No doubt as the winter season wears on, local basketball fans soon will see which teams are the contenders and pretenders. As of Dec. 19, the Barnegat girls hoops squad very much looks like a contender, starting off 2-0 after a 56-32 win over Pinelands Regionalin the teams’ opener on Dec. 15 and a 48-16 win over Lakewood three days later.

In the opener, the Bengals jumped out to a 14-9, first-quarter lead and extended the gap to 10 points, 28-18, by halftime.