Palm Beach State Camp: Boyd Anderson downs Park Vista for title

<p>Lauderdale Lakes Boyd Anderson defeated Lake Worth Park Vista, 60-49, Thursday night in the championship game of the Palm Beach State College Team Camp.</p> <p>Boyd Anderson took down Village Academy, 79-55, in the semifinals while Park Vista eliminated Wellington, 65-56. Here are the top 5 takeaways from Thursday's title game.</p> <h4>MVP: Martin Mercedes</h4> <p><strong>Martin Mercedes</strong>, a 2020 transfer from Miami Palmetto, has stepped right in and taken command at Boyd Anderson. The 5-foot-11 guard had a tremendous camp at Palm Beach State and has raised his stock. Thursday night he scored 19 points to lead all scorers in the championship game. He connected on seven field goals. Mercedes does a great job setting the pace for the Cobras. He has nice vision, is a very good passer and he defends.</p> <h4>Lethal combo</h4> <p>Mercedes and Boyd Anderson 2020 big <strong>Rivaldo Fairweather</strong> have quickly developed a nice chemistry. Mercedes just seems to know where Fairweather will be. The two first joined forces this spring playing travel basketball for South Florida Elite. The 6-5 Fairweather eats up a lot of space in the paint. He knocked home eight field goals -- all from in close -- en route to 16 points and was dominant on the boards. "They've been playing together," BA head coach <strong>Eugene Richardson</strong> said of the duo. "This is what I need the other group to come along with those guys. Because they've been playing and once you get to understand the game with them it will make it that much easier for you."</p> <h4>Defense &amp; rebounding</h4> <p>Boyd Anderson owned the boards and played tight defense. The Cobras' other three starters were 2021 <strong>Dave Dalge</strong> (7 points), 2021 <strong>Gudner Jean Francois</strong> (4 points) and 2020 <strong>Isaac Givens</strong> (5 points). Jean Francois is small but extremely quick with a good handle. "We wanted to come in here and see where we are," said Richardson. "What we have to work on."</p> <h4>Park Vista 3s</h4> <p>Park Vista stayed in the game with outside shooting. Coach <strong>Edwin James</strong>' crew canned eight 3-pointers in the loss. 6-3 2020 left-hander <strong>Erik Pratt</strong> drilled four 3s on the way to 14 points. 2020 <strong>John Saenz</strong> added three more 3s and finished with 11 points and a handful of rebounds. <strong>Hantz Louis Juene</strong> did a nice job on the interior with 8 points.</p> <h4>James happy with performance</h4> <p>Park Vista's James was happy with PV's performance. "I've got three kids coming back that played a lot of minutes [last year]," he said. "The rest of the kids either didn't play a lot of minutes or were on JV. So, coming into this camp and playing the way we played I feel like it's the upside."</p> <p><em>If you have high school basketball news, you can reach Pat Lammer via e-mail at PatALammer@Gmail.com</em></p>