Manasquan HS grad Matthew Solomon has special motivation in leading red-hot TCNJ. Montclair State, Stevens also repping the Garden State.

It was the kind of sequence that embodies everything we love about sports – and especially college basketball.

With 10 seconds left in the Saturday’s New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament final, TCNJ guard David Alexandre drove the lane, got cut off, spun around a whipped a pass into the paint as he fell backward. There to receive it was forward Matthew Solomon, a Manasquan High School grad, who finished his hard cut with a dunk that gave the Lions a two-point lead at Montclair State.

Then, on the other end, Montclair State star Jacob Morales had a long look at a game-winner with two seconds left – but Solomon closed out and blocked the shot as time expired.

Both teams are headed to the Division III NCAA Tournament, which unveiled its bracket today (so is a third New Jersey representative, Stevens Institute of Technology). It was an incredible moment on its face, so exhilarating that former Villanova coach and two-time March Madness champion Jay Wright spotlighted it on social media.

“That’s surreal,” Solomon said. “I grew up watching Nova, so to see that was really cool. He was giving Division 3 basketball some love, which is deserved.”

One of the best-kept secrets in college sports is just how high-quality D-3 hoops is, and Jersey has long been a hotbed, regularly sending squads to the Final Four. On the men’s side the Garden State’s last national champion was Rowan in 1996. That could change in the coming weeks.

But along with quality hoops, Division 3 ball features amazing stories, and the story behind Solomon’s heroics is even more incredible than jaw-dropping end to Saturday’s classic.

On his left wrist, the 6-foot-7 senior out of Spring Lake Heights wore protective tape over a wristband that read, “Paterno Strong” in honor of his cousin Billy Paterno, who died in 2024 at age 3 of leukemia. His parents, Point Pleasant residents Danielle and William, were at the NJAC title game.

A New Jersey animal shelter is asking for the public’s help after last month’s blizzard did heavy damage to its property in Ocean County.

On social media, Popcorn Park Animal Refuge posted a video and described the fury of the storm. saying that the blizzard “caused unexpected damage… impacting habitats, fencing, structures, and critical infrastructure.”

The nonprofit animal haven says its team “worked tirelessly to keep every animal safe during the storm,” however, “the aftermath has left us facing urgent repairs and significant financial strain.”

The refuge says this winter has been “especially challenging.” It says “repeated severe weather has forced extended closures to the public, further limiting vital support and creating an added burden during an already difficult recovery period,” adding “we need our community now more than ever.”

Popcorn Park was established in 1977, according to its website. It’s part of the Associated Humane Societies — which bills itself as New Jersey’s largest animal welfare organization. Popcorn Park describes itself as “a sanctuary for abandoned, injured, ill, exploited, abused, or elderly farm animals, birds, and wildlife (domestic and exotic).”

We’re now officially less than a week before we spring forward in New Jersey, and everyone has an opinion on it. The clock change, by the way, will happen on Sunday, Mar. 8, 2026. We’ll essentially skip the 2 a.m. hour and gain the extra hour of daylight in the evening.

But the reality is, we don’t gain a thing when we do this. We’re so conditioned to believe we gain sunlight, but all we’re doing is shifting the clocks. Animals don’t do this, and are unaffected by what a clock says.

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Our pets, on the other hand, are forced to change with our practice of doing this. It really is an outdated practice, but we can’t stop it just like that simply because we’ll either complain about it being too dark during winter mornings under daylight saving, or getting dark too soon during summer nights under standard time.

It should be a lot simpler. And for those of us in New Jersey, it can be. Here’s what I think we should do.

Leave the clock, adjust our day

When I worked on a golf course, all we did was adjust when we came in based on when the sun came up. During the longer days, we started at 6 a.m. And when the sunrise was later than 6 a.m., we adjusted our start time to 7 a.m.

Why can’t we just do this when it comes to work and school? Leave the clocks in standard time since that’s the one truly aligned with the Earths rotation. During the winter, make the regular workday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., then adjust it to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the summer. It’s just that simple.

In other words, we’d be following Natural Daylight Time. Just get rid of the clock change, and adjust our day based on the sunrise. Problem solved.

The above post reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host & content contributor Mike Brant. Any opinions expressed are his own.