SThe Sun/Sunday, January 19, 2014 www.sunnewspapers.net * BOYS BASKETBALL: Wally Keller Classic Future Eagles get acquainted FGCU commits meet on court at Keller Classic ByZACH MILLER SPORTS WRITER PUNTA GORDA Miami Norland High School's Zach Johnson loves playing games in Southwest Florida. For the senior, who is committed to play at Florida Gulf Coast, its a taste of what's to come as he gets to play in front of his future fans. After playing at the City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers in December, Johnson played in two games this weekend at the Wally Keller Classic at Charlotte High School. In Saturday's 71-62 win against Community School of Naples, Johnson faciliated the game from the point guard position by dishing out 12 assists and scoring 15 points. He showed off a different side of his game than he did on Friday night, when he scored 21 points in a 68-44 loss to Jacksonville Providence. He matched the scoring total of Providence's Grayson Allen, who is committed to Duke, and did it while going head-to-head with fellow FGCU commit Christian Terrell, who scored 17 points. The two covered each other for much of the game, which was watched by FGCU assis- tant coach Michael Fly. "I love going against future teammates to see how each other plays," Johnson said. "I get to see how he plays, so I can mold my game to play with him. It gives me a little insight into what's gonna happen next year." Next year will be a big adjustment for both players, who are used to playing almost the entire game. FGCU returns all but one player from this year's team, and has five transfers who will join the team with Johnson and Terrell. "I'm really just looking forward to the situation, so anything that comes up, I'm just gonna capitalize on it," Johnson said. "If I only play two minutes, that'll be the hardest two minutes I play." Despite winning on Saturday, Johnson's per- formance was upstaged by Community School's Jeff Merton, who set a new Wally Keller Classic record by scor- ing 41 points. Terrell scored 19 points in Providence's second win of the weekend. Contact lach Miller at 941-206-1140 or zmiller@sun-herald.com. * PREP ROUNDUP Coin flip costs Charlotte I Tarpons go undefeated at Jensen Beach STAFF REPORT Charlotte High School lost the coin flip with Fort Myers for the No. 1 seed for the District 7A-11 boys basketball tournament on Saturday, Tarpons athletic director Brian Nolan said. That means if the two teams were to meet in the District 7A- 11 champi- onship game, it would be held at Fort Myers instead of at Charlotte. The teams split their two meetings this year. Fort Myers defeated Charlotte 69-58 at the Wave Cave on Jan. 8. BOYS BASKETBALL Bishop Verot 57, Suwannee 56: In Punta Gorda, Thaddeus Ward scored 19 points, including a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and another in overtime as the Vikings held off the Bulldogs in the Wally Keller Classic. Kevarrius Hayes, a Florida commit, scored a game-high 26 points to lead Suwannee. Miami-Norland 70, Community School of Naples 63: Damon Johnson scored 20 points, including six 3-pointers as the Vikings downed the Seahawks. Community School swingman Jeff Merton led all scorers with a Wally BOBCATS FROM PAGE 1 later hit 3s on consecutive trips down the floor to tie, then take the lead with 3:43 left. He hit two of six shots from the floor in the first three quarters. "Mentally and physically, you're just telling your body to push through it," Matthews said. "As a scorer, you've got to keep shoot- ing the ball. If it falls, it falls. If it doesn't, you run the next play." Malek Barber scored 16 points to lead North Port (17-4), while Justyn Miller added 14. Jamar Stewart scored 20 points for the Green Wave (12-8), much of it early. Slanger said rebounds were a problem in the contest. Even though North Port finished with an overall rebounding edge, its inabili- ty to get them in key moments cost the Bobcats. "They outworked us on the boards," said Barber, who also led North Port with eight rebounds. "That was one of our concerns coming into the game." Foul shots could