Aviano's Ily Zamora shoots the ball while defended by Marymount's Zoya Ziskin n the Saints' 44-4 victory over the Royals on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026 in Aviano, Italy. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy – The Marymount Royals ended the Aviano Saints’ season last year during a Cinderella-like run to the final game of the DODEA-Europe Division II boys basketball championships.
This season, it’s looking like it might take an even more fairy tale ending for the Saints to reach those semifinals again.
Marymount routed Aviano 53-22 on Friday night. It was the Royals’ first game of the season. The Saints dropped to 0-5.
Aviano’s girls had opened the night by improving to 3-2 with an even more lopsided victory over the Royals – a 44-4 contest that was called in the third period due to DODEA’s 39-point mercy rule.
All four teams are in action again Saturday.
Aviano's Oliver Ryan puts up a shot Friday, Jan. 9, 2026 in the Saints loss to Marymount in Aviano, Italy. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
Marymount's Gael Grant Rios scored 28 points to lead the Royals to a 53-22 victory over Aviano on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Aviano, Italy. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
Aviano's Jonathan Sanchez tries to drive around Marymount's Konstatwas Mellatinos on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in the Royals 53-22 victory in Aviano, Italy. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
Aviano's Kamden Beck shoots from long range Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in front of the Marymount bench in the Royals 53-22 win over the Saints in Aviano, Italy. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
Aviano coach Keith Adams said the season’s goal was “to get better. Get better for the tournament at the end of the season. But we’re going to take our lumps. This year, it’s our turn to take our lumps.”
Both teams are different than when they battled for the right to face eventual two-time champion Vicenza in the finals.
Junior Jonathan Sanchez saw some action last year. But most of this year’s roster consists of freshmen and sophomores.
The Royals, who had reached the finals for the first time in memory, lost their top player, Patrick Gianni, to graduation. But they’ve got sophomore Gael Grant Rios back.
The 6-foot-2 point guard from Brazil did a pretty good Gianni impression Friday, pumping in a game-high 28 points. He also grabbed a game-high seven rebounds.
“My game is about penetrating and driving,” he said.
And after Rios noticed the lack of any height in the Saints lineup, he decided to double down.
The result was he outscored the Saints by himself in the opening quarter, which Marymount led 11-7. And it went quickly downhill for Aviano after that.
The Saints didn’t score in the second quarter until Oliver Ryan’s free throw with 10.6 seconds to play in the half. Marymount blew the game open in the third period by outscoring Aviano 21-6.
Coach Phil Davis was missing his senior captain, Lorenzo Tranquilli – out with the flu – but admitted “it’s going to be tough” to get back to the championship game.
Still, he was his accustomed animated self on the sidelines Friday. Those not looking at the scoreboard – including the coach, apparently – might have felt the Royals were losing their season opener.
“I wasn’t even watching the score,” Davis said. “I just wanted to get the kids playing right.”
Marymount's Christelle Ineza shoots Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in the Royals' 44-4 loss to Aviano in Aviano, Italy. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
Aviano's Clara Young puts up a shot Friday, Jan. 9, 2026 in the Saints' 44-4 victory over Marymount in Aviano, Italy. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
Marymount’s Tatyana Chawota puts up a shot Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in a game against Aviano in Aviano, Italy. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
Marymount, which hasn’t had a winning female sports program outside of some soccer squads for decades, only fielded six players.
It took the Royals more than 5 minutes to find the basket against the Saints. And after Sofia Kuzmina scored her second basket of the quarter, the lights didn’t change on their side of the scoreboard again until the mercy rule was in effect.
“We’re starting to build a program,” said coach Goran Barbir, who hopes to have four more players on the squad by next weekend. “Midway through the second quarter, we just wore down.”
Aviano was coasting by then. Junior Aubrey Cannon finished with 20 points – almost half of them coming from layups in the first quarter. She only played sporadically after that as the Saints started liberally substituting in the opening period.
“They’re listening to everything the coaches are saying,” Aviano coach Moriah Barthold said. “Making the plays, communicating with each other, being teammates … getting the small details right.”
Barthold said the team will see exactly where it stands next weekend when it travels to Vicenza, with defending champion American Overseas School of Rome and Black Forest Academy also making the trip.
“I like where we’re at,” she said. “We have a little more depth this year than in the past. And that can really help in some games.”
That depth was on display Friday as eight other players joined Cannon on the scoresheet.
