More experience will help this basketball season
OCEAN CITY – The Red Raiders boys basketball team will look to take advantage of their similarity on the court with most of its roster returning from last season.
“You hope that with a year of experience – having almost everybody back who contributed last year – that they improve from that experience,” head coach John Bruno said. “Plus playing together in the summer, when you start the season you hope the gelling between players happens a lot quicker.”
With a 13-14 record a year ago with a young lineup, Ocean City hopes to build on that valuable experience.
“Everybody has gotten a little bit better,” Bruno said. “I think Dylan Schlatter, as our point guard, has become more offensive-minded which has really helped. Kori Segich has gotten stronger, so we expect him to be a strength for our team. Omero Chevere was honorable mention all-league last year. Everybody is getting to know their role, and as long as they perform their role, I think we’ll be OK.”
Schlatter will play a major role as the floor general.
“The experience he gained last year – getting thrown in the fire as a sophomore, everybody throwing their best defender at him – he handled it really well,” Bruno said. “He’s come back more confident and a bit stronger. So it definitely helps us because if you can’t bring the ball up the floor with pressure it doesn’t really matter how good you think your team is. I think he’s going to do an excellent job running the show and getting the ball to the right people.”
As in years past, the Raiders will have to get creative to overcome their relative lack of size.
“Our weakness is we’re not real big,” Bruno said. “We have Andrew Karayiannis coming off a shoulder injury but he’s been playing well, so it looks like he’s overcome that. But we have to rebound as a team. We have a lot of guard-type players who are strong, but aren’t that tall. If we rebound the ball well we can compete with most of the teams in the league.”
One way to offset a size disadvantage is pressure, which Bruno’s Raiders have utilized well over the years.
“This team will be no different,” he said. “I think we have to use what our strengths are and minimize our weakness. So I feel rebounding the ball might be one of our weaknesses and we have to find a way to turn that around. So I think if we can force teams to turn the ball over and get some easy baskets, getting beat on the boards won’t hurt as much.”
While Chevere is capable of piling on the points, the Raiders will likely be a balanced team in terms of scoring and ride the hot hand.
“Between Sean Sakers who shoots the ball pretty well, Omero, Kori and Dylan, Pat Grimley is going to contribute, Andrew Karayiannis if he’s strong around the basket, Charlie LaBarre has come a long way,” Bruno said, “I think they accept that; it’s not like they care who scores. That way we’re hard to guard, you can’t really focus on any one player because someone else is going to hurt you.
“In years where we’ve had a main scorer like Gannon Brady you saw box-and-ones and that wouldn’t work on this team. We have all these guys who are going to contribute. We don’t have a 25-point scorer, but we might have three 10-point scorers.”
The coach believes the team’s success will ultimately come down to shooting.
“I think we’re going to shoot the ball,” Bruno said. “I think one of our strengths is that we have guys who can shoot it. We can get to the rim; I think we need to get to the foul line. We need easy baskets. So if we shoot well, I think we can play well. I know a lot of teams might say that but we’ve got three guys that I have confidence in any given moment that if they shoot it’ll go in. So if we overcome the rebounding aspect – that’s probably my biggest concern – that will be the real key. Defensively we’ve got to get a little better; we’ve got to challenge shooters a little more and not give up those easy baskets.”
The Raiders open the season at 6 p.m. Thursday at home hosting Saint Joseph Academy. They are back in their gym at 7 p.m. Sunday, hosting Holy Spirit.
By KYLE McCRANE/Sentinel Sports