- March 28, 2024
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The Father Lopez boys basketball team relies heavily on four players, and that won't be changing with some big district games left on the schedule.
BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER
It wasn’t until the closing minutes of a recent win that Kyle Smith finally took a seat on the bench. His day was over. He was the last of four key Green Wave players to come out of the game for the final time.
Smith, Malik Maitland, A.J. Ford and Cameron Breehl play nearly every minute of every game for head coach Ed Miller’s 13-2 team.
“They’re experienced,” Miller said. "And those guys, they play really well together.”
Take, for example, a play early in the third quarter of Father Lopez’s 61-42 win over Southwest Miami Jan. 5, when an inbound pass was lobbed to Ford, who jumped and tipped the ball to Breehl, who was sliding to the basket, for an easy layup.
“I like the chemistry of the group,” Miller said. “And they’re in fairly good shape, so they can play long minutes.”
The three guards in the group — Smith, Maitland and Ford — also give opponents tough matchup options, Miller said, and are the "catalysts" for the defense.
Against Southwest Miami, it was Ford who had the most points among the three, scoring 16. But Breehl led all scorers with 20 points. And Smith (who scored two points) and Maitland (six points) contributed in other ways, like they have all season.
Smith, the team’s point guard, blocked a shot on a breakaway, and Maitland played the point on the defensive end.
“They all do have different levels of skill sets, but they’re also unselfish,” Miller said. “And they work hard. They get loose balls. They hustle. They play defense. Those are the things they share in common.”
The four players have already logged a lot of minutes this season, but with some big games remaining, there won’t be any rest any time soon.
“We’re getting ready to play some big district games coming up — Lake Mary Prep and Master’s Academy — so those are certainly important games,” Miller said.
Then they play local rival Atlantic and, at the end of the season, they'll play in the Greyhound Invitational at Lyman High School, in Longwood. Then it's the playoffs.
For the remainder of the games and practices, Miller said he doesn’t want his team to focus on big goals or to look ahead to the playoffs, but rather to take each game and practice as an opportunity to fine tune areas giving them problems.
“And if we focus on that,” he said, “things will take care of themselves.”