Avon hands Whalers second loss
Home game tomorrow against Cape Cod Academy
BY STEVE SHEPPARD
After witnessing last Wednesday's boys' varsity basketball game, it was no surprise that both Nantucket losses to date have come at the hands of Avon.

Like most Whalers in the second half, Kevin Stanton (#41) found himself surrounded by Avon players.

The scrappy team from the smallest (land-wise) town in the state demonstrated to the island crowd why its basketball tradition is well known in eastern Mass., as it kept coming and coming and coming, and unrelentingly outlasted the Whalers, 81-63.

Led by scoring machine Kevin Miranda, most of whose 22 points came in the second half, Avon scored 11 straight points to open the second half, and went on a 27-3 run to effectively put away a game that had been tied at 37 at halftime.

"They just outhustled us," said coach Beau Almodobar afterwards. "They scored on every turnover we had - at least it seemed like it."

In the early going Nantucket looked like a team that had reeled off five straight wins, building up leads of 20-14 and 23-16 before Avon started chipping away. The Whalers matched Avon's aggressive, uptempo style of play, but fouls began to haunt them, leading to the departure of Delroy Lawrence with seven minutes to go in the game.

Despite trailing by as many as 25 points, Nantucket hung in and chipped away, but the Avon lead was just too much to overcome.

With a week off before tomorrow's home game against Cape Cod Academy, the Whalers can benefit from the lessons learned against Avon. "Every game's a learning experience for us," Almodobar noted. "They're probably one of the best teams in the state." Avon's only loss, as a matter of fact, came at the hands of Division 1 Dartmouth. Its scoring leader, Miranda, entered the season with 1,650 points scored in his high school career.

Sandwiched between the season-opening loss to Avon, and last Wednesday's rematch were five Whaler victories. The team now looks ahead to the meat of its schedule, with no more matchups with Avon this year.

"I'd like to play a team of this caliber every night," said Almodobar. "And I'll take 5-2 any day."

JV NEWS

Like its varsity counterparts, the boys' junior varsity basketball team also lost to Avon, falling 35-47 last Wednesday. High scorers for Nantucket were Jamie Reed with 14 points and Jamie Viera with 9 points.

On Saturday, both the junior varsity and freshman squads traveled to South Shore Tech, where the JVs lost 58-40 and the freshmen fell by a 57-39 score. High scorers for the JVs were Duran Spence with 11 points, Chris Welch with 10 points and Troy Sullivan with 9. Jamie Viera led all freshmen scorers with 18 points, while Dave Loveberry and Brandon McGarvey each had 8 points.

The JVs are now 1-3 and the freshmen are 0-1. A JV game is scheduled for this Saturday at home against Sturgis Charter School.

"We're going to be all right," said coach

Dennis Caron. I