The Marco Island Academy Rays pushed their score all the way to 60 on Thursday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a hard 79-60 fall against Naples Classical. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their last game last Tuesday (56), Marco Island Academy still had to take the loss.
Marco Island Academy's defeat came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Veleon Nazarko, who dropped a double-double on 19 points and 18 rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Nazarko has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Grayson Jones, who scored 19 points along with three steals.
Naples Classical found their leader in underclassman Daniel Coldiron, who scored 32 points. That makes it six consecutive games in which Coldiron has scored at least a third of Naples Classical's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Jude Gillen, who scored 13 points.
This is the second loss in a row for Marco Island Academy and nudges their season record down to 4-11. As for Naples Classical, they pushed their record up to 6-10 with that win, which was their fourth straight on the road.
Marco Island Academy will be playing at home against Moore Haven at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Naples Classical won't have much time to rest: their next game is against Oasis at 6:00 p.m. on January 19th. Oasis presents a significant challenge as they come into the match much higher ranked than Naples Classical in Florida (Oasis is ranked 355th, while Naples Classical is ranked 725th).
