By STEVE JACKSON
First, the good news for South Shore boys high school basketball: The East Bay High Indians won for the first time in two seasons last week. Under new head coach Jeff Turner, the Indians grabbed their first win of the current season, 62-42, over everybody’s whipping boy, the 0-5 Brandon Eagles, last Tuesday. East Bay dropped all 19 boys basketball games last season. Up until the win over Brandon, EB was winless in four games this season. Now, since the one victory, East Bay dropped ball games last week to King 64-55 and to Durant 67-54. That makes the Indians 1-6 so far on this season. Games this week were at 5-2 Bloomingdale, Tuesday; at 3-4 Armwood, Wednesday; and at 3-6 Lennard, Friday, Dec. 15, at 6:30 p.m. The brunt of scoring for East Bay is being provided by junior Aaron Quarterman, tallying 12.8 points per game with 5.3 assists per game.
Supportive offensive firepower has been provided by senior Kamren Lovett, at 6-5, 275 lbs., hitting at 7.7 points per game and grabbing 10.3 rebounds per games. Other scoring comes from sophomore Curry Staples, hitting 7.8 points per game, and senior Amare Baran at 7.5 points per game. Junior Nicholas Ghent, senior Benji Cruz and senior Xavier Grimsley are tossing in about two or three points a game each. Other Indians contributing are senior James Nolden, junior A. Haggins, senior Aaron Busigo, junior T. Welch, senior Sherman Johnson, soph Armani Smith and senior Christian Green.
After the Dec. 15 match at Lennard this Friday, the East Bay Indians take a Christmas break until Newsome High comes to Big Bend Road, Jan. 9, followed by Chamberlain Jan. 10. Then EB visits tough Plant City for an 8 p.m. clash Jan. 12.
The other good news for South Shore basketball squads is a win by Lennard High over the same winless Brandon Eagles last Friday, 60-41. That gave the Longhorns their third victory of the season under Coach Chris Putnam. The Horns had lost to neighborhood rival Sumner rather decisively earlier last week, 56-33. Tampa Bay Tech also pinned a loss on Lennard last week, 72-65.
Lennard at 3-6 had some challenges this week. On Tuesday it was a road trip to 6-1 Durant High. Bloomingdale, 5-2, came to Ruskin for a Dec. 13 game. Lennard hosts the East Bay Indians Dec. 15 at 6:30 p.m. The Horns then take a holiday break before resuming play Jan. 3.
Spoto High picked up some good news with a Dec.1 win over Lennard, 54-52. Top scorer for Spoto was dynamic scorer and rebounder senior Jose Deleon, who poured in 26 against the Horns and collected eight rebounds. Spoto senior Deacon Spencer added 10 points, and junior Donovan McSwain added nine points for the Spartans’ close win over Lennard. The Spartans, coached by Waymond Reed, were looking to top 0-6 Riverview at Spoto this Tuesday after the Spartans lost last week to Blake High and to Plant City to slip to 3-5. Spoto hit the road to Tampa for a clash with King High Dec. 13. Bloomingdale was on tap for a Dec. 15 game in Spoto. The Spartans pause until Jan. 9 at Spoto, Jan. 10 at Blake, Jan. 11 at Lake Gibson and Jan. 12 at Brandon.
The Riverview Sharks continued to struggle to find good news. The Sharks 23-24 losing streak fell to six straight. The losses were inflicted on the Sharks by Newsome, by Plant City, by Robinson High and by Bloomingdale in December so far. This week, Sharks Coach Anthoine Corpening tries to gain a win over Spoto on Tuesday and Strawberry Crest on Wednesday. A tough match hosting Sumner High is staring Riverview in the face on the Sharks’ hardwood Dec. 15 at 6:30 p.m. Following the break, Riverview travels to Brandon Jan 9, hosts Middleton Jan. 10, and Durant Jan. 12.
Sumner High continues to maintain the best record among South Shore boys basketball. Coached by Ryan Bethoney, the Stingrays are 3-2. In early December, the Rays beat Lennard and Hillsborough prior to dropping a 44-38 decision at Newsome High. Sumner travelled to Middleton High early this week, hosted Plant City Wednesday, bused to Riverview Dec. 15 and to Auburndale Dec. 16 to close out 2023. Francis Fedor covers Sumner High boys basketball for The News Observer print and digital every week.
