Lely Boys Beat Bonita, Fall to Barron Collier in Districts

Fritz Jacques has coached a lot of basketball at Lely High School. The school’s second-winningest coach behind legendary Don Stewart, Jacques has won district championships, and he’s had teams that struggle. But year in and year out, you can count on Jacques’ Lely teams to play lockdown defense all game long. Because they always work hard in practice, they never tire out in games.

In their 53-43 semi-final loss at one-seed Barron Collier on Wednesday, February 8, the four-seed Trojans played defense like a Jacques-coached team, leading 10-9 after one quarter and trailing 19-18 at halftime. 

“The kids played hard,” Jacques said after the game. “Halftime we were down one. We let them make a run in the third quarter. We just couldn't buy a basket. But we played hard on defense.”

On February 6, the Trojans ran winless Bonita Springs out of the Lely gym, 69-32, their sixth win in seven games leading up to the district semi-final.

Barron Collier went on to win the district title with a 66-58 double overtime win over Golden Gate on Saturday. They face Sebring on Thursday, Feb. 15.

"The second half of the season, we played very well,” Jacques said. “We beat some good teams. The kids worked, they started buying in. Good things started happening.”

The good news is that the 2023-2024 Trojans were a young team. Their biggest loss is floor leader Lovence Valcin, who led the Trojans (11-14) with 16 points against Barron Collier (19-8). He was the team’s leading scorer all season with 11.2 points per game. 

Other key players coming back are big men 6’5” junior Jayce Cora (8 rebounds per game, 8 points per game), 6’6” junior McAndrew Gaspard, 6’3” power forward Wally Monpremier (7.1 rpg, 5 ppg), and 6’2” sophomore Berdley Prophilien. Point guard Richard Obas (9 ppg, 2.3 assists per game, 2.3 steals per game) is a key returnee. Sophomore guard Bryan Rodriguez saw a lot of action this season. Junior guard Gage Rice, who missed the first half of the season but provided a spark in the second half with his all-out hustle, returns in the backcourt.

“I've got some good guys coming back,” Jacques said. "I'm fairly young. I had a freshman up here tonight, Brandon Baptiste, he's a shooter. Lovence was probably our star this year. We're going to miss our senior leaders. But we are young, and we'll be back in the gym working.”