The boy’s J.V. and varsity basketball teams both lost their first three games of the season. They rebounded with big wins against Tarpon, but disappointed in their last game vs. Clearwater. Although the teams are struggling, they have had a hard schedule so far and it will lighten up the rest of the way.

The teams’ first two losses to Gibbs and Largo were close ones. The J.V. team only lost by a total of 3 combined points. In fact, the J.V. team was leading Largo in the first quarter by the score of 24-9. Largo then had a full court press, which is a defensive formation of 1-2-1-1, and it was hard to score for the rest of the game.

Sam Purdy, on of two seniors on the varsity team, had scored 21 points in the Largo game. He was also 4 for 4 from the three point line in the first quarter. Along with there only being two seniors, there are two sophomore starters Kevin McKellar and Chaz Green. Ja-Tyuan Landing, who is a very good defender on the J.V. team, had an impressive 13 steals in the first two games.

Some key factors in the team’s success are good guard play and a lot of help off the bench. The backups are doing well for both squads. One thing that the J.V. team particularly has to work on is playing under pressure and something the varsity team should improve on is creating good, quality shots on offense. Neither of these teams expected to start out like this, especially losing three straight games, but they have the players to bounce back from this.