manasquan turnover with Hillas being fouled while driving to the basket. His two free throw attempts did not yield any points.

A Manasquan inbound pass led to a quick layup on the other end of the court. Senior center Matt Wholey, who started out the game playing tough on the boards and looking for inside shots for Summit, hit his first of 10 points with a short two point jumper. 

Summit was battling in the first quarter as Cafiero made a nice pass inside to Wholey for a layup but Manasquan came right back with another two points on a layup by Adam Cook.

Wholey made another strong move to the hoop resulting in a layup. Then on the next Summit possession he grabbed a rebound off a missed shot and put it back in the hoop for two.

Vadas hit another long three, which was an indication that the offensive star for Manasquan would be hard to stop. Summit's zone defense was not working against Vadas. He seemed to score at will for the rest of the first half and wound up with 29 points for the game.

What made matters difficult for Summit was that Hillas, the team's leading scorer, was in foul trouble early in the game and his shots were not falling. Summit's entire offense was having difficulties all night.  Not only was Vadas not missing many shots, he also benefitted from foul calls which put him at the free throw line several times.

Summit missed several shots in the half and finally Cafiero hit a pretty driving layup for two and was fouled on the play, but failed to connect on his free throw. 

After a technical foul was called on Manasquan's Neal Sterling for hanging on the rim, Cafiero hit the two free throws to provide Summit with some needed points.

Turnovers, missed shots by Summit and a flurry of layups by Manasquan's Cook ended the first half with Summit trailing 33-21.

The second half started with Summit trying to play tougher, more pressing defense but was hampered by foul calls and easy passes in the paint resulting in several layups for Manasquan. Despite Pat Birosak and Matt Wholey battling hard on the boards for Summit, the size and aggressiveness of the Manasquan inside players were hard to overcome for the depleted Summit squad.

Jaleel Frazier came in the game and gave Summit a lift by driving to the basket and scoring five points. His ability to get by defenders was what Summit needed.

After Hillas made a bucket on an in-bound play, Manasquan missed their jump shot and Cafiero retrieved the ball to hit Wholey on an impressive pick-and-roll play with Wholey scoring the layup. At this point the score was 46-29.

Manasquan proceeded to make a run on of their own, with Cook, who finished with 18 points, making a few more uncontested layups . Everything seemed to be going their way. The foul calls were decidedly not in Summit's favor as Clayton Johnson and Terry McKenna got called for a few offensive fouls and several Summit players were called for reach-in fouls down the stretch.

With the score 53-30 and two minutes left in the game, Summit's head coach Eugene Maxwell pulled his starters and let his reserve's get some action.  Jaleel Frazier hit a three at the top of the key, junior Michael Ford drove to the basket and was fouled and senior George Plaza hit a driving layup with seconds left in the game to get into the box score.

High scorers for the game for Summit were Wholey with 10 and Cafiero with 8 points. Matt Wholey got 10 rebounds and Hillas and Johnson had 5 points apiece.

Summit finished their season with an 8-12 record. Manasquan advances to the next round of play on March 4 against the winner of tonight's game between Middlesex and Mattawan.

Summit High School basketball parent Lou Cafiero sent in this report from Manasquan.