Top Storylines: Sun Bash Miami (Day 1)

<p>The inaugural Sun Bash Miami debuted on Friday night with a two-game slate at Westminster Christian.</p> <p>First started in 2018 in Tampa, the <a href="https://www.sunbashtourney.com/">Sun Bash</a> has since expanded to Miami with future markets in the works for the next high school season and beyond.</p> <p><em>Results:</em></p> <h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Game 1: Gulliver Prep 90, Somerset Pines 65</strong></h2> <h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Game 2: Westminster Christian 49, Palmetto 40</strong></h2> <p>Here is what we learned from the evening.</p> <h3><strong>Gulliver Prep has a ton of talent</strong></h3> <p>Just wait till after January 5th when Gulliver Prep gets 2020 6'9" forward <strong>Donnell Harris</strong> (Texas A&amp;M football commit) back in the fold following the National American Game, it might be crazy tough to beat. The Raiders improved to 5-0 behind a 29-point outing from 2020 6'7" forward <strong>Tony Sanders </strong>and a 27-point showing from 2020 5'11" guard <strong>Gabe Taylor</strong>. Sanders is a surefire 3-point shooter, who is long, athletic, vocal and willing to create for his teammates all over the floor. He's a steal for whatever Division I program that lands him. As for Taylor, he is strong as nails, has the ball on a string and seems to never get tired rather ware down defenses instead. 2020 6'4" forward<strong> Diego LaMonica</strong><strong> </strong>(Vanderbilt football commit) was very active in the paint putting buckets back and does a lot of dirty work for Gulliver Prep.</p> <h3><strong>Quartet leads Westminster Christian</strong></h3> <p>Westminster Christian had its starting five out there for much of the win over Palmetto. Four of the five were consistent threats offensively with 2020 5'8" guard <strong>JC Lezcano</strong> at the top of the scoring list with 13 points. The trust that his coaches have him in is awesome to see. Lezcano is a blazer and a superb ballhandler who opens up a ton for his offense. He is simply a high IQ high school point guard. 2021 pair, 6'8" forward <strong>James Henderson</strong> was all over the paint with 10 points while 6'3" guard <strong>Jayden Higgins</strong> scored in a variety of ways to add 10 points as well. My favorite two-way player on this team was 2021 5'11" guard <strong>Frankie Idlett</strong> (a transfer from Gulliver Prep). He posted nine points and was a brute defensively, making life hard for Palmetto's guards.</p> <h3><strong>Palmetto has nice combo in Poitier and Lopez</strong></h3> <p>Despite not shooting well overall as a team, the 2020 duo of <strong>Jordan Lopez</strong> and <strong>Kentron Poitier </strong>did all they could against a scrappy Westminster Christian unit. Lopez was the lone reliable deep ball shooter, finishing with 15 points. He is a dangerous scorer if not paid attention to. Poitier, a standout football player at Palmetto had two high flying dunks late and continue to bring energy to his side with transition play and drives to the hoop.</p> <h3><strong>Somerset Pines is resilient </strong></h3> <p>Despite the outcome, Somerset Pines hung its heads high all game long. 2020 6'6" forward <strong>Nathan Montaque </strong>recorded 24 points for his side while 2020 6'1" forward <strong>Mike King</strong> had a nice showing with 16 points and 2023 6'4" guard <strong>David Delancy </strong>pitched in with nine points. Montaque had the green light to shoot and played through a lower body injury which limited his follow-through, but the kid is resilient and will continue to score. King scored his team's first seven points and proved to be a strong finisher. Delancy got going late and I thought he was at his best when he was aggressive and headed inside.</p> <p><strong>What is ahead</strong></p> <p>Saturday features five games on a busy Saturday as the schedule is as follows.</p> <h4 style="text-align: center;"><strong>12 PM: Coral Park vs North Miami</strong><br /> <strong>2 PM: Miami vs Wellington </strong><br /> <strong>4 PM: Doral vs Coral Springs Charter </strong><br /> <strong>6 PM: Suncoast vs Palmetto </strong><br /> <strong>8 PM: Calvary Christian vs Westminster Christian</strong></h4> <p>Come out to Westminster Christian (6855 SW 152Nd St, Miami, FL 33157), there is a food truck and awesome basketball all day long.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">???????????? <a href="https://twitter.com/GulliverHoops?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GulliverHoops</a> trio <a href="https://twitter.com/TonySandersjr_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TonySandersjr_</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/iamGabeTaylor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@iamGabeTaylor</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Diego_LaMonica?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Diego_LaMonica</a> went off in the inaugural <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SunBash?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SunBash</a> Miami game in a win over Somerset Pines combining for 70 of the Raiders 90 points. <a href="https://t.co/XV5Ii8Y2MP">pic.twitter.com/XV5Ii8Y2MP</a></p> — Sun Bash (@sunbashtourney) <a href="https://twitter.com/sunbashtourney/status/1205689969546801152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2019</a></blockquote> <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>