Silvestri: Sharks' silver lining

LAND O' LAKES - Even though Joe Silvestri led the Nature Coast Technical Sharks Tuesday night with a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds, it was his play midway through the fourth quarter that helped the Sharks to their 4A-8 42-33 win over Sunlake.

The 3-4 Sharks led by as many as 16 points in the third quarter before the Seahawks cut into that lead, trailing by just four points at 33-29 with less than six minutes left in the game.

That was as close as the 1-6 Seahawks got as Silvestri had a hand in the next seven points across a two-minute spurt that stretched the lead to 11 points and put the contest out of reach.

"Silvestri is our guy. When he goes, we go," said first-year Head Coach Dave Pisarcik as NCT improved its district record to 3-3. "He hit some big shots tonight and he doesn't, we're in trouble. It would have been a lot harder winning."

Man-to-man defense

Nature Coast came out in a man-to-man defense against the motion offense run by Sunlake in the first half. And while the Seahawks managed to get some lay-ups in the half, the Sharks played defense so well that Sunlake only put up 12 shots in the first half.

NCT led 17-8 after one quarter and 27-15 at the half before Silvestri opened the third period with a driving lay-up and Reshad Terry put back a missed shot to make it 31-15 after two minutes of the quarter.

However, the Seahawks suddenly got hot, scoring 14 of the game's next 16 points to make it 33-29 with less than six minutes left in the final quarter.

That's when Silvestri got hot and took over the game.

The 6-foot-3 senior, who is averaging over 16 points a game this year, started the run by making a lay-up off a pass from Bryant Pent. Silvestri then drove the lane and scored again before assisting on a three-point basket by P. J. Orgass from the left corner that made it 40-29 with 4:20 left in the game.

"We played good defense in the first half," said Pisarcik, whose team held Sunlake to just 12 field goal attempts in the half. "We had a couple of breakdowns and we changed defenses in the second half to get them out of their offense by trapping them more and we got a run out of it."

Besides the 20 points from Silvestri, the Sharks received nine points off the bench from Orgass and seven points from Michael Fields.

Sunlake was led by Michael Cardwell with nine and Devin Williams with eight as the Sharks also out-rebounded Sunlake, 31-12.

According to Pisarcik, his team is now finally starting to round into form.

"We're a long way from where we want to be. We've got football guys joining the team and we've had some injuries and some disciplinary problems," explained Pisarcik. "But I think we'll end up being someone to worry about by the time the districts happen."