have been just as much of a concern as the Bobcats went to the line 10 times, making six. But the Green Wave hit 23 of 30. Free throws by James Brunson in the final minute pushed Fort Myers' edge to 59-55, but Miller drained a 3-pointer to cut the lead to one with 17 seconds remaining. Dion White hit a pair of free throws to push the lead back to three, leading to one final North Port possession. Miller missed a deep 3-pointer and Vic Sinopoli's desperation try from the corner was blocked out of bounds. Sinopoli couldn't get the shot off before the buzzer on the inbounds. Barber said it was the loss to Keller Classic-record 41 points, including 25 points in the first half. North Gwinnett (Ga.) 63, Gibbs 42: Tobias Howard scored a team-high 17 points as the showcase's lone out-of-state team romped. Barry Brown scored 17 points to lead Gibbs. Sarasota-Riverview 59, First Baptist 54: Freshman guard A.J. Caldwell scored seven of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter as the Rams held off the Lions. Lorenzo Jenkins led First Baptist with 16 points. East Lee County 60, Venice 56: Senior center Gerard Tarin started fast, scoring 10 of his game-high 21 points in the first quarter, and the Jaguars held off the Indians. Senior Dom Marino led Venice with 17 points. Jacksonville-Providence 76, Lake Highland Prep 55: The Stallions used a 24-9 edge in the second quarter to pull away for their second win of the weekend. Florida Gulf Coast commit Christian Terrell scored 19 points to lead Providence, and Duke commit Grayson Allen added 14. North Carolina commit Joel Berry led all scorers with 28 points for the Highlanders. Sickles 47, Cardinal Mooney 35: The game was tied at halftime before the Gryphons pulled away with a 15-8 run to start the second half. Isaac Holder scored all 14 of his points in the second half, a major reason Sickles was able to pull away. Ryan McMahon scored 13 for the Cougars. PREP SCHEDULE MONDAY Boys soccer District 3A- 13 tournament at Mariner High School Ida Baker vs. South Fort Myers, 1 p.m. Cape Coral vs. East Lee County, 3p.m. Lemon Bay vs. North Fort Myers, 5p.m. Mariner vs. Island Coast, 7 p.m. District 4A- 11 tournament Charlotte at North Port, 7 p.m. Port Charlotte at Lakewood Ranch, 7p.m. Mariner 69, Lake Wales 59: The Tritons dominated the second quarter 22-11 and hit free throws in the fourth quarter to hold on. Rodney Hunter scored 19 points to lead Mariner, while Lake Wales got four 3-pointers from Shaka McGriff, who finished with 14 points. WRESTLING North Port finishes second at Ippolito: In Brandon, freshman John Cruz (126) and sophomore Dacoda Flenard (138) finished second to lead the Bobcats to their second consecutive second-place finish in the 36-team event. Host Brandon won the event. Anthony Tripke (106), David Towers (160), Josh Pollard (170) and Marcus Kirkland (195) finished third. Roman Morales (182,4th) and Alejandro Torres (113,5th)also placed. Tarpons dominate: In Clearwater, Charlotte went 5-0 at the a possible postseason opponent could pay dividends. "It's good now that we got a look at them because before we had no idea what they were going to bring to the table," the junior said of Fort Myers. "Now we have an under- standing of what we're going to see later on." GIRLS BASKETBALL: So top seed Bobcats Jensen Beach Tournament, including s tr u g a 63-9 victory against East Lake in Ls ru g gi the final. The Tarpons (20-2) also beat Berkeley Prep 66-11, Bayshore 65-12, By GREG ZECK East Bay 56-24 and Seminole 66-15. SUN CORRESPONDENT "It was fun to be part of that"said BRADENTON North Tarpons coach Evan Robinson."It's nice : BRADENTON North to close out our tournament schedule : Port High School held its with a win." own against perennial 5A Brady Mansfield at 152 pounds was power Southeast for the named the tournament's outstanding second half. wrestler after winning all five matches The first half was a by fall. different story. Six otherTarpons also went 5-0: The host Seminoles took a 22-9 lead into half Billy Kralik (120), Dylan Mooney took a 22-9 led nto half (126), Ethan Tenney (145), Travis