Jordan Mason and Jordan Isaac combined for 38 points to pace Osceola to a 60-45 win over Oviedo in the championship game of the Kowboy Holiday Invitation Saturday night. The win pushed the Kowboys to 12-1; while Oviedo dropped to 7-6. Jones defeated Cypress Creek in the third-place game.
It was a solid, but not an aesthetically pleasing game for the Kowboys—who committed 16 turnovers.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, an ugly win is always better than a pretty loss,” Osceola Coach Steve Mason said. “We’re 12-1 now and yet I still see a lot of room for improvement and that is the most encouraging thing about tonight. We have a chance to get a lot better. But by the same token, I don’t want to take anything away from Oviedo tonight. They are a really solid, athletic team and we knew they were going to five us a test.”
Osceola started off strong, hitting seven of 13 shots in the first period – including three from three-point range – to build an 18-9 lead. But the Lions dominated the boards in the second period, hit some big shots and took advantage of turnovers to cut the lead to 24-23 at the half. Osceola made just three of 11 shots in the period and had six turnovers.
The game would stay close early in the third. At the 6:13 mark, Ethan Diaz hit from the paint to give the Lions their first tie of the game at 27-27. The teams traded field goals before a Mason basket gave Osceola the lead for good at 33-31. That basket spurred a 12-3 run as Osceola pushed the lead to 43-34 after the third quarter.
“They were getting a lot of second chances early in the game off offensive boards, so we switched our defense to a 2-3 to help underneath,” Mason said. “They started to go cold from the outside and we were able to take control of the game.”
With 4:21 left in the game, Osceola eliminated any doubt of a Lions comeback when Jordan Mundle delivered a thundering dunk off a steal to give the Kowboys a 13-point lead. Mundle chipped in 10 points and Luke McCrimon had eight as shot 24-of-54 (44.4%) from the field. The Kowboys limited the Lions to 18-of-59 shooting (30.5%).
Ethan Diaz led the Lions with 17 points. Osceola hit 7-of-8 free throws.
“That’s one area where I know we need to improve in and that’s attacking the basket and drawing fouls,” Mason said. “We only went to the line five times all game and that is a sure sign that we are settling for too many three-point shots.”
Osceola reached the finals in the tournament with a convincing 77-38 win over Jones on Friday and will next host Hagerty on Jan. 3.
Several other county teams are off to great starts this season. St. Cloud is now 13-1 after a 61-44 win over SLAM (Tampa) for third place in the Tampa Bay Christmas Invitational. Poinciana is 10-2 after beating Westland, Ohio, 58-55 Saturday to win its Holiday Tournament. Harmony (9-5) took four straight wins into the finals of the Vero Beach Hoopla Tournament on Saturday night, before dropping a heart-breaking 44-42 decision to Vero at the buzzer. Liberty was 9-1 after winning just six games all last season.
All eight county teams will participate in the Orange Belt Conference tournament, Jan. 13-17.
