Italy’s JV Gladiators improved as game continued against the West JV Trojans
Ty Windham(12) tries to dunk it from the free-throw line as teammate Billy Moore(4) moves in for the rebound, just in case, during a JV matchup between Italy and West. (Barry Byers)
West — Head coach Larry Mayberry, Sr. and his Italy JV Gladiators put in the game’s first points when a steal by point guard John Escamilla setup a bounce pass to teammate Levi McBride for the left-handed layup, 2-0. West was undeterred and began scoring one basket after another dropping in tenty-one unanswered points. A scoring streak that continued well into the second-quarter. Italy’s Ty Windham ended West’s scoring run with a running one-handed jumper along the baseline to make the score 21-4 with 5:45 to play before halftime.
After West scored twice more, Escamilla put in the front end of a two-shot foul to decrease the deficit 25-5 with 1:16 still showing. Ryan Connor had a chance to chip away at the Trojan lead but his soaring fast break layup attempt wouldn’t fall and neither would free-throw attempts by McBride that also rimmed out.
Leading 28-5, West ended their monstrous first half performance with a buzzer beating aerial lay in after rebounding a miss from behind the arc and putting it up before landing. The effort gives the Trojans a 30-5 advantage going into halftime.
Playing on in the third, Italy found more of a rhythm and doubled their first-quarter scoring output. Unfortunately, the Trojans were still executing offensively as well to lead 43-10 after three quarters of play. Mason Womack split a pair of free-throws while Billy Moore and Cody Boyd each scored a basket for Italy.
With Jorge Galvan, Clayton Miller and Brandon Connor pitching in, Italy had their best offensive effort in the fourth-quarter adding 6-more points to their tally. Zain Byers put in two free-throws on separate trips to the charity stripe while Connor found the range as did Boyd who added another bucket to finish as Italy’s high scorer with 4-points in a 57-16 loss to the JV Trojans of West.
Expect Italy’s JV squad to have more success when they get their shooting touches down. Coach Mayberry has a knack for getting the most out of his team’s and Italy’s JV squad is loaded with enough talent to produce wins. The most important factor in Italy’s favor…they hate not winning.