Tournament starts Monday at HHS, PHS
As the highest-ranked state ranked team in the FHSAA last week, Harmony earned the top seed for this week’s Orange Belt Conference boys’ basketball tournament beginning Monday
The tournament features a “pod” system. At Harmony, the top-seed Longhorns host Celebration Monday right after No. 4 St. Cloud and No. 5 Gateway have at it at 5 p.m.
At Poinciana, No. 3 Poinciana plays No. 6 Tohopekaliga at 5:30, and the host Eagles draw rival Liberty.
The high seeds will hosts the winners bracket games at 7 p.m. Wednesday; the losers bracket games are at 5:30.
Harmony, ranked No. 20 in Class 7A, take a 15-3 record into the tournament after winning at 5A No. 15 Port St. Lucie Friday. Duke Leonardo’s squad is 5-1 against county opposition this year – sweeping Gateway and splitting with St. Cloud while beating Osceola and Tohopekaliga.
Harmony lost to Osceola in last year’s championship, 46-44, but got a strong measure of payback 11 days later when it beat the Kowboys, 58-57, in the district semifinals.
“This year is sort of unusual as I really believe any one of four or five teams could win this tournament,” Leonardo said. “We haven’t had a lot of luck in the OBC’s so it’s definitely a team goal to win it. We’re playing pretty good basketball right now but it’s always tough to win three times in five days in a tournament setting. If we can continue to play our lock-down defense, avoid foul trouble and trust our offense, I like our chances.”
At No. 3, don’t overlook Osceola. Winners of the last six OBC titles, the Kowboys have struggled to a 7-9 mark, but all the losses come to Top 20 opponents in their classes, like Edgewater, Rockledge, Oak Ridge and Lake Highland Prep, teams with a combined record of 135-31.
"We have played an incredibly tough schedule, absolutely putting our young team to the test this year. Our feeling was it would be the best way to prepare the team not only for the post-season this year, but next year too. Right now we are starting two juniors and three sophomores," Osceola Coach Steve Mason said. "We have continued to improve as the season has gone on. Still that is not to suggest the tournament is going to be easy or that we should be the favorites. Harmony has a tremendous team, several others are more than capable of winning this tournament."
Coach Craig Walls has Poinciana at 11-4 mark entering the OBC Tournament. Led by junior Jordan Isaac (19.1 ppg) and senior Devin Williams (10.1 ppg), Poinciana won the Kowboy Classic in December against capable competition, and entered on a four-game winning streak.
St. Cloud (13-5) already owns a victory over Harmony and could be a headed towards a rubber-match with the Longhorns if they get past Gateway (8-9) in the quarterfinals. The Bulldogs lost a tough one-point decision to Timber Creek on Friday after trailing by 16 at the half.
Behind the stellar play of underclassmen Alex Springs (17.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg), Josiah Cotto (6.1 ppg, 4.1 apg) and Malaki Baker (5.8 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 2.2 bpg), the Bulldogs won seven of eight and are enjoying their best season in more than two decades.
“Gateway is a really solid, well-coached team that gave us all we wanted last week (a 51-45 St. Cloud win), so there’s no way we are taking them for granted,” First-year head coach Tommy Billiteri said. “Our goal all year has been one game at a time, so 100 percent of our attention will be on the Panthers and Monday night. Once that game is over we’ll turn our attention to the next one.
“We wanted to change the culture and reputation of St. Cloud basketball and we have started to do that – one game at a time. “A strong showing at OBC’s would just be another step in the right direction.”
Gateway will enter the tournament with an 8-9 mark; while Tohopekaliga (5-10), Liberty (4-12) and Celebration (3-14) have all struggled this season.
Orange Belt Conference
Boys Basketball Championship Schedule
Monday, Jan. 22
Game 1: #8 Celebration vs. #1 Harmony (at Harmony) 7 p.m.
Game 2: #7 Liberty vs. #2 Poinciana (at Poinciana) 7 p.m.
Game 3: #6 Tohopekaliga vs. #3 Osceola (at Poinciana) 5:30 p.m.
Game 4: #5 Gateway vs. #4 St. Cloud (at Harmony), 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 22
At Harmony High School
Game 5: Loser Game 4 vs. Loser Game 1, 5:30 p.m.
Game 7: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 1, 7:30 p.m.
At Poinciana High School
Game 6: Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 2, 5:30 p.m.
Game 8: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 2, 7 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 23
7th Place Game: Loser Game 5 vs. Loser Game 6 (at Higher Seed), 6:30 p.m.
5th Place Game: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6 (at Higher Seed), 6:30 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 24
At Celebration High School
3rd Place Game: Loser Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8, 5 p.m.
Championship Game: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 7 p.m.
