Land O’ Lakes canned 13, three-point shots and had one of the hottest shooting nights on their way to a 74-56 win over Zephyrhills in boys’ basketball action Tuesday night.
After the Bulldogs took a 17-13 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to 13 points off the hot hands of freshman Kayin Shive, the Gators took over in the second quarter. It was raining threes as Land O’ Lakes dropped 24 points in the quarter with six, three pointers.
“They shot the lights out,” said Zephyrhills Coach Mike Novak of the Gator’ hot hands. “That is the best shooting I’ve seen ever. They had to be shooting 65 -70 percent from three. They were making contested shots.”
The Bulldogs trailed 37-30 at halftime, but the Gators stayed hot in the third quarter outscoring Zephyrhills 24-14 to stretch the lead to 61-44 at the end of the third quarter. The Gators protected the lead to leave Alan Reed Court with the win.
“We have a lot of young players,” Novak said. “We’ll see how they respond after a game like this. Either they’ll grow from this or they won’t. Our schedule is extremely tough after this.”
Shive led all scorers with 22 points and Tristan Lennon added 12.