Lakewood/Tampa Catholic at the Preseason Classic: What We Learned

Brandon Fisher November 15, 2019 @ 02:00 PM

The Lakewood Preseason Classic featured six teams from around the Western and Central parts of Florida. Lakewood now has a beautiful gym in south St. Petersburg that made for a great host of this tournament so each team can compete and shake the rust off. The top three teams by far were: Lakewood, Southeast (Bradenton), and Winter Haven. Here I will break down some things I took away from the Lakewood vs. Tampa Catholic game.   Lakewood is the best team in Pinellas County The Spartans are the team that has the most talent in the county as they are loaded at every position. Lakewood was led by Senior Macey Zeh-Arndt (6'2) who was a bully down low and scored 16 points last night in limited acton against Tampa Catholic since the final score was 70-12 in favor of Lakewood. The only other senior on this squad is JoShaunte Thomas who played well off the bench with 7 points, and she isn't afraid to put it up! TaNauvion "Nauvi" Williams was the most impressive junior on the team, and just might be the most athletic player in Pinellas County. She jumped out of the gym, ran the court, and had 8 points on the night. This team is not lacking young talent either. Reilly Webb is one of the most exciting Sophomores in the area. If you watch her closely, she is so smart on and off the ball, and she works hard on every single play. Reilly ended with 9 points to go with her aggressive rebounding/defense, and she has terrific court vision. Another Sophomore, Makayla Johnson, is fun to watch on defense as well. She plays hard, and took care of the ball as well as doing some of the other little things, but didn't see any buckets last night. Two other Sophomores had big games with Joneisha Thomas contributing 12 points around the rim (all in the first half) and Sincere Robinson adding 11 points from all over. Lastly, another athletic guard who is only a Freshman put up just two points, but she has the ability to become a real difference maker and that is A'Shiya Youngblood who wore the infamous number 0.   Tampa Catholic is young, and they will go through some growing pains The Crusaders most impressive players last night were mostly underclassmen. This was a tough game to judge as Lakewood is a very good team to compete against. Freshman MiKayla Nash and Sophomore Emma Kopp were the players who caught my eye with 4 points a piece. It might be a long year for TC, but expect them to get better and grow each game.