Crusaders can't catch up to Florida Air Academy

There's a recognizable pattern when looking at the history of the Melbourne-based Florida Air Academy basketball team: The school has won a state championship every odd year this decade (2001, '03 and '05).

By BRYAN BURNS
Published December 14, 2006

TAMPA - There's a recognizable pattern when looking at the history of the Melbourne-based Florida Air Academy basketball team: The school has won a state championship every odd year this decade (2001, '03 and '05).

If the Falcons can sustain playing the way they did against Tampa Catholic on Tuesday, there's a good chance that trend will continue.

Florida Air (8-0) raced to a 13-2 lead before both teams even had a chance to break a sweat. Despite a brief spot of trouble early in the second half, Florida Air maintained control throughout the game to earn a 74-53 victory over the Crusaders (5-1).

"One of the reasons we schedule games like this is we want to see where we're at," Tampa Catholic coach Don Dziagwa said. "Obviously, we found out we've got a lot of work to do. They were the team that traveled three hours to get over here, and you would have thought it was us that was traveling."

After the rough start, Tampa Catholic, one of the best shooting teams in the county, struggled to get back into the game. The Crusaders shot finished just 9-of-38 (19 percent) from 3-point range and 21-of-59 (26 percent) overall.

"We're not going to win a lot of games shooting 9-for-38 from 3-point range," Dziagwa said.

The Crusaders did manage to cut the Falcons' lead to eight early in the second half after trailing by 15 (33-18) at the break. However, Florida Air went on a 19-5 run that put them up 54-33 and ended any doubt about the outcome.

Arizona State-bound senior Richard Kuksiks was unstoppable for Florida Air, scoring 26 points and grabbing eight rebounds. Tampa Catholic's E.J. Ciaccio scored 21 points, 13 of those coming in the fourth quarter, to lead the Crusaders.