On a day when pairings were announced for next week’s Orange Belt Conference boys’ basketball tournament, a young Osceola team downed Gateway, 52-37, and will look to repeat as conference champions. Alex Springs scored 13 of his game-high 22 points in the third period as Osceola broke open a tight game.
“He’s only a sophomore and the sky’s the limit for him,” Kowboys coach Steve Mason said. “He has a unique ability to take the ball in the paint and can hit shots off his moves at full speed. He’s just going to get better.”
Gateway, which defeated Osceola 64-63 just two weeks ago, got off to a hot start in the game as Victor Parada scored nine quick points early in the first period and Dashawn Wilson added five as the Panthers took 7-2 and 16-11 leads. But the Kowboys rallied back and Jordan Mundle’s long-range bomb at the first-quarter buzzer knotted the game at 16-16. Osceola tooke a 26-23 lead at intermission.
“For the most part, we were getting the shots that we wanted and they were not falling. We were a little careless with the basketball too and that is part of the growing pains we have been going through this year,” Mason said. “We continue to show growth and improvement day-to-day and week-to-week, but we have still not touched our potential.”
After Osceola’s big third quarter they spend most of the fourth period running down the clock with long possessions. The Kowboys made just one field goal in the period, but hit seven of eight free throws to cruise to the win.
In addition to Spring’s big game, Mundle had nine and Jordan Mason chipped in six as Osceola improved to 8-11. Jamarion McCrimon. a standout on Osceola’s football team, was also a huge factor for the Kowboys – blocking shots, gathering rebounds and taking several charges.
“A lot of coaches don’t like their athletes playing other sports like football but I love it,” Mason added. “Jamarion is used to contact and he’s not afraid to mix it up, he’s one of the most valuable players we have.”
Williamson led Gateway (8-9) with 12 points, Parada had 11 – but all came in the first half.
“This was sort of weird for an Osceola – Gateway, the crowd really didn’t seem to be in it. But the fact remains, they played harder than we did. Better playing, better coaching and we simply got beat,” Gateway coach Travis James said.
On Tuesday, the seedings and schedule were announced for next week’s OBC tournament. It starts Monday night with first round games. Harmony (13-3) earned the No. 1 seed and will host Liberty (2-11); based on their difficult schedule which helped their state rankings, Osceola will be the number two seed and host St. Cloud (7-9); with No. 3 Gateway (8-9) hosting No. 6 Poinciana (6-6) and No. 4 Tohopekaliga (7-7) hosting Celebration (9-6).
Several teams have regular-season games scheduled against county teams this week before the start of the tournament. Osceola has a Wednesday road game with St. Cloud, Harmony plays Gateway on Thursday and Liberty plays Poinciana on Friday.
“We are playing Harmony on Thursday and that certainly will give us an opportunity to build some momentum heading into OBC. There’s a chance we will get to play Osceola against in the tournament, but we certainly are not looking past anyone at this point. We have two quality opponents before we even have to worry about them,” James said.
Mason also believes it will be wide open tournament. The Kowboys are 3-2 against county oppositions, having split games with Gateway and losing a 54-47 decision in early December to Harmony.
“This team has yet to play four quarters of basketball but we continue to improve,” Mason said. “Any of top seeds are capable of winning the tournament. Our main focus will be just keep improving.”
OBC Boys Basketball
Monday, Jan. 23
Game 1: #8 Liberty at #1 Harmony
Game 2: #7 St. Cloud at #2 Osceola
Game 3: #6 Poinciana at #3 Gateway
Game 4: #5 Celebration at #4 Tohopekaliga
Tuesday Jan. 24 (Games at Higher Seed)
Game 5: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 4
Game 6: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3
Game 7: Loser 1 vs. Loser 4
Game 8: Loser 2 vs. Loser 3
Friday, Jan. 27 (at Higher Seed)
Game 9: Loser Game 7 vs. Loser 8 (7th Place Game)
Game 10: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8 (5th Place Game)
Friday, Jan. 27 (at Tohopekaliga High 5:30/7:30 p.m.)
Game 11: Loser Game 5 vs. Loser Game 6 (3rd Place Game)
Game 12: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6 (Championship Game)
OBC Girls Basketball Tournament
Quarterfinal Results, Tuesday, Jan. 13
Poinciana 51, Osceola 42
St. Cloud 72, Celebration 19
Gateway 66, Liberty 11
Harmony 44, Tohopekaliga 33
Semifinals and Consolation Games, Wednesday, Jan. 14
Consolation
Liberty at Osceola
Celebration at Tohopekaliga
Semifinals, Thursday
Harmony at St. Cloud
Poinciana at Gateway
