- April 18, 2024
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For the first time this season, the Mainland Buccaneers played with all their basketball players and shined in a 54-29 district win against the Matanzas Pirates on Thursday, Jan. 8, at Matanzas High School.
Due to the football season and holiday break, Denzel Houston, Jachai Polite and other key players of the team couldn’t play.
“I normally give the football players time to recover because they’ve been going hard since June, and I gradually bring them in,” coach Landis McCoy said. “They’ve traveled with us to a few games, so they could gel with the team. It’s becoming an easier flow for them now.”
The Buccaneers went 1-4 in the first round of district games, but they have already shown a new side with a more put together squad.
“This is day one for us,” McCoy added. “Everybody is trying to figure out what we’re going to bring to the table. All the other schools have had their teams. We know what they have. This will be our first game on tape, so I feel like we’re just getting started.”
Nearly all of the Bucs scored in the game, Twishawn Glenn and Cyrus Fagan leading the team with 10 and nine points respectively.
No shot meant more than a near three-point make from Chris Moore, Mainland’s deaf JV player who dressed for the game. After a section of Mainland fans began to chant “Put Chris in,” McCoy subbed him in, and Moore began to take three-point shots from the corner.
Moore’s second shot missed by a few inches, resulting in the loudest reaction of the night from Mainland fans.
Now that Mainland is at full strength, McCoy believes that they will be ready to compete with the teams that beat them in the beginning of the season.
