Italy — Both the Italy JV Lady Gladiators and the JV Gladiators gave it their best shot against visiting Itasca this past Friday during the first two games of a four game card.

The JV Laides were without, Janae Robertson, who was bumped up to varsity but were hanging in there with the score tied 10-all early in the second period. Italy coach, Tina Richards, had the squad playing well, however, despite the best efforts of point guard, Alex Minton Felder, and power forward, Halee Turner, who both finished with 6-points, Itasca began to pull away.

In fact, each JV Lady Gladiator that suited up had scored before the game was done although, Oleshia Anderson, and teammate Vanessa Cantu, were mostly concerned with securing rebounds and playing defense. Ashlyn Jacinto helped with the guard duties and Lizzie Garcia seemed recommitted to putting up shots.

It was all good stuff but not enough to keep Itasca from delivering the first blow of the night with a 34-25 win.

JV Lady Gladiator Roster and Scoring:

JV Boys Action:
The Cardiac Kids, aka: the Italy JV Gladiators, dropped another close one, this time to Itasca’s JV Boys. Italy’s young squad has had several games decided by 6-points or less this season with Italy on the losing end each time. Friday night, they were close to getting over the hump when, David De La Hoya passed down to James Walton under the basket who banked in a one-hander to give Italy a 44-43 lead with 1:22 remaining.

With Italy’s Austin Crawford injured in the first-half with a dislocated knee, the JV Gladiators were up against it on the defensive end. Tristan Cotten did well making up for Crawford’s absence while Jorge Galvan played aggressive offensively to take some of the pressure off of Carson.

Itasca responded to tie the game 44-44 and then led 46-44. Walton split a pair of free-throws to pull Italy within 1-point, 46-45, with 0:48 remaining.

Italy, led by an 18-point night from point guard Eric Carson, who, combined with teammate Joshua Cryer, to put in seven 3-pointers, appeared to give Italy a 1-point lead when his 3/4 court heave after a whistle banked in. The whistle was called for a reaching foul on Carson so the basket was waived off to the dismay of Carson and Italy’s fans.

Itasca then added another free-throw to go up 48-45 with about 20-seconds remaining. Carson tried to tie the game with another three-ball but was unable to get a clean handle on the inbound pass with Itasca triple-teaming him. The buzzer sounded and Carson’s momentum carried him to the locker room with the Cats hanging on for the dramatic, 48-45, win.

Carson showed good sportsmanship by quickly returning to the court and congratulating Itasca on their accomplishment. Cryer totaled 11-points including three 3-pointers. Walton finished with 7-points, De La Hoya put in 6-points, and Kenneth Norwood, Jr., managed 3-points for coach Jon Cady.

JV Gladiator Roster and Scoring:

Go Italy!