David vs Goliath: St. Rose takes best shot against Montverde, No. 1 in USA Today Super 25

It’s starting to feel like one of those Jersey Shore basketball seasons for the ages. You know the ones: Ranney 2019; Neptune 2002; CBA 1995 or 1985, take your pick. Those come to mind, and there are others.

St. Rose is riding a 19-game winning streak, having flexed its muscles against top competition, in-state and out. They’ve beaten Shore Conference foes by an average of 37.5 points, and loom as heavy favorites to win a first-ever Shore Conference Tournament title and the first NJSIAA Non-Public B championship in 47 years.

So when Purple Roses head coach Brian Lynch got the offer to play unbeaten Montverde, No. 1 in the USA Today Super 25, he leapt at the chance to take on the Florida-based powerhouse.

“I said ‘absolutely’ when they asked,” said Lynch, whose team broke into the Super 25 at No. 24 this week.

St. Rose (19-1) will try to land a roundhouse punch in the finale of the 3-day Metro Classic showcase at Franklin High School Saturday night (9 p.m.), with the Purple Roses facing Union Catholic in the event Thursday night (9 p.m.).

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The game will highlight Villanova-bound Matt Hodge, St. Rose’s 6-8 forward, his 6-5 sophomore brother, Jayden, who picked up a Rutgers offer this week, and a talented St. Rose lineup, against a Montverde roster stocked with three McDonald’s All-Americans, including Cooper Flagg, the top prospect in the Class of 2024, projected as a 2025 NBA Draft lottery pick.

“You have to have the mentality when competing trying to win, without question,” Lynch said. “We do have a good team with guys who can carry you big moments, so I think we have the ability to shock them. But you have to say the odds are not in our favor. But we’re going to come out and compete and challenge and go for the win if we have the opportunity.”

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Other local team playing at the Metro Classic are Manasquan, Toms River North, Red Bank Catholic, Rumson and College Achieve Asbury Park, with the complete schedule listed below. Also competing will be Manchester native Darius Adams, who transferred to Indiana prep school La Lumiere for his junior season after leading Manasquan to last year’s NJSIAA Group 2 championship.

But the Purple Roses are part of the main event. Their loss came in the season-opener against the unbeaten Patrick School, an independent New Jersey program that beat them on a long 3-pointer in the final minute.

"Against a team like Montverde, for me it really is not about wins and loses," Lynch said. "It's more the opportunity for your kids to see where they are at this point of the season, because playing such a team they can come to the realization they're just another normal group of kids who still have a lot work to do, so it comes at a good time right before the Shore Conference Tournament."

Lynch knows a little something about great teams. He was on the 1995 CBA team that won the NJSIAA Non-Public A championship, before falling to St. Anthony, a national powerhouse who they beat during the regular season, in the Tournament of Champions. And his brother Patrick, a St. Rose assistant coach, was on CBA’s 2000 team that was unbeaten until Seton Hall Prep’s Tyrone Barley scored as he was falling to the court as time expired in the Non-Public A final.

“My brother and I talk about it we always feel like the one guy that we don’t have a matchup for with those teams was Matt,” said Lynch, a 6-6 guard who played at Villanova and overseas professionally. “On my team I would have had to guard him, but he is just a special guy and there’s no one on those teams that was a great matchup for him. But those teams had guys who could score and pass and had high basketball IQs, like Matt and Jayden (Hodge) and Gio (Panzini), so there are similarities between the teams. But when we compare them we both agree we don’t know who’d win.”

The St. Rose season is starting to look like 2018-19 Ranney, led by Bryan Antoine and Scottie Lewis. The Panthers went 31-3, becoming the first Shore team ever to win the now defunct NJSIAA Tournament of Champions. That team lost to Montverde, 89-51, and never lost again, winning 12 straight to end the season.

As to where St. Rose ultimately fits within the pantheon of great Jersey Shore teams from the past, a strong showing this weekend could be a nice piece of that legacy.

METRO CLASSIC SCHEDULE

(At Franklin High School)

Thursday, Feb. 1

Girls: Rutgers Prep vs. Franklin, 3:30 p.m.

Link Academy (Mo.) vs. Brewster Academy (N.H.), 5 p.m.

Montverde Academy (Fla.) vs. La Lumiere (Ind.), 7 p.m.

Union Catholic vs. St. Rose, 9 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 2

St. Thomas More (Conn.) vs. Blair Academy, 3:30 p.m.

La Lumiere vs. Brewster, 5 p.m.

Link Academy vs. Long Island Lutheran, 7 p.m.

Manasquan vs. Roselle Catholic, 9 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 3

St. Thomas More vs. Olympus Academy (N.Y.), 10 a.m.

College Achieve vs. Gill St. Bernard, 12 p.m.

Toms River North vs. Rumson, 1:30 p.m.

Red Bank Catholic vs. St. Peter’s Prep, 2:30 p.m.

Our Savior Lutheran (N.Y.) vs. Roselle Catholic, 4 p.m.

So Cal Academy vs. Phelps (Pa.) National, 6 p.m.

Union Catholic vs. Franklin, 7:30 p.m.

Montverde vs. St. Rose, 9 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: St. Rose NJ set to take on Montverde, No. 1 in USA Today Super 25