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Charlotte Bigs Too Much for Verot to Handle
By: Aaron Seybert
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
PUNTA GORDA, FL-- The earlier than usual tipoff Wednesday evening at Charlotte High School was due to the hosts to hold an alumni game as the nightcap. With some of the best Tarpon basketball players in school history set to take the court including Dishon Platt, Chris Hamm, Dan Lisby, etc, a couple current players decided they wanted to put on a show. Senior forwards Nick Goshay and Jonny Ocasio combined for 41 points and 17 rebounds, with Goshay grabbing 13 of those, in leading the Tarpons to a 61-45 win against a hot shooting Bishop Verot team.
The duo got it going early, scoring 13 of Charlotte's 17 first quarter points while making shots from all over the floor. However, Verot's guard heavy lineup was up to the task of making shots themselves, hitting four from behind the arc as a group, including two in a row at one point by junior Nate Howard. The largest lead for either team was three by Charlotte and the back and forth entertaining first period ended with the Tarpons ahead 17-16.
In the second, Verot made their move to try and take control of the game about two minutes in. They went on a 10-2 run during a three minute span in the middle of the quarter and jumped out to a 5 point lead of their own at one point. Through the first sixteen minutes, both teams were shooting the ball very well, making for a very entertaining half between our 2nd and 6th ranked teams. Verot took a 34-31 lead into the break with Goshay leading all scorers with 11 points thus far.
When the whistle blew to start the second half, Verot looked to pick up where they left off in the second quarter, with senior guard Bobby Thomas knocking down a couple more treys and extending the Vikings lead to nine, 42-33.
From that point on though, Goshay and Ocasio picked their games back up and started the Tarpons on a 10-0 run to end the fourth. Included in the run was a big slam from 6'6 senior forward Adam Moore, that seemed to be the biggest turning point in momentum for the game.
From that four minute mark in the third quarter and through the rest of the game, Charlotte would go on to outscore Verot 28-3, including an 18-3 advantage in the final eight minutes.
Ocasio added 11 more points in the second half, hitting a variety of jump shots and layups, to bring his game total to 17. Through the first two games of the season he is averaging a team best 19.5 points per game, which included 22 and 7 rebs in the Tuesday night win against Sarasota.
Goshay would do his part to seal the deal in the fourth, knocking down an impressive 8 for 8 foul shots, and he made 12 of his 14 free attempts in all and scored a game-high 24 points to go along with his 13 rebounds while hitting two treys as well.
When asked about his performance on the night Goshay chuckled and said, "Hey, I was just doing my best Mitch Woods impersonation, winning games and getting buckets." Goshay and Woods, a senior guard from Community School of Naples and our #1 rated player in 2010, played together this summer on the AAU travel team, SWFL Select.
Freshman guard Jordan Washington chipped in with 6 points of his own on the night, but the most impressive part was that he did not seem phased at any point playing his first varsity regular season home game, against such a quality team like Verot.
Charlotte looked solid as a unit throughout, and the scary part is they are still expecting 6 guys from the football team who will most likely all be contributors in some way or another, but they will not be back until they have completed what is expected to be a deep run in the Class 4A Regional Playoffs.
As specatular as it was to watch Verot's shooting display in the first half, hitting 7 of 11 attempts from deep, and then knocking down two more early ones in the third, it was the fact that they could not find a way to score inside the arc that hurt them inevitably. They only made a total of 7 two-point field goals compared to those nine three's. Their lack of size inside hurt them on both ends of the floor, especially on the glass and contesting shots inside. They have a talented group of guards and wings but it will be how they figure out the issues in the paint that depicts how well they'll do this season.
Senior forward Abner Sandoval led the Vikings in scoring, netting 10 points for the game while senior Jacquard Hagan added 8 and freshman Quinten Payne had 7. Sandoval, Hagan, Howard, and sophomore Mark Wagner all hit two trey's apiece with Payne having the other.
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