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2021-22 Shore Sports Network Boys Basketball All-Shore First Team

Teams selected by Shore Sports Network Senior Editor Matt Manley based on stats, first-hand accounts, team success and coach input.

 

Jack Seidler, Sr., 6-5, Guard/Forward, Marlboro

Key Stats: 20.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.5 steals, 36 3-pointers, 80% FT, 1,503 career points

Signature Game: There is no shortage of choices when it comes to Seidler’s most memorable performance. He was the MVP of the Shore Conference Tournament final, led his team in scoring in the Central Jersey Group IV final, and had a game vs. Long Branch in which he scored 33 points in 12 minutes before heading to the bench for the remainder of the Marlboro rout. The winner, though, is Seidler’s 24-point effort in a 49-47 win over Lenape in the Group IV semifinal. Marlboro struggled through the first half as a team, but Seidler kept the Mustangs afloat with 16 of the team’s 22 points in the first half and finished the game with a game-high total to help his team punch its ticket to the Group IV final.

Seidler burst onto the scene as a sophomore with a 26-point performance in a Marlboro win at CBA in December of 2019 and has been a force ever since. Since that opening-night breakout as a sophomore, Seidler went on to averaged 19.9 points per game over the past three seasons, including better than 20 in each of the last two. His 20.9 points per game was good for third in the Shore Conference this season and his selection to the All-Shore Team is his third straight – including two straight seasons on the First Team.

Factor in 31 points in nine games at the end of his freshman year and Seidler leaves Marlboro as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1.503 points for his career. He is also the first Mustangs boys player to be recognized as a Shore Conference Player of the Year of any kind, which he was named by both the Shore Basketball Coaches Association and Shore Sports Network. Seidler came through in multiple big games over the course of his career and his big-game prowess landed him the Shore’s MVP award for the season.

You can read about Seidler’s season in greater detail in his 2021-22 Shore Sports Network Player of the Year profile.

 

Scott Gyimesi, Sr., 6-6, Forward, Rumson-Fair Haven

Key Stats: 19.0 points, 13.7 rebounds, 875 career points

Signature Game: It’s hard to argue against a 43-point explosion with 20 rebounds, which is exactly what Gyimesi did in a regular-season win over Manalapan. But how about a dominant two-way performance in a championship game. Gyimesi also added that to his senior-year resume when he went for 24 points and 20 rebounds while holding 6-foot-7 Bound Brook junior standout Jordan Summers to seven points in a Rumson rout. The victory clinched the Bulldogs their third Central Jersey Group II title in the last six years and the first for Gyimesi and his fellow seniors.

Gyimesi got his first taste of varsity basketball when he won a starting job as a sophomore in 2019-20 and put up impressive production despite having to battle with bigger, stronger players on the interior. Fast-forward to his senior season, and Gyimesi wasn’t running into too many interior players who could avoid being bullied by Gyimesi, let along bully him. The 6-foot-6 senior finished in the Shore Conference Top 10 in both scoring (ninth) and rebounding (second) and might have put up even bigger numbers if Rumson had not spent most of the season running opponents out of the gym by halftime. From the middle of January through their loss to CBA in the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals, the Bulldogs overpowered teams during a 13-game winning streak, which included a 16-point win over No. 3 Red Bank Catholic in which Gyimesi posted 13 points and 14 rebounds in a dominant defensive effort by him and his Rumson team.

Gyimesi bulldozed his way to 21 double-doubles in 25 games, which was the second-highest total in the conference during the season. He also showed plenty of touch in his game with more than 20 three-pointers on the season and an overall field-goal percentage approaching 60 percent. He was having a quiet postseason up until the sectional semifinals, when he overwhelmed Holmdel with 31 points and 17 rebounds, followed by his 24 points and 20 boards in the sectional-final win over Bound Brook. Gyimesi closed his season with a team-high 11 points and eight rebounds against Group II champion Camden and will head to Tufts University in the fall.

 

Nate Williams, Sr., 6-4, Guard, St. John Vianney

Key Stats: 22.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 5.75 steals, 56 3-pointers, 83% FT, 1,253 career points

Signature Game: Williams had huge games all over the place this past year – a collection of performances that included a 45-point game vs. Union Catholic and a quadruple-double against Donovan Catholic in the NJSIAA Tournament. This season for Williams, however, was about elevating St. John Vianney and no win elevated the Lancers more than a December victory over Manasquan, in which Williams posted 34 points, four assists and five steals in the 69-60 Lancers win in the WOBM Christmas Classic.

A varsity regular since his freshman year, Williams showed flashes of his potential during his first three seasons as a Lancer, but during his senior year, he was a force on a nightly basis. He grew to 6-4, improved his ball-handling and his jump shot, and with the additional focus on his individual game, Williams’s decision-making appeared to improve considerably as well. He averaged a career-best 4.1 assists and also shot 56 percent from the field and 44 percent from three-point range. Williams also earned more free-throw attempts than any player in the Shore Conference (172) and hit on 83 percent of them, further adding to his efficiency. To top it all off, he led the Shore Conference in steals, bringing chaos to opposing offenses while adding calm to his.

The 45 points Williams put up on Union Catholic in December was a single-game high for the Shore Conference and his quadruple-double in the NJSIAA South Jersey Non-Public A opening round was one of three triple-doubles posted by Williams in 2021-22. While Williams shined in the Lancers’ win over Manasquan, he was also on top of his game in losses to other Top 10 teams like CBA, Marlboro and Red Bank Catholic and also outdueled Manchester senior Savon Myers in a win over the Hawks in December. Williams remains uncommitted for next season and with everything he did on the court for St. John Vianney this season, that likely won’t be the case for long.

