'Dawgs collect ninth win, 66-55

NEW PORT RICHEY - In a prep basketball game, for a team to win it generally has to play well for the entire 32 minutes.
Unfortunately for the Central Bears Thursday afternoon in their game against Zephyrhills in the 19th annual Ram Classic at Ridgewood High, the Bears just played well for about 10 minutes, losing to the Bulldogs, 66-55.
Despite 32 points and eight rebounds from junior guard Darryn Frazier, Central fell too far behind early in the game to end up winning.
The loss dropped the Bears record to 4-12 and had second-year Head Coach Eric Hayes scratching his head. "I think we took a step back from where we were last week. We had no energy, no intensity at all. Darryn Frazier had a good game, but we didn't play that well as a team."
With the 12-team tournament using a shootout format, the Bears played just one game in the tournament.
The problem for Central happened in the opening three quarters as the Bears were outscored in each of them by Zephyrhills, who stood 9-3 on the year.
Led by 16 points from Joey Lyman and 11 from David Henghold, the Bulldogs outscored Central 17-10 in the first quarter and steadily kept increasing their lead.
At the half, the Bulldogs led 32-19 and were in front 52-31 after three quarters before Hayes started employing a full-court press that helped the Bears make the score respectable.
Frazier was the key to the comeback as he hit on 7-of-10 shots from the floor in the second half, scoring 20 of his 32 points in the final 16 minutes of the game.
Besides Lyman and Henghold, Scott Patria scored 12 points for Z'hills while Jessy Fulton helped Central with seven points along with six points from Joe Lula.
But in the end, Coach Hayes was not happy with his team's effort Thursday.
"We didn't take care of the basketball at all," lamented Hayes. "We turned the ball over too many times and gave them too many second and third shots. And that hurts because if you give a team 40 possessions in a game and you only get 20, they can shoot 50 percent from the field and beat you.
"The way we played Saturday (in a 46-43 win over Orlando Boone), wasn't indicative of the way we played today," explained Hayes. "Hopefully, we got this out of our system and will play better Friday against Springstead."

Zephyrhills 66, Central 55
CEN 10 9 12 24 -- 55
ZHS 17 15 20 14 -- 66
Central (55) Frazier 11 9-10 32, Sheffield 1 0-0 2, G. Rodriguez 2 0-0 5, J. Lula 1 0-0 2, Fulton 3 1-2 7, Loreston 0 1-2 1, Caramanica 0 0-1 0, M. Lula 3 0-2 6. Totals - 21 11-17 55.
Zephyrhills (66) Farrell 3 0-0 8, Guy 2 2-2 6, Patria 5 2-2 12, Perkins 4 0-2 8, Robinson 1 0-0 2, Bunyan 1 1-2 3, Henghold 3 3-4 11, Lyman 6 4-6 16. Totals - 25 12-18 66.
3-point field goals - Frazier, G. Rodriguez (CEN); Farrell 2, Henghold 2 (ZH).
Team fouls - CEN 16; ZHS 16.
Fouled out - J. Lula (CEN).
Technical fouls - none.
Records - Central (4-12), Zephyrhills (9-3).