time to power a 48-31 win Locklear (160), Ryan Adams (220) and over the Lady Bobcats on Bucky Dennis (heavyweight). Saturday evening. Charlotte concludes the regular Iwasnt too displeased season this week with dual meets with our defense we Wednesday at Venice at 7p.m. and didn't give up a lot of Thursday at home against Mariner at points -but our offense 12:30 p.m. before districts, was totally nonexistent today," Bobcats coach Dodge leads Mantas at Tom Tintor said. "That's dual tournament: In Naples, from playing a team like Lemon Bay went 2-3 on the second Southeast, a pretty good day of the Titan Duals at Golden Gate defensive team." High School to finish 5-4. Bevin Mays and Ryan Dodge at 160 pounds finished Keshawna Robinson 9-O.JackLipp (132) was8-1,and Bobby : each had 10 points for Caspolich (152), Riley Castle (132) and Southeast (22-1), while Dominic Schofield (120) went 7-2. Le'Kyra Smith led all The Mantas beat Gateway Charter scorers with 15 points for (42-9) and Evangelical Christian School North Port (13-10). (54-12),and lost to Golden Gate (49-21), Neither team shot the runner-up Key West (51-25) and ball particularly well early American Heritage (36-29) on Saturday. on, but as each team tried Palmetto Ridge won the event. : to hammer the ball inside, "We've went through a very it was often the Seminoles' rigorous schedule, we wrestled 27 length that proved to be duals in 16 days,"coach Gary Jonseck the difference. Each time said. "That's a lot of competing, our the Bobcats would seem kids are sore, nobody got hurt and to create good possessions it's been a tremendous learning on offense, it was instead experience for us"' the Seminoles who would Seize the momentum. Throughout the first Half, Southeast sustained runs of 5-0, 6-0 and 9-0 to help build the double-dig- rit halftime lead, holding North Port to three points W and seven turnovers in the second quarter. Another 6-0 run to start the third quarter proved Bto be too much for the Bobcats overcome. Contact Rob Shore at 941-206-1174 or shore@ sun-herald.com FORT MYERS 61, NORTH PORT 58 NorthPort 16 8 19 15- 58 FortMyers 10 13 15 23 61 North Port (58): Deas 8, Justyn Miller 14, Vic Sinopoli 10, Brandon Gonzalez 10, Malek Barber 16. Totals: 23 (6)6-1258. FortMyers (61): MarkMatthews 24,Jenkins 3,Jamar Stew- art 20,White 6, Brunson 8. Totals: 16 (6) 23-30 61. utheast 48, North Port 31 ' offense -s in loss UP NEXT North Port: vs. Cape Coral, Tuesday, 7 p.m. But Tintor wanted to look at the bright spots, such as the grittiness Smith exhibited. Each time she attacked the rim in the second half, the senior would take a hard foul, often picking herself up from the ground and head to the free throw line. "She's always aggressive and plays hard," Tintor said. "She gets knocked down more than anybody I've ever seen." It was in large part due to Smith that North Port held strong for the latter two quarters after it failed to reach the free throw line in the first half. "We held them to just 22 in the first half and we thought if we could hold them to 22 in the second half, we might have a shot," he said. "Unfortunately, our of- fense never materialized." With another tough matchup against Cape Coral looming on Tuesday, Tintor said he's glad to be playing a tough part of the schedule with the playoffs on the horizon. "That's the kind of caliber we'll see then," Tintor said. "Hopefully we'll regroup and grow the following week." SOUTHEAST 48, NORTH PORT 31 NorthPort 6 3 8 14-31 Southeast 10 12 8 18-48 NORTH PORT (31): LeKyra Smith 15, Burke 6, Adams 4, Marra 3, Meeks 2, Williams 1. Totals: 10(2)9-1631. SOUTHEAST (48): Bevin Mays 10, Keshaw- na Robinson 10, Mathis 9, Reed 8, Green 5, Gould 4, Gatherwright 2. Totals: 14(1) 19-3048. CHARLOTTE COUNTY'S #1GUN SHOP . 0e 23z Tamiami Trail Port Charlotte FL 33952 Phone: 941.s89.7065 Fax: 941@889,7068 vwww.aandhgunsofswflcom We Buy & Trade Guns! OVER 100 YEARS OF WEAPON EXPERIENCE! | Kingsway Country Club] L ^as. '"Eyperience Pure G_( f'" SUN PHOTO BY JENNIFER BRUNO Fort Myers' Connor Jenkins tries to block the shot of North Port's Vic Sinopoli. SP Page 7