WINNING WAYS: Hurricanes match season-best streak at four straight victories

"This is a great win, any time you win at Palmer it is a great win and then to win at Key West and at Palmer is really a heck of a week," said Coral Shores coach Jarrod Mandozzi. "Add the Oxbridge Academy win up in West Palm last Thursday and that is a heck of a run for us to be proud of."

In spite of coming out, as the coach put it, "a little flat" against the Falcons, it was a one-point advanatge at the end of the first quarter for the Hurricanes, but they trailed at the half, 33-29, with Palmer shooting 78% from 2-point range and 40% from beyond the arc in the first half.

"I keep preaching to the guys that we have to be more consistent with our execution and following our game plan so we don’t have one of those letdown games where we don’t come out on top and look back and say to ourselves that we should have beat that team," said Mandozzi, adding he felt his team was not getting into their offensive set during the first half. "We have real-life examples of that and I remind them all the time about an earlier season loss to Somerset Silver Palms, which stings for all of us because we let a game slip away that we all know we absolutely should have won."

The second half was a different story as Coral Shores clamped down on defense, limiting the Falcons to 38% shooting in the third quarter and 36% in the fourth, while the Hurricanes countered shooting 55% from the field in the second half to regain the lead, by two, heading into the fourth quarter.

"We held them to 2-of-6 in 2-point field goals in the third quarter, they still hit three 3-pointers but they were mostly good shots that we made them earn, but overall we worked harder and smarter to get the shots we wanted."

Matt St. Aubin had 14 of his 19 points in the second half for Coral Shores, while Isaac Holmes poured in 17 of his game-high 27 in the final two quarters, along with Allen Perez knocking down a trio of 3-pointers in the second half as well as notching 11 of his 14 points.

A 31-point fourth quarter broke the game open for the 'Canes led by 11 from Holmes, who also had a double-double with 13 rebounds, three assists and two steals, seven from St. Aubin, who as well had a double-double with 10 rebounds, two steals and a block, and six from Perez, who went 4-for-5 from 3-point range in the game, as Coral Shores closed out the 14-point victory. Eddy Espinosa contributed eight points, three rebounds, and three assists.

"Palmer is a good team as they always are, but we weren’t disciplined enough in the first half it’s as simple as that," said Mandozzi. "I was heated at halftime, but I also told the guys again that I felt good that the answers were easy about how to fix it: play harder, smarter, better team defense, box out and rebound and execute our offensive game plan and we would walk out with a win. To the guys' credit, we did exactly that in the second half."

All four of the wins during the current Coral Shores win streak have come away from the friendly confines of their home gym in Tavernier; in fact, the Hurricanes have played 10 out of their last 11 games on the road, including the Orlando tournament during the winter break, but seven of the final contests this season will be played on the Upper Keys  campus. They will be away from home one more game, on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 5 p.m. against Mater Academy Bay before hosting MAST Academy a night later, which starts a string of three home games.

"We’re looking forward to getting back to some home games," said Mandozzi. "Even the one home game was the Gig Harbor game over break, where we were missing a few key guys. So it’ll be nice to get back and close with all but one home game before we head into districts."