The Avon Park Red Devil boys’ varsity basketball team erased a 14-point first-quarter deficit and rolled to a 57-38 win over the Lake Placid Green Dragons Friday night, Dec. 13, in a game played there.

To its credit, the Lake Placid team played an outstanding first quarter, dominating the home team with a 22-8 performance in the initial eight minutes of play. Ramon Galaviz-Rinald opened the scoring with a three-point basket from the right side which caught all net as it settled through the cylinder. Kaetwon Lowe’s trey shortly thereafter gave Lake Placid an 8-0 lead. Lowe fired a pass upcourt to Marvin Sholtz who didn’t break stride as he raced to lay the ball into the basket. Scott Colley drove and put up a floating jumper to raise the score to 12-0 with 4:59 showing on the clock. Later in the period, Galaviz-Rinald looped in his second trifecta of the game, 17-4 Lake Placid with 2:00 left. Colley hit a ten-foot jumper, and a basket by Lowe completed the scoring by Lake Placid.

In the second quarter, however, Avon Park applied the “equalizer,” with a devastating whole-court press which severely limited what Lake Placid would be able to do the rest of the game. After scoring 22 first-quarter points, the Dragons were limited to 16 points the rest of the way, six in the second quarter, and five each in the final two periods.

Scott Colley led Lake Placid in scoring with a dozen points. Ramon Galaviz-Rinald added 10, including a twisting jumper from the top of the key in the fourth period which elicited cheers from the stands. Kaetwon Lowe contributed eight while Faleh Abuelouf, Marvin Sholtz, and Isaac Neverson scored two points apiece.

Avon Park got 11 points from Tyrone Perry and 10 from Dameon Braswell.