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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 27, 2002
TAMPA -- No, Florida Air Academy is not the same team that went 31-0 and bulldozed its way to last year's state title.
But this year's Falcons aren't anything to squawk at. They're tall -- three players are taller than 6-foot-7 -- quick, deep, and well on their way to challenging for a second consecutive state crown.
On Tuesday, Florida Air dismantled Tampa Prep, winning 70-40.
And they did it largely on the strength of 6-foot-8 Lithuanian exchange students, Aurimas Kieza and Titas Vainauskas, who scored 21 and 15 points, respectively.
"Wow, those guys were tough" Tampa Prep coach Joe Fenlon said. "We felt like we were prepared, but it's kind of hard to prepare for two 6-8 kids when you're doing it with 6-foot and 5-11 kids in practice.
"When you have two 6-8 kids who can play like that, you can cover a lot of area in a zone, and open up a lot of things on offense."
The Terrapins hung with Florida Air in the opening minutes, trailing 14-11, and early in the second quarter, cutting the gap to 22-18. But Florida Air followed Tampa Prep's second-quarter run with a 12-2 run of its own.
From that point, the Terrapins never cut the margin to less than eight and trailed for most of the fourth quarter by more than 20 points.
"When you get down like that, it puts so much pressure on every shot you take," Fenlon said. "You get tense.
"Meantime, (Florida Air) shot the ball very well (72 percent from the field in the first half), and they never really gave us many opportunities to get back in it."
Florida Air, 22-3 and ranked No. 3, moves on to play Lake Highland Prep (20-10) in the regional the fourth game between the two. In the last meeting, the District 10 final, Lake Highland pulled off the upset by 10 points.
"Lake Highland changed its game plan for that game and it worked against us," Florida Air coach Aubin Goporo said. "They were ready to play and we were not. But this time we will make some adjustments and be ready for them.
"I thought we didn't play our best defense tonight, but hopefully we will be at our best for the next game."
Tampa Prep senior point guard Alleo Frazier would tell you to bank on Florida Air winning.
"Their big men are really, really tough," Frazier said. "They also had big guards at 6-1 and 6-2 and then they would come off the bench with more big men."
Florida Air's second man off the bench was 6-10 sophomore Sasha Kaun.