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Armwood Surges By Newsome

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By NICK WILLIAMS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 16, 2008

LITHIA - The day of his team's Class 5A-District 8 boys basketball game against Newsome, Armwood coach Jeff Pafunda showed his players an article in Newsome's school newspaper that said the Wolves were looking for redemption. Armwood had won the earlier meeting, 54-34.

The article gave the Hawks the extra motivation they needed to match Newsome's intensity Tuesday, winning 72-64 to move into a tie for second place in the district standings.

In a game that included 14 ties and nine lead changes, junior Rashad Davis gave Armwood a 63-60 lead with two minutes remaining after making his fifth 3-pointer of the night. At 1:18, Cornelius Fowler scored to make it 65-60. Newsome was forced to foul and couldn't score on the other end as Armwood closed out the game at the free-throw line.

Senior guard Jared Paul led the Hawks (10-6) with 21 points, including shooting 10-for-10 from the line along with three 3-pointers. Davis scored all of his 17 points, including five 3-pointers, in the second half. Senior point guard Adam Sollazzo added 16 points, five rebounds and five assists for Armwood. Paul and Sollazzo combined for 20 of their team's 29 first half points.

Junior forward Joe Raga led Newsome (12-4) with 25 points, nine rebounds, four blocks and two assists. Senior forward Dylan Fugate added 15 points and sophomore Samal Shepherd finished with 12 points, six rebounds and two assists.

The Armwood players said they expected a close game.

"We've had about five or six games like that this year," Paul said.

"I think we missed a lot of easy shots in the first half," Sollazzo said. "Maybe Raga 6-foot-6 and Fugate 6-5 intimidated us."
Armwood finished with nine 3-pointers, six in the second half.

"Their 3-pointers killed us," Newsome coach Jon Mackey said. "It's hard to catch up when they make those.

"Plus, we just didn't play consistently at every position."

Pafunda said he's content with his team being in second place, but said it doesn't mean anything in such a tough district.

"You can be the No. 2 seed and lose to No. 8 in this district," he said.

Ridgewood Secures No. 1 Seed By Beating Wesley Chapel

PORT RICHEY - This was supposed to be one of Ridgewood's tougher games down the stretch against an opponent that threatened to make the Rams' run at the district title more difficult.

But in true Ridgewood fashion, the Rams made sure not to just sneak by when something so important was on the line.

On Tuesday night, the Rams (15-3) locked up the No. 1 seed in the Class 5A-District 7 tournament with an 83-46 win against Wesley Chapel (15-4).

"I would have taken one or two points margin of victory, to be honest with you, because the importance of the ballgame is that that solidified the No. 1 seed in the district tournament," said Ridgewood coach Gary Anders, who earned career win No. 499. "That was the whole point of emphasis, but then for the kids to blow the game open, that was huge because that was a team that just knocked Land O' Lakes off the other night and they were playing really well. You like to see your kids playing well against good teams this time of year."

The game was tight for about the first 1 1/2 quarters before Ridgewood pulled away, thanks to some masterful assists from Mike Lawrence to just about every Ram on the floor. Lawrence finished with 13 assists. Lukas Poderis led the Rams with 25 points, and Byronell Arline had 13 rebounds.

"We started to play defense, pushing the ball more, being more aggressive," Poderis said.

Ridgewood had a 17-point lead at the half. Wesley Chapel kept trying to make things happen to start the third quarter, but shots weren't falling.

"They just came out strong trying to get back in the game, and they did pretty good, but we got control of the game again," Lawrence said.

Cristina Ledra

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