Varsity and Junior Varsity boys of the Monmouth-Ocean County Parochial Basketball League battled it out in the 35th edition of the aptly-named Snowball Classic, held earlier this month in Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, Asbury Park.

In the Varsity division, 40 was the lucky number for the St. Leo the Great Parish roundballers. The team from Lincroft topped St. Mary of New Monmouth 40-26 on Jan. 8, then repeated their success the next Saturday with a 40-27 victory over St.

James, Red Bank. St. Mary rebounded from that loss to clinch third place in the tournament with a hard-fought 30-28 win over St. Dominic Parish, Brick Town.

The Varsity All-Star Team for the tournament consisted of players Chris Schifano of St. Dominic Parish, Ed Hahn of St. Mary Parish, Tom Montano and Chris Bender of St. James Parish, and Jack Byrne and Ryan Lawrence from tournament winners St. Leo School.

Fellow St. Leo player Shaun Belby was awarded MVP and St. James’ Joe Montano earned the Sportsmanship award. Hustle awards went to Steve Shocket of St. Dominic and Jason Mandile of St. Mary.

Brendan Barry of Holy Cross School, Rumson, sank nine out of ten attempts to win the Varsity Boys Foul Shooting Competition.

The Junior Varsity Boys championships saw Holy Cross hoopsters trounce St. Rose, Belmar 50-21 in the first round on Jan. 8, then eke out a win over the St. Mary team 46-43 in the finals one week later. St. Rose rallied to squeak by St. Leo 36-35 to take home third place honors.

Junior Varsity All-Star Team members and their parishes were Parker Omslaer, St. Rose; Shane Gaudio, St. Leo; Ryan Hallard and Sean Krueger of St. Mary; and Oliver Heins and Jake Gianotto of Holy Cross. MVP of the tournament, Jordan Gaitley, hailed from overall winner Holy Cross. The Sportsmanship award went to Rob Higgins of St. Mary; Nick Paterno of St. Rose and Evan Menendez took home the Hustle Awards.

Rob Meehan of St. Denis, Manasquan, put the ball through the hoop nine of 10 times to win the JV Foul Shooting Competition.