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Sarasota Tops Durant In Tournament Opener

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By DAREK SHARP, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 13, 2008

PLANT CITY - Tumultuous at times, but filled with enough positives to generate major enthusiasm for next year.

That about sums up the season for the Durant High boys basketball team, one that came to an earlier-than-expected end last week. Durant was defeated 54-45 by Sarasota in the first round of the District 6A-8 tournament at Riverview.

"We were definitely a lot better this year than last year. Our 12-12 record was not a good indication of the kind of team we were," Cougars head coach Jeff Shotwell said.

Durant entered the district tournament on an up note, winning four games in a row before closing the regular season with a competitive loss to Brandon, one of the area's better teams. But Sarasota, despite a 7-12 record, played the Cougars evenly and used a 10-0 run in the second half to build enough of a cushion.

Only one of the top six Cougar scorers, Royce Rose, will be lost to graduation. Leading scorer A.J. Garden is set to return as is the guard tandem of brothers John and Jordan Mitchell.

"John really came on strong for us in the second half of the season and I see him having a huge senior year," Shotwell said. John Mitchell scored 23 points, including two pressure free throws, in a late-season win against Tampa Bay Tech. He also played well in the district tournament loss.

Shotwell said he was pleased with the growth of Dexter Barge, Denaldi Bradley and Jeffrey Thomas - all of whom return next year - and issued a "watch out for" alert for freshman Andre Nation.

"He will be outstanding for us as a sophomore," Shotwell said of Nation, who was moved up from the junior varsity after leading that team to a 14-5 record.

Plant City won its district tournament opener Feb. 5 and was scheduled to play Sarasota Riverview on Friday. If the Raiders won that game, they will begin play in the 6A regional playoffs Thursday.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampatrib .com.

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