PHSC and Florida Gateway College are the only two colleges that are in their division status (Region 8, Division II). The advantage of this is that the players can build up fundamental techniques and push their game experience from playing higher division teams
Bobcats have three more games against Florida Gateway College and the team that acquires the most wins will host the tournament game on February 16th. The winner of that game goes to North Carolina for Regionals.
Saturday, January 12, 2019 Bobcats defended their home court against Gateway by only a 17 point lead with 6’2” Sophomore Daniel Jones putting 24 points on the board. The final score was 88-71.
At the end of the first period, the Bobcats had a seven-point lead (45-38). As freshmen, Chris Brown and Antonio Tucker both placed 12 points on the board in turn helped the team maintain control on offense. Sophomore Charles Grandison had 7 offensive rebounds while Antonio Tucker made 15 defensive rebounds keeping Gateway’s gameplay more in total defense mode on both ends of the court.
Jones chose to implement zone changes as well as player rotation during this game.
“Everyday we don’t know who we are going to start,” Jones said. “We have to figure out strategically how to rotate them because I don’t want them to get into foul trouble which they do tend to get in.”
Personal fouls are not uncommon for the Bobcats, with 19 fouls per game on offense and 17 per game on defense, a player rotation is important for the upcoming games to ensure the strongest players can carry out the full forty minutes.
Bobcats face Florida Gateway for the second matchup on January 19 on Gateway’s home court.
“It can be a different ball game next Saturday when we go up there,” Jones said. “You got to take every game as if it’s a playoff game.”
