Following a disappointing start to the 2019-20 season for the Ponte Vedra High Sharks basketball team, first year head coach Kevin Whirty called up a trio of players from the undefeated Junior Varsity and the move paid immediate dividends for Whirity and his Sharks.
After a 59-34 pasting at the hands of Providence, the area’s second rated team on Dec. 10, coach Whirity was due to face an even bigger obstacle just two days later in the opening game of the Fortegra Invitational. Paxon High, the top-rated team in the area, was the Shark opponent in the Thursday opening round game and, by calling up a pair of sophomores and a freshman from the JVs, Whirity was hoping for better results.
And those youngsters delivered. The heavily favored Paxon five bolted out to a seemingly insurmountable 44-15 lead at halftime as it appeared the Sharks were headed for another decisive loss. However, with the addition of JV callups Luke Pirris, JT Kelly and freshman Nathan Bunkosky , the Sharks mounted a massive comeback that narrowed the deficit down to but 6 points with 4 minutes remaining in the game.
The comeback forced Paxon to go into a stall where they held off the charging Sharks to earn a much harder than expected 53-46 victory over PVHS.
The momentum from the effort vs. Paxon carried over to the next day’s contest in the Fortegra Invitational when the JV trio scored 40 of the team’s 50 points as they nipped neighboring Fletcher High 50-49. Bunkosky led all scorers with 18 points, the most points scored in a Shark varsity game that easily broke the previous record set by current European pro Beau Beech of 10 points in 2009.
Sophomore Luke Pirris had a monster game with 15 points and 5 steals while Kelly chipped in with 7 points. The trio, who played the last 13 minutes of the game, committed but 1 turnover for the entire contest.
Saturday saw the Sharks face off against a much bigger First Coast team that looked like an NFL football team in sneakers. In a game played on a pace that resembled the 1940s, the Sharks showed great patience as both teams played a deliberate tempo of basketball. The very young Sharks, with underclassmen contributing to all the scoring for the entire tournament, had to come from behind to earn the victory.
Trailing by 7 points with 6:40 left in the game, the Sharks then went on a 11-0 run the rest of the game while holding First Coast scoreless until a meaningless tip in just before the buzzer. The end result was a 39-36 victory that gave the Sharks a two-game winning streak heading into this week’s very busy schedule.