 

Jonathan Spatola, Sr., 5-8, Guard, Marlboro

Key Stats: 14.3 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.5 steals, 35 3-pointers, 83.5% FT, 1,167 career points

Signature Game: The unique part of Spatola’s game is he has the stature of a player who might have a limited set of abilities but, in reality, can do anything on the court. That was on full display in a regular-season win over CBA, which was a big one for Marlboro after the Colts beat the Mustangs the first time through the division schedule. Spatola dominated the game by scoring his usual 15 points while adding 13 rebounds, six assists and six steals. He had a similar performance (16 points, five rebounds, 11 assists and eight steals) in a rout of Jackson Memorial in the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals.

Marlboro has had an unprecedented run of success since the 2016-17 season, but the foundation was laid in 2014-15, when the Mustangs reached the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV semifinals. That year, sophomore P.J. Ringel emerged as a sophomore point guard and ever since then, the Mustangs have had at least one standout running the offense. Coach Mike Nausedas cited that lineage – from Ringel to Alex Ratner to the two-headed monster of Spatola and Zack Molod – as the primary reason for the Mustangs’ run over the last six seasons.

For the last two seasons, that standout point guard has been Spatola, who is a First-Team All-Shore player for the second consecutive season. Spatola’s points-per-game average actually decreased by nearly five full points, but that came with the improvement of players like Zack Molod, Jay Ratner and Vin Spatola, which gave Spatola more incentive to kind open teammates. Find them he did, upping his per-game assist total by a full assist and committing himself even more to the defensive end – including on the glass, where he averaged better than five rebounds per game despite standing at 5-8.

Spatola raised his level of play for big games, as well as in big moments. He was instrumental in rallying Marlboro from fourth-quarter deficits against both Freehold Township during the regular-season and Howell in the NJSIAA Tournament, not to mention in a come-from-behind win over CBA in the Shore Conference Tournament. Like Seidler and Williams, Spatola is not settled on a school for next season, but he will go down as one of the most important athletes in Marlboro history – the latest in a line of point guards that carried the Mustangs to heights not reached before their arrival.

 

Savon Myers, Sr., 6-5, Guard/Forward, Manchester

Key Stats: 19.3 points, 14.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 3.4 steals, 2.6 blocks, 1,288 career points

Signature Game: Myers was a double-double machine during his senior season and on Jan. 18 vs. Lacey, he took it a step further. The Hawks senior went for 25 points, 16 rebounds and a single-game school-record 11 steals in one of Manchester’s 10 wins in 10 tries against Shore Conference Class B South competition – giving him the lone triple-double of his stellar four-year varsity career.

During his four years at Manchester, Myers has proven to be an exceptional athlete who is not just multi-faceted on the court but across sports. He was the quarterback on a resurgent Hawks football team and on the hardwood, Myers did everything for Manchester over the past two seasons. This year, the 6-5 senior played more of a frontcourt role, with the Hawks boasting an abundance of guard talent. Myers’s willingness to adapt roles over his four years paid off, with Manchester setting a program record with 23 wins and reaching the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals for just the second time in program history.

Myers is one of two players to finish in the top five in the Shore Conference in both per-game scoring (fifth) and rebounding (first) and his 25 double-doubles topped Gyimesi for the conference lead. Myers was also a major disruptor on defense, with the eighth-best per-game steals total and the seventh-best blocks-per-game average in the Shore Conference as well. Myers’s assist totals dropped from last season, but that was the result of him playing off the ball far more often than he did last season, when he often found himself running the point. Myers consistently did when his team needed and this season, Manchester needed him to finish off plays and dominate the game on both ends. He delivered in a big way and the result was the best season Manchester has had in nearly two decades, as well as the program’s first All-Shore First-Teamer in nearly as long.

 

Darius Adams, Fr., 6-2, Guard, Manasquan

Key Stats: 14.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 63 3-pointers

Signature Game: Manasquan defeated two teams this season that were ranked at the time they ran into the Warriors and Adams eclipsed the 20-point mark against both of them. The second of the two was the big one – a Shore Conference Tournament semifinal win over Red Bank Catholic to send Manasquan to the SCT final for the fourth straight year. In that win, Adams scored a season-high 26 points and grabbed seven rebounds to help the Warriors beat the Caseys, 57-53.

With an older sister who was an All-American while at Manchester and is now at the University of North Carolina after a brilliant four-year career with the Hawks, Adams has a name to live up to within his own family. On top of that, he found himself replacing two-time Shore Sports Network Player of the Year Ben Roy after Roy went down for the season with a torn ACL. Those expectations did not phase Adams, who balanced playing within the system he was just learning and taking games over on offense when the Warriors needed it.

Manasquan boasted a balanced offense with five players who could score, four who could routinely stretch the defense out to the three-point line and three who could handle the ball enough to run the offense. Adams checked all three boxes and on several occasions throughout the year, when his team needed a spark, he showed his explosiveness as a scorer. His 444 points were the most among all freshmen in the Shore Conference and the highest season total for a freshman since Bryan Antoine's huge freshman season for Ranney in 2015-16.

To learn more about Adams’s standout rookie season in greater detail, check out his Shore Sports Network Freshman of the Year profile.

 

Click Here for the 2021-22 All-Shore Second and Third Teams

 

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