Saturday, November 14, 2026
Lucas Hodgdon battles for rebounding position with Sebastian Niewald.
Shamus Coyle flips in a layup.
Joe Reisinger forces a turnover with his aggressive defense.
Xavier Parra is coming back from a knee injury. His work on the boards is huge for the Rays.
Rays head coach Jim Watt seems to like what he sees on the scoreboard.
They say the mark of a good team is when they can take a punch in the nose and still come back. On Friday night in their home gym, the MIA boys basketball team did just that, recovering from a slow start to pull away for an easy 58-37 win over Donahue Catholic, who had lost only once coming into the game.
Head coach Jim Watt decided to change things up when the Rays found themselves down 16-9 with time winding down in the first quarter.
“We didn’t have an answer for them at first,” Jim Watt said, “they were breaking our press pretty easily. I pulled ‘em back into our half court press and that was the difference. They couldn’t handle that.”
John Boxma stepped up with a couple of quick steals and turned them into layups at the other end. Suddenly the Rays had narrowed the gap to 16-13 at the end of the first quarter. Then Nick Fitton started the second quarter with a pair of baskets, and the Rays were on their way.
“That half-court trap is what won the game for us,” Watt said. “We started getting some steals and started getting the ball down the court better.”
It was a good team win for the Rays, who improve to 4-3. Donahue falls to 5-2. The Rays played three games in a one-week span, winning two of them.
"We just lost that one game,” Watt said, "to Bishop Verot.”
On Tuesday, December 14, the Rays had an easy win over Everglades City, 75-36. Then Bishop Verot downed the Rays 68-55 on Thursday with a strong inside and outside attack.
Against Donahue, the Rays were led by senior Brooks Vorderstrasse with 22 points. Quintin Fitton and Paul Reisinger both had nine points for MIA. The hustling Reisinger leads the Rays in assists, steals and blocks for the season. His most eye-catching stat is his five steals per game average.
Watt is happy to see his stocky low post presence, Xavier Parra, regaining his strength after suffering a knee injury. He’s the team’s leading rebounder.
"Xavier tore his meniscus earlier,” Watt said, “he’s starting to climb back a little bit. He’s finding the rim a little better and getting better on defense. Of course, Brooks always shines every week. He was fantastic again tonight. John Boxma gave us some great minutes off the bench. The whole team played well.”
The Rays travel to Vero Beach this week to play in a holiday tournament. They’ll be back in their home gym on Tuesday, January 4, 2022 when they take on Seacrest.
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