Sharpshooting Gators Double Up Rays

Everglades City was hot stepping off the bus and stayed hot Thursday, January 8, in a convincing 82-42 win over Marco Island Academy.

"I was very pleased by our performance tonight,” said Gerald Lewis, Everglades City coach. "We shared the ball and controlled the tempo. We have been running for each offensive rebound that we give up. We only gave up one against Marco tonight, which was a season low. Because of this, we were able to control the tempo, giving us a great advantage.”

First-year Rays coach Eric Chesser was able to find some positives after his team’s loss to the sharpshooting Gators.

"They are getting better,” Chesser said, "one day at a time, just trying to build with each practice and each game, continuing to learn and grow and experience. We've just been really trying to focus on trying to improve defensively. I’m just trying to encourage everybody to keep their heads up and keep playing hard.”

Everglades City, 10-6, is a veteran team, looking forward to making a post-season run.

"The first half of the season we proved that we can score,” Lewis said, "but played subpar on the defensive end. Most of our practices over the break were defensively focused. I challenged the players to become more physical and to get a little meaner. More rebounding drills, more deny drills, more defensive drills. We are showing signs of becoming a better defensive team, and if we are going to compete in the postseason, then this has to be a priority.”

The Gators started fast against the Rays and kept their foot on the pedal the whole way. The Gators led 25-9 after one quarter and 51-20 at the half and never looked back.

Lewis was impressed with the Rays’ presence in the paint.

"Marco Island surprised us with their inside game,” Lewis said. "The bigs finished very good around the rim. They are rebuilding but will be a difficult team to play against in the future. They did some very good things tonight.”

The Rays were led by Veleon Nazarko with 22 and Cade Martin with 13.

“We've been trying to continue to work the ball inside,” Chesser said, "take advantage of our size with Cade down low. We've unfortunately dealt with some injuries and one of the players graduated early, so we're just trying to continue to be the next man up approach. Everyone's just continuing to try to contribute and work hard. We've been trying to put an emphasis on attacking the basket and the outside shots will fall.”

Everglades City was led by Jamere Osceola with 20. Hommer Huggins finished with 14, including a buzzer-beater from beyond the half-court line at the end of the first quarter. Tayin Fairclough had 12 and Antonio Tosca 11 for the Gators, who were without their star point guard Louis Billie.

The Rays, 2-14, are looking forward to Senior Night when they take on Mason Classical, January 22 at 7:00 PM.

“That'll be our home game and we will recognize our seniors that night,” Chesser said. "So that'll be a good night for Veleon and Luca Garcia-Perfecto. Of course, we’ll recognize the other seniors, although they're hurt, but they're still part of the team, like Jordan Rodden and Mekyle Nazarko.