LAND O'LAKES - Poncho Broner thinks this might be his year. The freshmen who helped the Pasco coach through his first year as a head coach are now seniors, and after three seasons without a winning record the Pirates are off to a 4-1 start, never more promising than in Tuesday's 62-40 rout of Land O'Lakes.
"I expect that every night," said Broner, whose team led by 31 entering the fourth quarter. "If we play like this, we're going to be tough."
The Pirates led by 15 at halftime and outscored the Gators 19-3 in the third quarter, establishing themselves as a challenger to Ridgewood and Wesley Chapel among the county's elite teams.
"So far everybody we've played we beat by 20 except for Wesley Chapel," said senior Johnny Peyton, who had a team-high 19 points and said his team wants to show a 91-70 loss to the Wildcats two weeks ago wasn't the real Pirates. "This basically is a statement that we slipped and just went into the game unprepared against Wesley Chapel. We want the conference to know ... this is the first time we scored under 70 points."
On a night when Land O'Lakes (2-2), which returns three starters from a 15-12 team last season, went 1-for-16 on 3-pointers, Pasco hit seven threes, including three each by Peyton and John Daniel.
"That might be the most we've had ... in a few years," Broner said.
Senior Drew Weatherford had 21 of the Gators' 40 points, with Caz Piurowski adding nine points and eight rebounds before fouling out with 1:33 to play. Seven of the 12 Gators are adjusting from a long football season, but coach Dave Puhalski said he is done using that as an excuse.
"That should be over by now," Puhalski said. "We went 16-of-59 from the floor, and you're not going to beat anybody with that percentage. A lot of that is offensive synchronicity, but we didn't defend well either and we didn't rebound."
Pasco opened the second half on an 18-2 run, getting points from six players.
