Osceola tops defending champ St. Cloud, 62-57
Osceola used a smothering fourth quarter defense and 22 points from Jordan Isaac to slip by St. Cloud, 62-57, in the Orange Belt Conference boys basketball championship game at a packed Bob Baker Gym at Gateway High Friday.
The Kowboys, now 19-1, entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed, but got all it wanted from the defending tournament champ Bulldogs (18-3).
“A terrific basketball game between two good teams in a great atmosphere,” Osceola Coach Steve Mason said. “Give both teams credit; they played their hearts out tonight. At the end of the day, we made the plays we had to make.”
Using solid ball movement and hitting big shots early, Osceola jumped out to an early 17-10 lead, but behind five points each from Diomar Ortiz and Malaki Baker, the Dogs cut the gap to 19-16 after one quarter.
Isaac and St. Cloud’s Elias Torres each made a pair of three-pointers in the second quarter to keep the game close at the half at 34-32.
A 7-1 run to start the third quarter put Osceola up 41-33; but Josiah Cotto and Baker led a ferocious comeback. With St. Cloud trailing 42-40, a Cotto three gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the night, then another Cotto three-ball and a couple of layups by Baker pushed the St. Cloud advantage to 46-41 and appeared to switch all the momentum to the Bulldog side.
“Give Tommy (St. Cloud coach Tom Billiteri) a lot of credit,” Mason noted. “They switched to a man defense midway through the third quarter and for some reason it confused us. We began to act like we never saw that defense in our lives. It definitely took a few minutes to settle down and regain our composure.”
Osceola’s comeback was swift. Isaac hit a three and a couple of foul shots to close the gap to 48-44 through three quarters. The teams would stay close in the fourth, with Osceola regaining the lead on a Helio Quinan three-pointer with 3:17 remaining, 56-55. Alex Springs hit a layup but an Isaac three-pointer made it 59-57 Osceola.
The Kowboys would then get a stop, but after an intentional foul, Jordan Mason made just one of two free throws for the Kowboys to keep a one-score game at 60-57 with 11 seconds remaining. With time winding down, Springs elected to go for the quick two by driving the lane, but Jordan Mundle blocked his shot and Isaac threw one down on the other end for the 62-57 final.
“I’m really proud of the way we competed tonight,” Billiteri said of the close loss. “We had our chances at the end of the game and they made one more play than we did. This is definitely the type of game that can help us out in the postseason.”
Isaac led four Osceola players in double figures with 22 points, Mason added 12 and Quinan had 11. Cotto had 18 for St. Cloud, Baker added 14 and Springs chipped in 12. Both teams shot the ball well from both the field and the charity stripe. St. Cloud made 21 of 43 field goal attempts (48.8%) and 8 of 10 from the line (80%); while Osceola was 20 of 42 (47.6%) and 12 of 13 from the line (92.3%).
“We have a group of guys that have played a lot of high level AAU and high school basketball,” Mason added. “When we got down in the third quarter, there was no panic and that comes with that experience.”
Osceola is off until next Saturday, when they will host East River (16-4); St. Cloud will have a chance to get to 20 wins this week when they play at Oviedo (13-8) on Wednesday and host Celebration (7-8).
In other OBC action, Harmony defeated Gateway for third place; Poinciana dropped Liberty in the 5th place game (58-43) and Tohopekaliga was a 50-39 winner over Celebration in the 7th place game.
