Shore Regional Coach Sees His Team Making Progress

While the record may not completely reflect it, Shore Regional boys basketball coach Doug Shaw was pleased with the Blue Devils return to their usual status as a competitive program that battles teams to the end this season.  

Shore’s season came to an end in a 61-35 loss to seventh-seeded Roselle in the first round of the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II Tournament on Monday night, ending the careers of a pair of senior starters in guard Zack Hoffman and forward Evan Ruane. The Blue Devils finished 11-16 with a relatively young team without much varsity experience, including six losses by a total of 12 points.  

“We got back to competing this year, and that’s what I wanted to do,’’ Shaw said. “I’m ticked about the losses, but I’m happy overall with the performance.’’  

Against Roselle, a team Shore defeated over the holidays in the Buc Classic, the Blue Devils were right in the game, down by five at halftime, before the home team pulled away late in the second half. Shore was down by 12 points with six minutes left in the fourth quarter, but Roselle tore off a 10-0 run to win going away.  

“We fought the whole way, but once the tempo got away from us, we couldn’t get back,’’ Shaw said.  

Hoffman, one of the top scorers in the Shore Conference this season, finished with 16 points in his final game. While Hoffman made headlines with his scoring, Shaw feels that the most difficult thing to replace will be Hoffman’s ball-handling ability against full-court pressure.  

“You feel the effect of losing players like Zack and Evan who handled their roles and played hard,’’ Shaw said. “Scoring won’t come from one individual, but that hole of handling the ball against pressure has to be filled, and that is our biggest concern.’’  

The Blue Devils also persevered without one of their top returners, senior Mark Coleman, who missed the season with shoulder and knee injuries sustained during the Blue Devils’ run to the Central Jersey Group I title in football season. Coleman was a 1,000-yard rusher and a standout linebacker on the gridiron.  

Shaw also felt three other football players, Ruane, Nick Grigos and Nick Mahoney, started to wear down a little because of the toll of a long football season and then the immediate grind of basketball.  

While Hoffman and Ruane graduate, the good news is that seven of Shore’s top nine players in its rotation return next season, led by a trio of starters, Grigos, Mahoney and fellow junior R.J. Bohnert, the last of whom showed flashes of being a strong scorer this season. Also seeing plenty of action this season were Jake Armstrong, Adrian Daverso, Camrin Ruffin and a pair of sophomores, Ben Hess and Brian Dubois. Hess, a 6-2 small forward, is a player whom Shaw feels has the potential to make a big leap forward next season to becoming a primary contributor.  

The JV team was a .500 squad this season while the freshmen were one of the top teams in the area. Shaw also said there is a promising group of eighth-graders coming in as freshmen next season, so there is certainly plenty of potential for Shore to be challenging for division titles and more in the future.  

The one Achilles’ heel of the program is guard play, so that is an area Shaw is concentrating on improving during the offseason.  

“All the teams we lost to at the end of the season at all three levels were teams that pressed us,’’ Shaw said. “As a program, everybody has to get better at handling pressure and handling the basketball. If we improve upon that, I think we’re going to be really good next year.’’