TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Raiders' Leading Scorer Injured

ADVERTISEMENT

By DAREK SHARP, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 23, 2008

PLANT CITY - It could have been worse. The injury to Plant City High leading scorer Channing Woodall could have happened directly before the district tournament.

Still, having Woodall on the court this week would have been nice. The boys basketball team is finishing up regular-season district play against the other teams in the top half of District 6A-8.

"What are you gonna do?" head coach Dale Chambers said. "Guys have stepped up this year, so they'll have to for Channing. We should be fine."

Woodall was averaging 16.5 points per game before suffering an ankle injury Jan. 15 in a 46-24 victory at Riverview.

Junior Dave O'Callaghan and freshman Chris Smith will spend more time on the court this week. The Raiders were scheduled to face first-place Lakeland on Tuesday and to host Sarasota Riverview today in a game that could decide which team winds up with the second seed for the 6A-8 tourney.

Sarasota comes to the Raiders' gym Friday to conclude the district schedule.

Chambers thinks Woodall will be out for at least another week. When Woodall was hurt, the Raiders had an 18-5 first quarter and held the Sharks to two points in the third.

But those were not Plant City's most impressive quarters of the week. Against East Bay, the Raiders outscored the Indians 22-0 in the second period and Plant City won 60-40.

"The thing was, I didn't realize we shut them out until we got into the locker room," Chambers said. "We were only up by two points the first quarter, and I wasn't pleased. I expressed during the timeout that we were playing down to the level of our opponent, and the guys responded very well."

Plant City had a 9-6 record after the East Bay game, with a 7-2 district mark.

Rod Henderson is the only Raiders player who has shown to be a legitimate outside shooting threat. Inside threats Steve Hardnett and Denzel Drone likely will have to increase their scoring production while Woodall is out.

But Chambers does not sound too concerned.

"Our team chemistry is always something I've stressed, and these guys get along very well," he said.

Though heading into the district tournament with the No. 2 seed would be great, that's not the top concern for Chambers.

"We're just trying to play better than we did the first half of the season," he said. "We're still a little bit inconsistent shooting the ball. We're getting good looks at the basket but not always hitting then. We can score, we're just not doing it well every time out."

The district tournament starts the first full week in February.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampatrib .com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT