Jackson Upends Point Boro; Manasquan Edges Rumson in WOBM Girls Semifinals

The prevailing thought going into the 2011 WOBM Christmas Classic was that Manasquan and Point Boro, one of the fiercest girls rivalries in the Shore Conference, would meet for the first time in the championship game on Friday.

When both schools advanced to the semifinals it appeared that thought would prevail. However, to quote ESPN’s Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friends.”

Jackson Memorial had other ideas. The third-seeded Jaguars handed Point Boro its first loss of the season, a 51-46 loss Thursday evening at Pine Belt Arena on the campus of Toms River High School North. In the other semifinal, Manasquan outlasted Rumson-Fair Haven 59-50. Manasquan and Jackson will face off for the championship at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Jackson featured a balanced offensive attack with three scorers in double figures and schemed a defensive attack that gave the Panthers fits.

Aside from Kelly Hughes, who had a game-high 29 points for the Panthers, Point Boro was unable to find any offensive flow due to the stifling, aggressive play of the Jaguars defense.

“They did a great job of playing defense on our girls, but at the same time our offense was really stagnant all game long,” said Point Boro coach David Drew. “Usually we are able to cut through the paint a lot more than we did and it leads to easy baskets, but tonight we had a lot of trouble running our sets and for us points were hard to come by.”

Point Boro did not have another scorer besides Hughes crack double figures. Kerry Malleck was the second leading scorer for the Panthers with 8 points.

Jackson and Point Boro were knotted at 26 at the end of the first half, but the Jaguars came out firing to start the third quarter. Hannah Missry nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to put Jackson ahead by six points.

Kelly Hughes did her best to will Point Boro, scoring seven straight points to give the the Panthers a one-point lead halfway through the third quarter. It was the last time the Panthers led.

Hughes hit a 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter but from there the Jackson defense shadowed her, with Tiffany Montagne continuously harassing the junior guard throughout the game’s final frame.

With under two minutes to go, Hughes had a chance to tie the contest with a long 3-pointer, but the attempt fell well short. Jackson was able to hit its free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

For Point Boro, the meeting with Manasquan will have to wait until Tuesday night, but up next for the Panthers will be Rumson-Fair Haven in the third-place game Friday afternoon at 3:45 at Pine Belt Arena.

“This upcoming slate of tough games is certainly going to be good for our girls,”  Drew said. “We’ll have a tough team to deal with tomorrow afternoon, and then Manasquan and Rumson next week, so we’ll have to rebound quick, but our girls will be fine.” 

Manasquan Survives Scare From RFH

When the top-seeded Manasquan Warriors started their WOBM semifinal contest with a 7-1 lead against Rumson-Fair Haven, which forced the Bulldogs to talk it over, it appeared the powerhouse Manasquan squad would have another easy victory.

That, in fact, was anything but the case.

In the nightcap of the WOBM semifinals, Manasquan overcame a six-point halftime deficit and rallied to defeat Rumson-Fair Haven 59-50.

Rumson dug itself an early 6-point deficit, the scrappy Bulldogs responded with a 12-0 run of their own led by guard Jessica Harvey. Harvey scored 10 of her 16 points in the quarter which propelled Rumson to the stunning 18-10 lead after the first quarter.  

Manasquan’s sharpshooters were unable to find any rhythm in the first half and found themselves fortunate to be down only 6 at intermission, thanks however to the sensational first-half play of Michaela Mabrey.

Mabrey scored 18 of the Warrriors’ 21 first-half points, but yet the senior guard took her game to another level in the second half.

“That was a game (where) we really should have came out harder. We came out slow,” said Mabrey. “Things were not going our way, but that’s going to happen and I knew I had to take over this game.” 

Midway through the third quarter, with her team down 6 points, Mabrey scored seven straight points capped off by a sensational 4-point play, to seize control of the game for the Warriors.

“That (four-point play) was a major turning point for us,” said Mabrey. “It got everyone in the mode that we could and we would win this game.”

The senior guard finished with a game-high 35 points.

From that point, Manasquan’s aggressive full court pressure finally started to take its toll on the Bulldogs. Manasquan was able to force a multitude of turnovers in the second half, leading to easy transition buckets.

“The pace of our game really wears teams down, nobody can really run with us,”  Mabrey said.

Manasquan received a big boost in the second half from Katelynn Flaherty. The sophomore guard who was held to only 2 points in the first half, chipped in 14 second-half points for the Warriors.

Although Rumson did its best to hang tough, the Bulldogs simply ran out of gas against the high-powered Manasquan attack.

Manasquan will take on Jackson Memorial in the championship game, while Rumson will take on Point Boro in the third-place game.