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The Lely boys basketball team used its summer to get to know each other on the court.

“We had a good summer, ending with a camp at Southeastern University,” coach Don Stewart said. We beat Bartow and Lakeland-Kathleen, both in overtime and they are two very good basketball programs.”

Lely’s big man, Marco’s Parker Ayers, the only returning starter, had a good summer.

“He’s gotten a lot stronger and is much more physical on the court,” Stewart said. “He still has a ways to go, particularly on defense, but he is a much better overall player.”

Stewart said the summer time doesn’t work well for defensive practice, but he liked what he saw.

“Offensively we have some good shooters, we’ll see how it goes on defense,” he said. “Someone needs to step up to play point. Teams didn’t press us much last year because we had Dylan DeFeo.”

DeFeo graduated and will be playing at Tampa University.

A strong point guard possibility is Marco’s Christian Tateo.

“He did a good job, along with Zach Hornsby and Brandon Love,” Stewart said of the Marco players.

He liked what he saw in Jeff Charelus, Darren Heatherly, Jhonny Faustin and Tyler Helmick.

“Tyler, about 6-foot-5 and Darren should be active around the basket,” Stewart said. “We threw Faustin in against Bartow and Lakeland and he negated their speed.”

Lely was 16-6 last season.

“We had a pretty good team, but we relied too much on the outside shot,” Stewart said. “Teams gave us those shots and when we missed we were in trouble. I’m expecting to mix it up more.”