Ponte Vedra capped their regular season with a 42-32 victory over arch-rival Nease in front of a full house of spectators at the Shark Tank Feb. 3.
If one wanted to watch a run-and-gun game featuring the Loyola Marymount five from 1990 then this game was not for you. However, if one likes a pitcher’s duel with Sandy Koufax opposing Juan Marichal than last night’s low scoring battle was much more to one’s liking.
With both teams coming out of the gates exhibiting a patient (or tentative) old style basketball, the scoreboard at the end of the first quarter showed Nease scoring seven points with Ponte Vedra limited to a scant five tallies.
Nease took but four shots in the entire quarter but two of those buckets were three pointers, their only made 3’s for the entire contest.
Coach Josh Bailen’s Panther five padded their score in the second quarter to up their lead to 17-9 before the Sharks were able to close out the first half with a 7-0 run to trail by one slim point at the halftime break.
Ponte Vedra took the lead that they wouldn’t relinquish on a Ben Ritchie 3-pointer early into the third period.
Israel Nuhu than brought the home crowd to their feet with the first of his two thunderous dunks during a Ponte Vedra 10-0 run to give the Sharks a 27-17 lead.
The Panthers were shut out for nearly the first six minutes of the third quarter but scored the final four points of the period and trailed 27-21 heading into the game’s final eight minutes.
With the Sharks attempting to just milk the clock for much of the final quarter, Nease parlayed four Sharks’ turnovers into eight points to cut the deficit to two, 32-30 with just over two minutes left in the contest.
It was at this point where first year Sharks head coach Ben Wilson inserted sophomore David Sanchez-Berrera into the lineup.
Hanging on to that slim two-point lead, the Sharks missed an ill-advised 3-pointer but Berrera made perhaps the biggest play of the game, as it was Berrera who rebounded the long-range miss and was fouled.
Although his second made free throw was waved off because he had his foot on the line, his first free throw proved to be the game winner.
After playing tentative basketball for the first seven minutes of the final quarter, the Sharks then went into an attack mode and scored 10 points in the game’s final minute of action that included a 3-point play from Nuhu and two clutch free throws from Berrera.
The game was the 33rd meeting between the two rivals and with the win, the Sharks now hold a one-game lead in the series that dates back to 2008 with 17 wins to Nease’s 16 victories.
So tight as this series been over the years that each team had scored exactly 1,555 points before the start of this game.
Nuhu added to his resume in a campaign for Player of the Year honors in St. Johns County with 15 points, seven rebounds and five steals.
Three Panthers had seven points, including Jake Larson, Brooks Utter and Bryson Utter to lead all Nease scorers.
Amongst the capacity crowd at the game where a number of former Nease standouts, of those Panthers from yesteryear was Chet Stachitas, who had a great college career at St. Joseph University in Pennsylvania.
