Tritons sweep city rivals 70-55
Friday night had all the marks of a big finish for the Mariner Tritons.
Except they aren’t finished.
The Tritons closed out the boys’ basketball regular season with a 70-55 victory over Island Coast at Mariner’s Frank Morris Memorial Gymnasium.
The senior night victory capped the regular-season career of five Tritons seniors, including star Rodney Hunter. It got them to the 20-win plateau, and it gave the Tritons a sweep of games against Cape Coral schools this season.
“Twenty wins in the regular season, that’s the first time we’ve done that since 2003,” Tritons coach James Harris said. “And a little bragging rights. You know any time you play a Cape team, they’re excited to play us.”
But that’s just the regular season. The new season – the district tournament, the goal to the state playoffs – starts next week.
“We’re hoping to get a few more home games,” Harris said.
They’ll have at least one. The District 5A-12 tournament will be played at Morris Gymnasium, including the Tritons’ first round game at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Island Coast (13-12) was able to keep pace with Mariner (20-5) for a while Friday, taking an early 11-7 lead. The game was still close, 25-21, late in the first half before the Tritons opened a 31-24 margin at halftime.
The third quarter was another matter entirely. Mariner’s lead was 40-27 less than three minutes into the second half and 52-37 by the time the third quarter ended. The Tritons led by as many as 20 points in the final period.
“Island Coast came in ready to play,” Harris said. “Give Coach (Greg) Coleman credit. We had a battle on our hands. I thought the turning point was the second and third quarters. We were able to stretch out a one-point lead into a double-digit lead.”
Coleman said, “We are what we are. The effort’s there just about every night. Our Achilles’ heel is execution. They’re a good team. We would have to play outside of ourselves to beat a team like that. We played outside of ourselves pretty good in the second half. The turnovers in the third quarter on the press is what did us in. The crazy thing is they didn’t do anything different. We just stopped the execution of breaking the press.”?Matt Jeannelas scored 19 points to lead the Gators.
Island Coast opens District 6A-11 play at Lemon Bay next Wednesday.
“We’re a three seed against Venice,” Coleman said. “They beat us twice this year, once by two, once by eight. Hopefully, we can get it done.”
The Tritons’ five seniors – Hunter, Caleb Taylor, Logan Schell, Qwameek Shields and Devin Deems – were honored after the Friday’s game.
Hunter, who passed the 2,000-point plateau in career scoring earlier this month, got off to a slow start Friday. He had four points at halftime.
“You can’t play good all the time,” Hunter said.
Hunter scored 11 in the third period, and had 26 when Harris pulled him from the game with 1:48 to play. Schell had 12 points for the Tritons
As for sweeping Cape-area rivals? For Hunter, a young man with the Ivy League in his future, local bragging rights aren’t all that.
“That really didn’t mean anything to us,” Hunter said. ” Winning the state championship. That’s the ultimate goal.”
As his senior players and their families celebrated on the court after Friday’s game, Harris said, “When we all look back on this 15, 20 years from now, we’ll get to say, ‘What a run this was.'”
Fort Myers 58, Bishop Verot 48: Thaddeus Ward pitched in 13 points and Hunter Hand 12 to lead Bishop Verot, but the Vikings dropped an 10-point decision at Fort Myers on Friday.
Mark Matthews led all scorers for the Green Wave (16-9) with 25 points. Jared Bassett contributed 12 points.
The Vikings (9-16) now prepare for the District 4A-11 Tournament at LaBelle next week where they take on Oasis at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Girls Basketball
District 5A-12: Cape Coral had just one player reach double figures Friday in a 54-46 loss at Cypress Lake in the championship game of the District 5A-12 tournament.
Diedre Cheremound led the Seahawks with 11 points with Laura Orosco adding nine. The Seahawks (15-11) still advance to the regional playoffs next Thursday on the road at Lemon Bay.
Girls Soccer
Region 3A-4: Ida Baker’s season came to an abrupt end Friday night with a 4-1 loss at Plantation American Heritage in the Region 3A-4 Finals.
The two-time defending state Class 3A champions did what they had to do to turn away the Bulldogs’ challenge.
“It was a good game, back and forth,” said Bulldogs coach Chris Vainest. “We played well and the game was closer than the 4-1 score would indicate. We were up against the two-time defending state champions.”
The Bulldogs finish with a 14-9-2 mark.
Region 2A-3: Tampa Berkeley Prep squeaked past Bishop Verot 1-0 Friday in the Region 2A-3 Finals at Vikings Stadium.
Vero dominated the first half with solid opportunities to score from inside the box. Berkeley Prep missed a penalty kick three minutes into the second half, one of Verot keeper Kinzie Frey’s 12 saves on the night.
The game-winner came 18 minutes into the closing half on a header off a corner kick. The Vikings finish 14-6-5.
Sports editor Jim Linette contributed to this report.