Italy — In a high-stakes game that pitted district rivals Italy and Itasca against one another within the round confines of Italy Coliseum, it was the Gladiators who took control of the game early.

Led by 13-points in the first-half from TaMarcus Sheppard, who was obviously fired up to be playing against his former school, the Italy senior dropped in 3 triples in the first-quarter alone. Freshman Kevin Johnson made some noise in the first-half as well with 2 three-point daggers and 10-points.

View varsity action of both the boys and girls district match-ups against Itasca below:

Also in the first-half, center Zain Byers put in 6-points and took control of the boards while Trevon Robertson attacked with 5-points. Kevin Roldan was perfect from the line with two free-throws as was Tyler Anderson. Cody Boyd added a bucket inside to help establish a 40-26 lead for the Gladiators by halftime.

Halftime:
At halftime, fans had fun participating in the Tortilla Toss which was a fundraiser for the Lady Gladiator Softball team. Italy High School and team alumni, Megann Lewis Harlow, relied on her fast-pitch skills to landed her tortilla closest to the target to win $20.00! Congratulations to, Megann, and thanks everyone for supporting the Lady Gladiators!

As the game progressed, Italy maintained their lead with Roldan scoring inside and Byers scoring 4 more. With Robertson sitting the third period out with foul trouble, Sheppard tripled for the fourth time and added a layup to score 5 in the frame. Italy remained in front by two touchdowns, 51-37, to close out the third.

In the fourth period, Robertson continued to attack the basket and scored 4 more points and had been a weapon for Italy’s defense throughout. Unfortunately, the talented senior was forced to take an early exit after fouling out which sparked a comeback effort by the Wampus Cats.

With the game reaching a new intensity and the dome filling with electricity, the Gladiators endured 3 flagrant foul calls charged to Itasca and made 7-out of-16 foul shot attempts in the closing minutes to stave off the relentless Cats.

As well as scoring a basket, Sheppard went 3-out of-6 from the line, Bailey Walton willed in 3-out of-7, and Byers scored inside and then converted the and-1. Johnson also scored a basket in the fourth to help seal the district win for the Gladiators, 68-59.

Sheppard finished the night with 23-points, his best scoring game this season, and Byers finished with 13-points, 10 steals, and a staggering 25 rebounds for his first career triple-double! Johnson scored his season high of 12-points and Boyd accumulated 11 rebounds.

Capping off the four-game night of basketball was the announcement of grill raffle winner Christie Carter Enriquez! Eric Enriquez, Christie’s husband, commented, “I was just thinking the other day how my five-year old grill was beginning to fall apart and that it might be time to get a new one.” When asked how many tickets he purchased, Mr. Enriquez concluded about $10.00 worth. Christie is also an Italy HS alumni and former member of the Lady Gladiator Softball team.

Gladiator Roster And Scoring Totals:

Special thanks to clock keeper, Johnny Jones; book keeper, Misty Escamilla; statistician, John Escamilla; and assistant cameraman, Josh Droll.

Go Italy!