Basketball Game Preview: Venice Indians vs. Riverview Sarasota Rams

The Venice Indians will challenge the Riverview Sarasota Rams at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Venice will be looking to extend their current seven-game winning streak.

Venice is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Thursday. They claimed a resounding 57-22 win over North Port. Given the Indians' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 43rd, while the Bobcats are ranked 278th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Tessa Oleary

Points

02/06/25 vs North Port	19
01/29/25 @ IMG Academy Blue	15
01/20/25 vs Lemon Bay	28
01/18/25 vs Keswick Christian	23
01/17/25 vs Plant	30

Tessa Oleary continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, going 9 of 14 en route to 19 points and five boards. Her morning made it five games in a row in which she has scored at least 15 points. Another player making a difference was Addison Ivery, who posted nine points in addition to seven assists and six steals.

Meanwhile, after only 25 points in their last game, Riverview Sarasota made sure to put some points up on the board against Sarasota on Thursday. Riverview Sarasota blew past Sarasota 73-52. The Rams have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won 11 contests by 20 points or more this season.

Riverview Sarasota found their leader in sophomore Taylor Davidson, who scored 16 points along with eight rebounds and seven steals. Davidson has become a key player for Riverview Sarasota: the team is undefeated when she posts at least three steals, but 3-4 otherwise. Ava Noto was another key player, putting up 12 points.

Riverview Sarasota has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 11 of their last 12 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 20-4 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.8 points over those games. As for Venice, their victory bumped their record up to 16-5.

Venice beat Riverview Sarasota 53-46 in their previous meeting back in December of 2024. Will Venice repeat their success, or does Riverview Sarasota have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.