Basketball Recap: Fort Myers Falls Despite Big Games from James Michel and Vinny Carbonara

Fort Myers lost against Lehigh back in January and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. The Fort Myers Green Wave lost to the Lehigh Lightning on the road by a 72-58 margin. While losing is never fun, the Green Wave can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 402nd, while the Lightning are ranked 142nd).

James Michel

Steals

01/31/25 @ Lehigh	3
01/30/25 vs Lely	2
01/28/25 vs Aubrey Rogers	4
01/27/25 vs Mariner	3

Fort Myers' defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Vinny Carbonara, who went 7-for-17 on his way to 17 points, and James Michel, who posted 14 points and three steals. Michel has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last four times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Aiden Hardy, who scored eight points and six boards.

Leading Lehigh to victory were Fritz Odige and Jaiden Robinson. Odige went 9-for-12 to rack up 22 points and eight rebounds, while Robinson went 8-for-12 en route to 19 points along with eight boards and four steals. The dominant performance gave Robinson a new career-high in rebounds. Another player making a difference was Justin Gollop, who went 5-for-10 on his way to 10 points in addition to five assists and four steals.

Fort Myers' loss was their third straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 12-12. As for Lehigh, the win made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 22-3.

Fort Myers has already played their next game, a 48-47 victory against Cape Coral on the 5th. As for Lehigh, they also didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next matchup, a 79-69 win against Riverview Sarasota on the 5th.