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Poderis, Ridgewood Playing Their Best

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By CRISTINA LEDRA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 3, 2008

PORT RICHEY - At 6-foot-8, Lukas Poderis has been a player every opponent had to be aware of, and he has had some dominant games. But after last week's Tampa Hoops Classic, Poderis seems to be close to playing his best.

His performances for four games in four consecutive days, in the first-year tournament in which Ridgewood finished sixth out of a pool of 16, were some of the many things the Rams had to be happy about.

Poderis, a junior, was named to the all-tournament team.

Today, Ridgewood winds down its busy holiday schedule by hosting the Hulton Ram Shootout. Ridgewood plays Freedom at 7 p.m. today and against Miami Archbishop Carroll at 6 p.m. on Friday.

"I'm pretty happy," Ridgewood coach Gary Anders said. "I saw some good things. I thought we raised our play up a level in a lot of situations, and I thought that Lukas, knock on wood, I think I see maybe a breakthrough. He's on my mind a lot because I feel he's got so much potential."

Poderis had four strong games as the Rams went 2-2 in the tournament. He played with a lot more versatility and was dominant on the boards. Saturday, pitted against Eloy Vargas of American Heritage, rated one of the top 10 seniors in the country, Poderis had 20 points and 10 rebounds.

"He did a lot of things down there that hopefully opened a lot of eyes, including his," Anders said. "I don't know if it was the Gainesville game or Cincinnati, but he got the ball in the high post one time, faked and went in to the basket."
Stiff competition seemed to have brought out the best in the Rams as they played their best ball all season.

They had an unexplainable flat, unenthusiastic win against Whitefield Academy from Georgia in the first game, and after some peppering from Anders, the players perked up.

"I've been getting stronger, playing stronger and scoring more," Poderis said. "After that Whitefield game we were more aggressive, there was more talking. And it was more fun."

It wasn't just Poderis who had a strong tournament. The team as a whole made a lot of improvements.

"Toughness, that's what we were lacking," said point guard Mike Lawrence, who has been playing with a broken hand since Thanksgiving but says it is about 90 percent healed. "We wanted to show ourselves, and I think we did a pretty good job of that."

Ridgewood had good efforts from its starting five and got some strength from its bench too, which was a comfort for a team that admits it has some depth issues.

"I thought the whole team stepped up," Anders said. "Bryan Jones came to me before the American Heritage game and told me he wanted to guard Kenny Boynton, and it's just that attitude that they didn't back down, they wanted it."

Wednesday was the first day the Rams practiced since Saturday's loss to American Heritage. Anders wanted to give them a break before jumping back into their schedule.

"I thought we got a lot out of the last two weeks," Anders said. "And it's just a matter of whether we can sustain that."

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