Shore Regional girls basketball has a three-peat goal ahead

SHORE — Winning a state championship is hard enough, going back to back is even more difficult, but the Shore Regional girls basketball has already done all of that.

They want to make school history and go for a three-peat.

“Everyday we've been talking about it," said head coach William Wishart. "Being the first team in school history to go three-peat. That's our goal, it's our mentality all season long. Even from November when we first started or all the way back in the summer, we talked about being the first team in school history to do something nobody has ever done."

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This regular season hasn’t been the same amount of dominance for the current 15-11 Blue Devils has had in the past due to them challenging themselves with a tougher schedule. However, they’ve begun to hit their stride at the right time and a 80-55 Central Group 1 quarterfinal win over Highland Park Tuesday proved that.

What's next

Shore (15-10) will host New Egypt (13-12) in the section semifinal Thursday at a time to be announced. The Blue Devils opened the tournament with a 78-24 victory over Florence - the two playoff games are the two highest-scoring games they've had this season.

Turning point

Shore got out front to a 22-4 lead in the first quarter thanks to their tenacious full court trap. Forcing 12 turnovers in the first quarter is nothing without capitalizing on it, and that’s exactly what the Blue Devils did. Shore went into halftime leading 35-14, forcing Highland Park to cough up the ball 21 times in the first two quarters.

The Blue Devils ended up forcing their opponents to commit 36 total turnovers. Wishart knows what it'll take to get his team back to the promiseland for the third straight time, and he's preparing them for it.

"We lack height, we're one of the smaller teams," said Wishart. "So we said, if we're going to lack height we're gonna make up for it in other ways, so speed, quickness, and grit has been our MO all season," he continued.

Junior Reese Fiore scores 1,000th career point

Going into Tuesday's game, junior Reese Fiore was 35 points away from scoring her 1,000th career point. She reached that goal on an and-1 bucket nearly midway through the fourth quarter on a fast break. A timeout was called by Shore for a short celebration and pictures taken. It's only fitting for the two-time state champion to accomplish it in a postseason win.

"During the third quarter I was in my head and I knew I had to get out of my head or else I would not be able to do it," said Fiore who finished with 39 points. "So I just thought what I could do better and scoring obviously helped, the assists from my teammates were awesome."

A big help for Fiore is her point guard and fellow junior Kimi Sayson who finished with 15 points. Sayson was quick make outlet passes and rack up assists to wide open girls including Fiore.

“She's awesome," said Fiore on Sayson. "She's such a help this year and I could not play without her."

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJSIAA girls basketball state tournament: Shore Regional aims to three-peat