Warriors Still Have Knights' Number

Manasquan junior J.R. Hobbie got his Warriors boys basketball team off to a fast start Tuesday against rival Wall with his sharp shooting and even though Hobbie and his teammates went cold at times over the course of the game, the Manasquan defense did not.

For the second time this season, the Warriors held Wall to fewer than 30 points while Hobbie poured in 28 points to headline a 55-28 win over the Crimson Knights Tuesday.

"When we miss shots, I give the credit to the other team's defense, so I have to give our defense credit for what we did tonight," Manasquan coach Andrew Bilodeau said. "I don't like to make judgments without watching the tape, but we did hold a solid Wall team to under 30 points. I'm sure we can do some things better, but all-in-all, it was a good effort for us."

Hobbie made his first three shots of the game - all three-point attempts - missed his final nine attempts of the first half, and opened the second half by making four of his first five shots. When all was said and done, Hobbie finished 9-for-23 from the field with five three-pointers while accounting for more than half of his team's scoring.

"Coach (Bilodeau) always tells us that we want to get out fast and 'D' up and tonight, I was able to hit a couple early shots so we could get into what we wanted to do on defense," Hobbie said. "I'll usually take shots until I start missing, but tonight I was getting open looks so I kept taking them."

Junior forward Jimmy Walsh added 17 points and 16 rebounds while also limiting Wall senior Derek Gardner to nine points, which led the Crimson Knights. Walsh also blocked three shots and had three steals.

Hobbie and Walsh have accounted for the lion's share of Manasquan's scoring this season and with the two combining for 45 points, Tuesday was no exception. Five other Manasquan players - Tommy Toole, Alex Waga, Bryan Abadrabo, Steven Bugliaro and Brady Grennan - had two points. Bugliaro and Grennan each scored in the final three minutes with the game already decided.

"We have a young team that's still learning and still getting experience," Walsh said. "We have confidence in those guys and all of them are capable of giving us 10 points on any given night. Tommy Toole, for instance, is going to be a great player for us and it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when he starts scoring a lot more for us.

"J.R. and I are going to keep encouraging guys in practice and keep trying to play as a team. Most nights, it's going to be me and J.R. doing the scoring but there's going to come a game when we need the other guys to do some scoring and I fully believe those guys are going to come through when we need them."

Manasquan has had most of its defensive success this season against Wall, which scored 21 points in the first meeting between the two teams on Jan. 10. Outside of those two wins, Manasquan has only held one other opponent to fewer than 40 points in any game, which was Keyport in a 43-30 Warriors win.

"Our goal is always to hold the opponent to 10 points in the quarter, so if we're keeping teams to 40 points, we're doing our job," Hobbie said.

With a 12-6 overall record, the Warriors have already clinched a spot in the Shore Conference Tournament, which will be seeded on Feb. 12. Manasquan will finish its week with games against two other likely tournament teams in Southern Regional Thursday and Holmdel Saturday.

"I'm not thinking about the tournaments yet because this week, we still have a quality team in Ocean County and a Holmdel team that's been as good as any team in the Shore this year," Bilodeau said. "We are still a really young team and how we respond and play against teams like that is going to give us a good idea about where we're at."

Walsh will test himself against 6-foot-6 Southern sophomore forward Mike Gesicki in Thursday's game.

"I'm looking forward to the challenge," Walsh said. "I've seen him play once or twice and he's obviously a gifted athlete and very skilled player. It will be fun."

Wall played Tuesday's game without senior Jordan Petitta, who is dealing with a knee injury that has kept him out of Wall's last six games including Tuesday.

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