McDaniel: 'We're real close'

Palm Coast Observer
Sports

PALM COAST — Tuesday night was a bit of déjà vu for the Flagler Palm Coast boys basketball team.

Just a night after losing by two points on a last-second shot to DeLand, the Bulldogs found themselves down by one point with a chance to win the game.

FPC couldn’t find the basketball one last time, though, and lost to Mainland, 50-49.

“I made the schedule as difficult as I could, and we’ve been in a lot of tough games,” coach Gary McDaniel said after the game. “We’re close, we’re real close to being special. We just have to keep believing and figure out what is that last inch of the mountain that we have to climb. And we ran into that today again.”

FPC (10-12) led into the fourth quarter but couldn’t close the game out for a second straight night.

Nysean Giddens led the Bulldogs with 13 points. DJ James and Eric Felder both added 10.

“Our bench is thin, particularly our big guys,” McDaniel said. “We have to figure out how to get more production from our bench so we can rest (the big guys) a little bit and mistakes don’t happen.”

FPC will be the No. 2 seed in next week’s District 1-8A tournament, which will be played at Sandalwood. The Bulldogs will play First Coast in the semifinals. A win, and FPC will advance to the district championship and secure a state playoff berth.

“That mountain is high, too,” McDaniel said.

FPC and First Coast split the regular season seires.

The Bulldogs close out the season 7:30 p.m. Friday at home against Matanzas. It will be FPC’s Senior Night.