Special Team Creating Special Moments

Boys Basketball on 10-game winning streak

Photo Courtesy @chargerhoops on Twitter

Photo Courtesy @chargerhoops on Twitter

This team is special.

While the Charger faithful has known this for a while now, Tuesday’s win over North Side has forced the rest of the city, and perhaps the state, to take notice.

Yes, this team has issues. The Chargers put the Legends in the bonus by the end of both half’s on Tuesday and the Legends were in the double bonus by the end of the game, which is the worst possible thing to do in a game separated by just a few points, it didn’t end up costing the Chargers. But whose to say that it won’t in the future when the Chargers will be in another big game, like Friday against Homestead or in a Sectional game that could end up being against this very same Legends team.

And lets not forget that fouls could arguably be blamed for one of the Chargers losses this season.

During the SAC Holiday Tournament, David Ejah, the teams leading scorer at the time, got two fouls early in the first quarter in a game against Homestead. Because of this he sat out a majority of that game in which he could have been the difference maker.

But do you know what’s really scary about that whole situation.

The Chargers still nearly won that game, which just goes to show one of the team’s biggest strengths, their depth.

It all starts in the back court. Head Coach Marty Beasley effectively starts three guards as Dan McKeeman, Arius Jones, and Reece Swoverland all are in the starting lineup and are all listed as guards. Then if needed Richie Gross has been quietly a solid option this season for Beasley. Then behind Gross is Blake Pocock who is a threat from long range when he is on his game. Then to just add some fun to all this is the ability of the Chargers big guys to hit the long ball which was on display last night where Riley Perlich hit big shot after big shot at critical moments in the game and then Nathan Fish showed his ability off with the game winner as the clock hit zero.

And oh wait, I still haven’t even mentioned David Ejah’s ability. While Ejah has cooled off from his hot start to the season, he is still good for double digit points on a nightly basis and is shooting 50 percent from 3-Point range on the season.

While all of that is fine and dandy, a team is still not this good without being able to go inside, something that the Chargers have seemed somewhat hesitant to do so far this season. Until Tuesday.

Dan McKeeman drove to the paint on multiple occasions, and his team benefited from it.

But he wasn’t the only one who did it last night.

Reece Swoverland did the same and while he may not have has as much to show for it stats wise, his efforts won’t be forgotten.

But Riley Prelich has plenty to show on the stat sheet from the hard work of McKeeman and Swoverland, just to name a couple.

Perlich doubled up on his season average Tuesday night, pouring in 18 points, well above his season average of 9.2 points a game. Half of those points came off of the three ball which he was was perfect on throughout the game. To the surprise of some, Perlich happens to own the Chargers second best three point percentage (48%) but those who have seen more than a few games this year know just how lethal he can be from beyond the arch, feeding back into that aforementioned depth for the Chargers.

But Perlich’s outburst points a larger picture. The Chargers depth is to the point that anyone can lead the team on any given night. While it’s almost always Ejah or McKeeman, there are nights when Arius Jones leads the way, or maybe it’s Swoverland that takes over. Or maybe someone else, like Fish, will come up big when it matters most.

And again, that’s what makes this team so scary for opposing teams, and so special for the home fans.

But all of this has me thinking about something that’s a little scary.

Could this be the year we make a deep run at the state title?

I guess only time will tell.