The Italy Gladiators finished their district campaign tied for second place with rival Itasca. Both Italy and Itasca have qualified for the playoffs but will battle in a game on Friday to decide playoff seeding. The winner will enter the playoffs as the two seed and the loser goes in as a three seed.

The game is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. inside the Alvarado High School gymnasium.

Results from Italy’s Monday night game against Dallas Gateway:
Enjoy action shots from last night’s game between the Gladiators and the Dallas Gateway Gators. Italy led 11-5 early but quickly fell back, 17-11. Italy hung in there, however, and with 4:44 left in the second-period, Gateway was clutching to a 32-29 advantage. Gateway’s Gators finished the first-half strong and finally had a lead they were comfortable with, 51-36 at intermission.

Italy’s Trevon Robertson was a Gladiator on a mission in this one, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers in the opening frame on his way to a 14-point first-half of play. Also in the first-period, Cody Boyd opened with 3-points, Darol Mayberry with 2-points and Zain Byers put in a basket down low.

In the second period, point guard Kevin Johnson masterfully dribbled his way into the lane knock down 6-points and Mayberry stayed wide to drop in a 3-pointer from 45 degrees out. Bailey Walton got on the board after splitting a pair of free-throws and Byers hit 1-of-2 from the stripe to carry 3-points into the break. TaMarcus Sheppard was perfect from the line on two free-shots but the Gators were sitting on a 15-point lead.

Robertson continued with a bit of the flow he had established earlier in the contest and put in his third 3-pointer plus another bucket for an extra 5-points in the third. Walton was next with 4-points, Byers laid one basket to finish a fast break and Tyler Anderson split a pair of free-throws. The only real problem Italy was having was stopping Gateway who was scoring at will during the period to take a 70-48 cushion into the fourth.

Sheppard got hot in the final period by dropping in two 3-pointers and a separate basket worth 2-points. Robertson was nifty with 4-points from the field and a perfect 3-of-3 from the free-throw line. Byers scored four of his 9-points in the fourth but the night belonged to the Dallas Gateway Gators who became the 2014 district champions without a blemish on their accomplishment.

Despite Gateway’s 85-67 win, Robertson was impressive for Italy with 26-points while Sheppard finished with 10-points and Byers with 9-points. And, at least, Italy scooped up some momentum going into their playoff seeding game against Itasca.

Gladiator Game Roster/Scoring:

Let’s Go Gladiators!