MIA Boys' Basketball Slide Continues

Marco Island Academy’s basketball season started with an air of optimism and thoughts of wrestling back the Paradise Coast Athletic Conference championship has quickly unraveled in a quagmire of injuries and illness. After winning their first three games, the Rays have now lost nine games in a row after losing at home to Southwest Florida Christian Academy, 70-39 on Tuesday, January 2, and on the road Friday to Ida Baker, 78-60, and Saturday to South Ft. Myers, 73-33, in the New Year’s Howl tournament at South Ft. Myers high school.

Head coach Jim Watt lost his son, junior point guard Jacob Watt, for the season to a freak practice injury in December. And a variety of other injuries and illnesses have sidelined much of his roster throughout the season.

Playing three tough opponents this week didn’t help the team’s flagging fortunes.

The Rays (3-9) looked like they had a fighting chance in their home game against Southwest Florida Christian (8-7).

“We just couldn't hit our shots,” Watt said. “Jordan Rodden is still battling the flu. Mathis Fontes is still a little bit sick. So both my bigs are still battling that. But we were getting our shots. I kind of feel like had we been shooting a little bit better, we would have stayed right with these guys."

Indeed the Rays whittled the lead down to eight points in the second half. Several times they were within 10 points.

"We had a nice defensive game plan against the threes,” Watt said. “They do a really good job of selling the fouls on their threes. I felt like the kids played a great game. I told them in the locker room that there's nothing to be disappointed about. We played a great game. I wanted an aggressive game. I felt like they did that. We had three guys who fouled out. So I mean, we played an aggressive game. I was down to no extra players."

The Rays were the smallest school in the New Year’s Howl.

“We take on teams like this to get better for when we're playing in our conference,” Watt said. "It makes our feet a little faster. And that's why we take games like these. Not that we couldn't win these because I feel like we can."

Watt feels the future looks bright for this team, if not this year, definitely next year with the majority of his roster comprised of sophomores and juniors.

"The future looks good,” he said. "I mean, realistically, a lot of the guys on my JV team should be playing freshman basketball. Basically, my whole varsity team should probably be playing in a JV program. So the experience they're getting this year is going to really pay off when we move up, like starting into next year. So I'm excited. This will get us ready for what we've got coming. We've got Mason Classical (0-5), and Naples Classical (1-8). We've got Village School (3-6) again. We have Everglades (4-3) coming here. So there's still a lot of exciting basketball left.

Watt said the PCAC is improving.

"It's getting a little stronger,” he said. "I feel like Everglades kind of surprised everybody a little bit this year. They surprised us. And Village School has a whole new roster. There's only one kid on their roster that was there last year. And I was hoping we'd be a little more competitive with Donahue Catholic (9-1) this year. But again, we’ve had some illness and some injury this year. It's been tough.”

MIA hosted Mason Classical on Monday, January 8, and traveled to Moore Haven (9-3) on Tuesday, January 9, after the Coastal Breeze News deadline. They travel to Village School on January 16, then return home on January 18 against Naples Classical.