Defense and Jutras Lead Venice Over Charlotte in Season Opener
December 9, 2008
By Aaron Seybert
SWFLHoops.com
Charlotte @ Venice
VENICE -- When the Venice Indians and head coach Steve Cavallaro sat down to put together their boy's basketball schedule for the 2008-09 season they knew there would be a good chance the football team would be very successful this year. And seeing as three of Cavallaro's projected starters are key players on the gridiron, inlcluding junior quarterback and University of Florida signee Trey Burton, they decided to hold off on scheduling any games prior to the start of district play so that there opening basketball game would not be until the week following the Class 5A Region 3 Championship game. It worked out almost as planned, as Burton and the boys' lost a tough one to Charlotte in the Region semifinal.
That set up a season opener that would be a rematch of the 2008 5A-12 basketball district championship against the visiting Charlotte Tarpons. So with Trey, Justin Grant, and Clay Burton all back and ready for action the Indians took the court with less than one week of basketball practice as a full team under their belts. Well, their man to man team defense did not miss a beat as they held the Tarpons scoreless in the first quarter and were ahead 13-0 after eight minutes, in rout to a 48-43 win despite being outscored in the second half 34-23.
The Indians half court man to man defense looked in February form out the gates as they made it tough for any Tarpon to catch the ball let alone drive it into the gaps, and when they did their was help waiting as Venice took two charges in the first period.
“We always tell them, all the years I’ve been doing this, defense is gonna come first,” said Cavallaro. “We didn’t know it would come all the much that quick. But that was a nice surprise. The kids deserve it. You watched them play. They were working their tails off.”
On offense, Venice looked to run their offense as usual which led to balanced scoring with senior point guard Kyle Jutras, who finished with a game-high 17 points, leading the way with 4 in the first period.
In the second, Charlotte (2-3; 1-2 in 5A-12) managed to get on the board early but not often. Sophomore forward Alex Mut knocked down the first Tarpon bucket with a three pointer from the wing just under a minute into the quarter. However, despite the attempt by the Tarpons to apply more pressure in hopes of speeding up the tempo of the game, they were only able to manage nine points going into the half, and trailed 25-9. Venice (1-0; 1-0 in 5A-12) continued to spread the wealth within their offense as seven Indians had found their way into the scoring column, led at the break by Stefano Cavallaro with 5. Sophomore guard DJ Scott led the Tarpons at the half with 4 points. However, Charlotte's leading scorer, junior forward Nick Goshay, was held scoreless thus far.
At the half, there is no doubt that Tarpon head man Tom Massolio had to do something to get his offense going in the right direction.
So to start the third quarter the Tarpon's continued to apply different types of pressure in the half court as well as pick up the pressure in the full court, and this time around the results were a little more satisfying. They were able to speed up the tempo of the game enough and put together a 11-3 run over the course of the first five minutes of the 3rd quarter cutting the lead to 28-21 with just under 3 minutes left. The teams each scored eight more apiece to finish the quarter and head into the fourth with the score at 36-29. The Tarpons outscored the Indians 20-11 in the third, led by junior guard Thaddeus Legree with 5, including a big three to give his team some much needed energy. Mut, Goshay, and junior Jonathan Ocasio each netted four apiece in the period. Goshay got his first bucket of the game in the last second of the third. Jutras had 8 of his team's 11 points in the quarter, including 6 for 6 from the foul line.
In the fourth, with the score sitting at 37-29, Goshay knocked down a three cutting the lead to 37-32 with 6:24 left in the game. Then with just 4:45 left and the score holding steady at 37-32 in favor of Venice, Goshay went to the foul line with a chance to cut the lead to three, however he missed both attempts. Then with 4:08 left, and the score still the same, Ocasio went to the foul line for his own chance to cut into the lead. He proceeded to miss both as well. Venice's Jutras then took the ball up the court, made a tough deuce in traffic and was fouled in the process. He made his, increasing the lead to 40-32 with 3:39 remaining. Venice got the lead back up to ten at 46-36 with 1:16 left. However, Charlotte was able to put together a quick 7-1 run keyed by a three from Ocasio, and cut the lead to 47-43 on two free throws by Goshay with 18 seconds left. But the Indians protected the ball and sophomore Clay Burton, younger brother of Trey, hit one more free throw with 7.9 seconds remaining to seal the win.
For Venice, Jutras led the way with 17 including 9 of 11 from the foul line. Trey Burton chipped in with 7 and 7 rebounds, and Anthony Hackett had 7 rebounds to go along with his 4 points. The Indians return to action this Thursday on the road versus Lakewood Ranch at 7:30 pm. Lakewood Ranch lost Tuesday night to Bradenton Southeast 67-73 at home.
For Charlotte, Goshay managed to put the scoreless first half behind him and led the Tarpons with 11 points to go along with a game-high 10 rebounds. Alex Mut managed 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals in his first game of the season after returning from the football team. Jonathan Ocasio netted 9 points, all coming in the second half, to go along with 4 rebounds. The Tarpons do not play again till next week, when they will host Lakewood Ranch on Wednesday at 7:30 pm.
CHARLOTTE (43)
Thaddeus Legree 2 0-0 5, Ed Cherry 0 0-0 0, Joey DeGaeta 1 0-0 2, Marc Pericles 1 0-1 2, Adam Moore 0 0-0 0, Nick Stephenson 0 0-0 0, DJ Scott 2 0-0 4, Alex Mut 4 1-1 10, Nick Goshay 3 4-6 11, Justin Gomez 0 0-0 0, Jonathan Ocasio 3 2-4 9. Totals 16 7-12 43.
VENICE (48)
Kyle Jutras 4 9-11 17, Clay Burton 1 3-6 5, Stefano Cavallaro 1 4-5 6, Trey Burton 2 3-5 7, Anthony Hackett 2 0-0 4, Justin Grant 2 1-4 5, Riley Revels 1 2-3 4, Matt Tellor 0 0-0 0, Zach Flerlage 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 22-34 48.
Charlotte 0 9 20 14 - 43
Venice 13 12 11 12 - 48
3-point goals - (CHS) Legree, Mut, Goshay, Ocasio. (VHS) none
Rebounds - Charlotte 30, Venice 29
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