Adriona Cleveland and Chakeira Gilbert did most of the damage as Vicenza posted a weekend sweep of visiting Naples in a battle of unbeatens in girls basketball.
Cleveland scored 18 points and Gilbert 16 in Friday’s 49-47 victory, then totaled 24 and 18, respectively, in Saturday’s 56-20 romp.
Defending European Division II champion Naples (6-2 overall, 3-1 in American Schools in Italy League play), took on the Cougars without much of their firepower.
Valentina Lee, who carries a double-digit scoring average, did not make the trip, Vicenza coach Garrett Barton reported in a Saturday e-mail, without giving the reason. The other half of Naples’ 1-2 scoring punch, Darien Moon, was injured in Friday night’s game and did not play Saturday, he wrote. Moon scored a game-high 22 points before leaving Friday’s game, he reported.
Vicenza (10-0, 4-0) benefited from Cleveland’s and Gilbert’s presence in ways other than scoring, Barton said. Gilbert had nine assists and five steals in each game, and Cleveland posted 12 steals Saturday.
The sweep kept Vicenza tied for the ASIL lead with neighborhood rival Aviano, which romped past visiting Sigonella 46-11 Friday and 62-12 Saturday. Aviano journeys to Naples this weekend and closes out the regular season at home Feb. 8-9 against Vicenza.
In other girls games of note:
Menwith Hill 44, SHAPE 40 (OT): Saturday at Menwith Hill, England, Kim Shelton scored all four points in the overtime to hand D-II power SHAPE its first loss of the season.
Menwith Hill (2-8, 2-6 in Region I), a Division IV school, was coming off a 58-33 loss to the Lady Spartans on Friday night, but jumped out to a 24-17 halftime edge that was just enough to survive the second half.
Kim Shelton, who tied SHAPE’s Justine Shelton for game-scoring honors with 12 points, dominated the boards with 15 rebounds.
Menwith Hill also controlled SHAPE star Ebonee De Vos on Saturday. De Vos, who rang up 21 points and 10 rebounds Friday, corralled 13 rebounds Saturday but managed just six points for SHAPE (9-1, 4-1).
Baumholder 49, Hohenfels 26: Saturday at Hohenfels, the Lady Bucs got 14 points from Katrina Alsup and 14 rebounds from Jasmine Thompson on their way to their third straight victory.
Baumholder improved to 6-3 overall, with all losses coming at the hands of D-I powers Kaiserslautern and Ramstein. With the exception of a road game at Bitburg of D-II on Feb. 5, the Lady Bucs close out their season with two games each against D-III foes Ansbach and AFNORTH.
BFA 27, Würzburg 23: On Saturday at Würzburg, Black Forest Academy’s Mallory Holladay scored 10 points to keep Würzburg winless in Region III play. BFA won 33-15 on Friday.
Würzburg’s Adrianna Archie grabbed 17 rebounds Friday and 16 more on Saturday.
Bitburg 35, Vilseck 33: On Saturday at Vilseck, the cavalry arrived just slightly too late. Three Vilseck starters, who missed the first half of the game because of college testing, arrived for the second half to find their team trailing 27-6.
The Falcons (5-4) mounted a 27-8 second-half run that fell just short as the Lady Barons held on to claim their first victory.
Danyel Robinson had 16 points for Bitburg (1-7).