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Ridgewood Off To Hot Start

Rams 64, Mustangs 18

Eric Horchy/SUNCOAST NEWS

Ridgewood High's Lukas Poderis wins the opening tip from Mitchell's Billy Hester.

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: November 20, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - NEW PORT RICHEY - It took Ridgewood High all of three and a half minutes to return to 2006-07 form during their 64-18 drumming of visiting Mitchell High School.

Monday stood as the regular season opener for the two programs traveling completely different paths this year.

Ridgewood – coming off a successful 25-4 campaign – is poised to take advantage of four returning starters and drive deep into the Class 5A state playoffs.

The Mustangs on the other hand are a young squad that labored through a 6-20 season in 2006-07 and look to be building for the future.

Led by 6-foot-6-inch forward Derrick Zio's 11 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks, the Rams took full control of the game midway through the first quarter and never looked back.

Mitchell attempted to slow down the pace and set up their half-court offense late in first half, but most attempts were stymied by the aggressive Ridgewood defense. When the Rams grabbed possession, they would quickly transition to an athletic, run-and-gun offensive attack that the Mustangs were unable to stop.

The unrelenting Rams defense forced 20 Mitchell turnovers, many that were immediately pushed straight back the other way for Ridgewood scores. None were put home more emphatically than one of Zio's first quarter steals and finishes.

Streaking from half court, he skied from the lane for a two-handed rim-rocking dunk that nearly brought the hoop down. Zio was subsequently whistled for a technical foul for hanging on the rim – though many in the home bleachers emphatically disagreed.

"The kids played together, they played hard, and we played good defense obviously," Ridgewood head coach Gary Anders said following the win. "It was a good way to start it out. Hopefully we can continue."

Leading all scorers for the game was Ridgewood guard Alvin Satram with 12 points. He was followed by Zio's 11 and highly regarded big man Lukas Poderis, with 10.

Poderis had a game-high 8 rebounds as well.

Mustang guard Patrick Schuster was his team's top scorer with 6 points.

Much of the second half was completed with a running clock when Ridgewood quickly turned a 15-point halftime advantage into a 53-16 rout by the time the third quarter buzzer sounded.

Zio dominated all over the court. He grabbed boards, finished the misses of fellow teammates, created his own shots, and locked down on defense – basically everything Anders could ask for.

"He's a warrior," the head coach said of Zio. "He does all the little things that you want guys to do.

He's a senior and he's always been one of the hardest workers we've got. We're just hoping all of his hard work pays off for him this year."

Other Notable Statistics:

• Ridgewood star point guard and last season's 2006-07 Sunshine Athletic Conference Player of the Year, Mike Lawrence, was recognized before the start of the game for scoring his 1,000th career point late last season.
• Coach Anders was able to get playing time for his entire roster – something he hopes will pay dividends as the season progresses.

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