AUBURNDALE - Vero Beach's athleticism and its own cold shooting was too much for Jesuit to overcome.
Jesuit managed just 12 points during the second half as Vero Beach ran away with a 61-38 victory Thursday in the first round of the Auburndale Rotary/T-Mac Christmas Classic at Auburndale High.
Josh Thompson led the Indians with 15 points, and Ray Cummings added 13.
Mike Gutowski and Tyler Sterns led Jesuit (3-4) with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Jesuit recovered from a slow start to make it a 31-26 game at halftime. But Vero Beach was not challenged during the second half. The Indians pulled away by outscoring the Tigers 22-6 in the third quarter.
"It was cold shooting," Jesuit coach Neil Goldman said. "Vero Beach is good defensively and athletic. If it was that we weren't executing, it would be something we could work on.
"But that wasn't the case. We were taking good shots. It was a bad time to go stone cold."
Sterns accounted for all six points in the quarter.
After Patrick Smidebush scored four points for Vero Beach to start the second half, Sterns scored to make it a seven-point game. The Indians responded with a 12-0 run that all but put the game away.
Vero Beach led by 20 points after the third quarter and outscored Jesuit 9-6 in the fourth.
The game began with all of the makings of a rout. Thompson scored Vero Beach's first 12 points to put it up 12-2.
It was 17-2 before Jesuit got in gear.
With Gutowski scoring eight points, Jesuit ended the quarter with an 11-5 run to make it a nine-point game.
Jesuit then cut Vero Beach's lead in half in the second quarter to get back in the game by halftime.
"We're going to use this tournament to try to get it together," said Goldman, who has just one starter returning from last season's region finalist team.
In other first-round games, Haines City beat South Broward 69-61, East Gadsden beat Auburndale 66-57 and Miami Jackson defeated Pasco 80-61.
