5 Takeaways: Coral Springs Charter at St. Andrew’s
Coral Springs Charter traveled to Boca Raton to face St. Andrew’s on Friday night in a Class 5A-District 12 match-up of unbeaten programs.
Here are 5 Takeaways from the Broward-Palm Beach County showdown:
Scots alone in first place
St. Andrew’s posted a 69-61 victory over Coral Springs Charter for the early lead in 5A-12.
Veteran coach John O’Connell‘s Scots are 8-0 overall and 4-0 in the district. They have beaten FAU High, St. John Paul, Heritage-Delray and Coral Springs Charter.
Charter, coached by Lamar Twitty, falls to 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the district. CSC has victories over Heritage, FAU and North Broward Prep.
The teams will meet again in the regular season Jan. 17 in Coral Springs.
Double-double production
St. Andrew’s junior big Yussif Basa-Ama and senior point guard Alejandro Ralat both posted double-doubles.
The 6-foot-9 Basa-Ama scored 26 points, grabbed 10 boards and had 4 blocks. Basa-Ama is impressive: He has nice post moves, quick feet, but he can hit the 3 and make free throws. Very smooth.
Ralat had 13 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Sophomore forward Josh Minott also was in double figures with 19 points.
Junior guard Ivan Reynolds led Charter with 20 points, including five 3-pointers.
Ralat the ‘old man’
Speaking of Ralat, he is the only senior starter on either squad.
St. Andrew’s starts Ralat, three juniors (Basa-Ama, Jackson May and Koby Pelissier) and the sophomore Minott.
Coral Springs Charter, meanwhile, starts five juniors and its next four off the bench were either juniors or freshmen.
“Definitely being here four years with Coach O and having the most experience I have to be the leader for my guys,” Ralat said. “But it is all about the team effort and just having everyone communicate.”
So, both teams could be good for a while.
Abell impressive ninth-grader
6-3 Aidan Abell, of Charter, is an impressive freshman.
He canned three 3-pointers Friday in the first half and finished with 13 points in the loss.
“He stopped deferring,” Twitty said. “You know I had a conversation with him last week about deferring to the older guys. He came in playing aggressive and made some good shots. Got us back in the game.”
“I’ve been trying to adjust my game, because in the beginning of the season I wasn’t playing my game but I finally adjusted to the speed of the game,” Abell added.
Abell moved to Florida from Ohio.
Reynolds watch
Florida Atlantic, North Florida, Florida Gulf Coast and Virginia Commonwealth are college programs that have been to the Coral Springs Charter gym or in contact on 2020 Ivan Reynolds. Reynolds has an offer from FAU and the Owls staff has been in touch the most of any college.
“A lot of schools want to see him be more aggressive offensively on the perimeter,” Twitty said. “Everybody knows he’s athletic, can guard and can finish plays.”
If you have high school basketball news, you can reach Pat Lammer via e-mail at PatALammer@Gmail.com or via text at 954-661-9671.