Acquaro, Nelson lead Ocean Twp. hoops team
Backcourt mates combine for 27 points per game
BY DOUG McKENZIE Correspondent
With an experienced backcourt and a flexible lineup at its disposal, the Ocean Township boys basketball teamis putting together a solid season.

Third-year head coach Jack Miller is confident that his team has yet to play its best game, and he expects the Spartans to make a run at the postseason over the next couple of weeks.

"We're 7-7, so we've been a little bit inconsistent this year," he said.

"It seems like we win one, lose one, win one, lose one. So we're trying to get a little more consistent, but it's tough playing in a difficult division that includes the likes of Monmouth Regional, Neptune, Freehold Borough and Long Branch."

The Spartans got back to the .500 mark on Saturdaywith a 52-36win overBarnegat. This gamewas close untilOcean pulled away with a 15-4 spurt in the third quarter. Junior guard Scott Nelson led the charge with 15 points, while senior point guard Joey Acquaro added 10 and senior Ramsay Agha chipped in with eight.

"We've got a good group of seniors that's been playing together for three years now," Miller said. "We were 4-10 at this point last season, sowe're three games ahead ofwhere we were, which is good."

Acquaro, a four-year varsity starter, and Nelson, a second-year starter, are the keys to the Ocean offense. With Acquaro scoring about 16 points per game and Nelson hitting for about 11, they make up one of the Shore's better backcourts.

"Our strength is our guard play, no question," Miller said.

However, the Ocean frontcourt seems to be getting stronger as the season progresses.

We're trying to establish more of an inside game," the coach added. "Teams are starting to key on our two guards, sowe need to establishmore of a low-post presence."

Senior Rodney Coursey, junior Connor Hoffman and Agha round out the starting lineup, while Miller also gives plenty of playing time to senior guards Brandon Pringle, Dave Kazcka and Chris Romero, as well as sophomore Steven Thiel, the first post player off the bench.

"We play a lot of guys," the coach said. "We're fortunate enough to be able to play both styles.We can play up-tempo against teams we're more athletic than, but we can also play the half-court game against the more athletic teams.

"Regardless of the opponent, we have to control the tempo of the game to be successful. Against the more athletic teams, we try to slow it down and keep the game from getting away from us."

While the team's .500 record indicates improvement from last year, Miller said that he feels his team has the potential to be even better than it has shown.

"Our shooting percentage has really improved this year," he said. "We're shooting about 55 percent from two-point range, and nearly 40 percent from threepoint range. And the biggest change from last year is that we're out-rebounding teams this year.We're really attacking the boards, which is good because we've got a lot of height this year."

Like most coaches, it's on defense where Miller sees the most room for improvement with his team.

"We need to be a more consistent team on defense," he said. "We have to be able to stop people. Teams that are quicker and more athletic than us seem to be scoring against us inside, forcing us to go to a zone, which we're OK at. But against the better teams, we're going to need to be able to play man-to-man defense and get some stops.

"We've lost a lot of two-point games so far,"Miller added. "Our offense will get us some points, but we have to be able to stop people in big spots. We try to wear teams down with our defensive intensity, but the really good teams never get worn down. It's the team that executes down the stretch that usually wins."

Looking ahead, the Spartans are in the midst of an important week. They took on Long Branch on Tuesday - a team that handed them one of those two-point losses the first time around- and will take on a very good Freehold Borough team tonight.

"The first time we played them, it was the first game after the break, and we did not come to play that day," Miller said. "We played a lot of basketball over the break in the WOBM Tournament and it affected us."

On Saturday, the Spartans will host a Toms River North team that entered the week in the midst of a 12-game winning streak.

"We need to go 2-1 thisweek,"Miller said. "We'd love to go 3-0, but we'd be happy with twowins.We need threemorewins to clinch a berth in the state tournament, which we haven't done in the past few years.We need to get to 10 wins."

It won't be easy, with the toughest part of the schedule lying ahead, but should the Spartans meet their coach's expectations, they could very well be making a much-needed return to the postseason.