The No. 7 Johnston Panthers trounced the No. 10 Rogers Vikings 46-24 on Friday night during the Preliminary Round of the Division III Boys Basketball Tournament at Johnston High School.
Johnston junior forward Anthony Tavares led all scorers with 19 points while his teammates Cam Sabitoni, a junior, chipped in 11 points, and Tom Zednik, a sophomore, added eight.
Rogers’ top scorer was Mike Weaver, a sophomore forward, who finished with six points.
The blowout victory came just days after Johnston blew an 11-point second-half lead to Times 2 Academy during its final game of the regular season.
“I’m glad to see them play good team basketball,” Panthers head coach Dan Mazzulla said. “Quite the opposite of what happened the other night. It’s interesting how the world goes around. We actually played team basketball. We slowed things down, we didn’t rush anything, we took good shots, and we made good decisions. It was a good team effort, a good team victory.”
Johnston made sure this one didn’t get away.
“It was about making good decisions on the offensive side of the court and not taking bad shots,” Mazzulla said. “And not allowing the other team to go out on the floor and score easy baskets. I think that was the key.”
Tavares buried four 3-pointers in the first half, and then, Sabitoni drilled a pair, and that put the momentum on the Panthers side right out of the gate.
“Cam’s a shooter,” Mazzulla said. “It was a little unexpected from Anthony, but he can stick it. He’s got the green light, so if he’s open, he’s got to shoot it. So, I was happy to see him make those shots. They were good shots and fortunate enough, they went in the basket. So, we’re very happy for him.”
The Panthers jumped out to an early 5-0 lead on an opening 3-pointer from Tavares and a layup from senior guard Will Juarez.
Then with 8:23 remaining in the half, Johnston upped its lead to 15-4 when Juarez made a steal, and then a layup, which was followed by a turnaround jumper from Zednik and two treys from Tavares.
Next, Johnston seized a commanding 23-point lead with 42 seconds left in the frame when Tavares and Sabitoni made back-to-back 3-pointers and gave the Panthers a 29-6 edge.
Juarez began the second half with a shot from downtown, and then Zednik and Sabitoni added buckets, which extended Johnston’s lead to 36-8 with 13 minutes to play.
Then with 10:55 left, Johnston grabbed its largest lead of the contest when it went up 41-10 after a 3-pointer from Sabitoni.
The Panthers would coast from there.
On Monday night, Johnston traveled to No. 2 Mt. Hope for the Quarterfinal game where they fell by a final score of 52-34. Johnston‘s Cam Iasimone, a junior, led the Panthers with 12 points while the Huskies’ Jalen Kopecky was the game’s high-scorer with 24.
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