Wolfpack 'definitely' better

Throughout a roller-coaster inaugural season, Greg Anderson's goal for his South Fort Myers High boys basketball team never swayed.

"My goal from day one is that I wanted the team to be better at the end of the season than it was at the beginning of the season," said Anderson, whose 11-15 team was scheduled to play Clewiston in the first round of the district tournament yesterday at Estero. "We're definitely better than we were at the beginning of the season. Eleven is a good number. I'm pretty happy with the first year, but we've still got more work to do."

Photo by KEVIN JOHNSON, Banner

South Fort Myers forward Kenny Daniels tries to block a layup by Evangelical Christian School's Calan Lynch in the third quarter on Friday night. Daniels had a game-high 19 points to lead the Wolfpack to a 66-54 win.

Evidence supporting Anderson's claims came Friday night when the visiting Wolfpack beat Evangelical Christian School, 66-54, in South's regular season finale.

"They're playing a lot better than they were in the beginning of the year," said ECS coach Nate Travis.

South lost to ECS by 11 points in the fourth game of the season, but in the final two weeks the Wolfpack beat the Sentinels twice, both by double digit margins.

In December, the Wolfpack beat Estero by 10. Last week South led the Wildcats by as many as 30 points before winning by 20.

But it wasn't just the three game winning streak to end the regular season that boosted South. The Wolfpack also picked up valuable lessons during a rough stretch in mid-season when they dropped 10 of 11 games.

"What really helped is in the middle of the season when we played these stronger teams. We realized our mistakes and what we really needed to work on." said forward Kenny Daniels, who had game-highs in points (19) and rebounds (16) in Saturday's win.

"I knew that we were playing much better, even though we were losing all those games," added Anderson, whose team began the season with six wins in the first three weeks before facing some of Lee and Collier counties top teams.

Also providing a lift was the addition of senior center Josue Rodriguez. After sitting out the first 16 games for academic reasons, Rodriguez saw his first game action in January. He's provided a much-needed inside presence.

"Josue has been huge," said Anderson "He's averaging about 12 points and 10 rebounds. He's opened up the paint a little bit for Daniels and (Bradley) Rucker. Even though they're missing a few ones that they should make, it's freeing them up. And Sherman Dyal is starting to play a little bit more of an assertive role."

Photo by KEVIN JOHNSON, Banner

South's Josue Rodriguez looks for an opening while guarded by ECS's Evan Cooper (33) and Brian Lusco (34).

Rodriguez, who stands out not just because of his red socks, but also because at 6-foot-4 he's the team's tallest player by three inches. Saturday, Rodriguez scored seven of his dozen points in the first quarter and finished with 13 rebounds, marking the eighth time in ten games he's reached double digits on the boards.

Rodriguez, whose quickness peps up South's transition game, has been making strides off the court, too.

"I'm really proud of him," said Anderson. "He wasn't exactly the model student-athlete the last couple years at Estero. In fact, he stopped going to school for awhile last year and that got him in trouble with his grades, which is why he had to sit out first semester.

"He's been a leader off the court. He's made every practice. He got a 3.0 in his first semester to get his grades high enough this semester. Just the eight or nine games he's played, he's made a huge contribution."

Daniels has also been a big contributor. He produced a memorable Saturday by scoring the team's final 11 points of the third quarter as South took a 51-40 lead into the fourth.

"Athletically, he really proved to be superior tonight, especially running the floor," said Anderson.

South jumped out to an 18-4 lead after one quarter as the Sentinels went sentimental, allowing all of their seniors to start on Senior Night. ECS played catch-up the rest of the game.

The Sentinels pulled to within 55-48 with five minutes left, but a fastbreak basket from Kenny Louima to Daniels put an end to the comeback.

"We kept it together as a team," said Rodriguez. "We moved the ball around and scored. That's what we had to do to finish off the game, but they did a good job coming back at us strong."

ECS fell to 12-11.

"We were making the things happen on offense that we wanted to happen," said Travis. "We were getting inside. Our game plan was to drive on them. With their athleticism, they kind of break down because they overplay passing lanes. So we were getting to the basket, but then we weren't getting back, and their athleticism was coming down the floor and they were finding themselves in 3-on-2, 3-on-3 transition sets. We just don't have much of an answer for that if we're not getting back."

South had four players reach double digits in scoring. In addition to Daniels and Rodriquez, Dyal poured in 11 points and Jordan Peterson had 10. ECS was led by senior Calan Lynch (17 points) and sophomore Brian Lusco (16 points).