If the Naples Classical Academy were riding high off their 67-36 takedown of Tournament Opponent last Saturday, their most recent game may have dampened their spirits a bit. Naples Classical took a 97-86 hit to the loss column at the hands of Island Coast on Tuesday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their last game last Saturday (67), Naples Classical still had to take the loss.
Despite the defeat, Naples Classical saw an underclassman step up: Daniel Coldiron scored 29 points. That was a full 33.7% of Naples Classical's points, marking the fifth time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Colman Gillen was another key contributor, scoring 19 points.
Jose Bido had an outrageously good game for Island Coast as he scored 31 points along with seven steals and five assists. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Bido has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Roanin Solis-Valdez, who scored 13 points along with four steals.
Naples Classical bumped their record down to 5-10 with that defeat, which was their fourth straight at home. That rough patch can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 64.3 points per game. As for Island Coast, they are on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a massive bump to their 7-9 record this season.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Naples Classical will challenge Marco Island Academy at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. That game will pit two of the most dominant guards against one another: Nick Sadler and Coldiron. As for Island Coast, they will head out on the road to challenge Gateway at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Gateway presents a significant challenge as they come into the match much higher ranked than Island Coast in Florida (Gateway is ranked 125th, while Island Coast is ranked 570th).
