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Shootout will be a good test for local teams PDF Print E-mail
Sports
Saturday, 24 December 2011 05:22
By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor
The field might be smaller, but that doesn’t mean the competition will be easier at the Rotary Club of Kissimmee’s 31st Great Florida Shootout basketball tournament next week at the Kissimmee Civic Center.
The tournament, which begins Tuesday and continues through Saturday, has an eight-team field, down from the usual 16 teams, that includes Osceola, Gateway and Poinciana. Each team will play three games.
Tournament chairman Pete Edwards said many teams no longer wish to commit to four tournament dates.
The Kowboys, 6-2, will make their 31st appearance at the tournament, this time under new coach Nate Alexander. Although the Kowboys have played well in the past two Shootouts, placing third in 2009 and then earning the consolation championship last year, Osceola hasn’t won since 1982.
Alexander’s team will play Oviedo in the first round Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. The Lions, 6-3, are coached by Shootout founder Ed Kershner.
“I think we match up pretty well with Oviedo. We’re both using a lot of young players,” Alexander said. “It should be a shootout, for sure.”
Osceola senior guard Michael Sanchez has started in the past two Shootouts and is regarded as one of the best point guards in Central Florida. Stanley Turk, 6-4, returns at forward. Oviedo’s R.J. June and Matt Milon averaged in double figures early in the season.
OHS beat Oviedo in the Shootout’s consolation bracket last year.
Gateway, 7-2, which beat OHS Dec. 16, 68-57, has one of its most balanced lineups under Coach Bob Baker and holds the lead in both the District 7A-6 (4-0) and Orange Belt Conference (5-0) races behind a veteran frontcourt that features high-scoring sophomore Felix Gonzalez and seniors David Jerome (6-5) and Jordan Edmunds. Sophomore Giovanni Guzman and seniors Joseph Mukuvi and Matt Ortiz have been solid at guard.
The Panthers meet Peachtree Ridge High from Suwanee, Ga., Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.
Peachtree Ridge, which won three of its first four this season, reached the regional semifinal round last year and has returning senior point guard Benny Johnson and 6-5 forward Jordan Capps.
“We have someone in that area scouting for us, so we will know what we are up against,” Baker said.
Poinciana (5-3) meets Perry Central High from Hazard, Ky., in the first round at 7 p.m.
The Eagles, rebuilding after losing four starters under new coach Oliver Simmons, have one of the most dynamic players in the tournament in senior guard Stefan Moody, who has a 37-inch vertical leap. He has signed to Florida Atlantic University.
Perry has one of the tournament’s premier big men in 6-6, 230-pound center Dalton Cornett. Guard Braxton Beverly averaged 16 points during the team’s first three games.
Class 5A (now 7A) state runner-up Lake Wales will play St. Petersburg High, touted as one of the best on Florida’s west coast in Class 7A, at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Lake Wales returns all-state standout Marcel White, a 6-5 senior, along with senior guard Russell Wilson and 6-6 senior center Cederic Christian.
St. Petersburg, 7-0, got a boost when high-scoring Clearwater High guard Davon Griffin transferred before the season. He joins returning starters David Jones and Demontre Adams in the lineup.
Action continues Wednesday and Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at the Civic Center. The championship game Thursday begins at 8:30 p.m. The third-place game begins at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $10 per day or $24 for a tournament pass, $5 and $10 for students.
Proceeds from the tournament benefit a scholarship fund for local students. The Rotary Club has awarded more than $200,000 in scholarships from tournament proceeds.
 

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