District boys’ basketball playoff action begins this week as all eight county teams and City of Life Christian will be in action.
District champs will automatically advance to the regional playoffs, while the four highest ranked non-district champions also advance.
Based on overall record and quality wins, Osceola, Gateway and COL may have already done enough to move forward, while the majority of county teams may need to win their district tournaments to move on. A look at this week’s tournaments:
Class 7A, District 5
Seeds: 1. Dr. Phillips (21-4); 2. Windermere (19-5); 3. Olympia (16-7); 4. West Orange (11-14); 5. Celebration (11-9); 6. Haines City (12-11).
Regardless of what happens this week, Celebration (11-9) is guaranteed a winning season. A victory at West Orange (11-14) in Tuesday’s road quarterfinal would set up a matchup top-seeded Dr. Phillips Wednesday — the Panthers are currently ranked 17th in the nation, third in the state and No. 1 in Class 7A.
Junior point guard Mitchell Sparks leads the Celebration attack with 14.1 points and 3.7 assists per game. Griffin Davis, another junior, is contributing 7.2 points and a team-leading 9.1 rebounds per game.
Class 7A, District 9
Seeds: 1. Osceola (16-5); 2. Cypress Creek (14-10); 3. Tohopekaliga (10-10); 4. Lake Nona (6-15); 5. Freedom (12-13).
Steve Mason has put together a solid Kowboys team that finished the regular season with 16 wins and accomplished it without backing down on a schedule that included state powers Oak Ridge, Olympia, Windermere and Winter Haven. OSH takes on Tuesday’s the Lake Nona/Freedom winner in the district semifinals Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Lake Nona.
“Our resume may get as through to the regionals, but obviously we want to both win the district and make sure we are hitting on all cylinders when we do it,” Mason said. “We’re not a perfect team by any stretch of the imagination but when we play our best we can compete with any one. We want to make a deep run into the post-season.”
Mason points to the team’s 72-66 regular season finale loss to powerful Oak Ridge as an example of how he believes the Kowboys can compete with anyone.
“Great game against a great opponent, we were tied 66-66 with 90 seconds remaining. They hit a three and unfortunately we missed a wide open three that would have kept it tied,” Mason said. “You never like to lose but I can accept that one. We were every bit as good as that team was that night.”
The Kowboys are led by their exceptional backcourt duo of brothers Sean and Chris Combs. Ryan Rivera and Victor Guzman can add some scoring punch. Although the Kowboys lack size, Cory Vega (6-1) has emerged as one of the area’s best little-big man, leading the Kowboys in rebounding.
After going 13-46 in their first three seasons, Tohopekaliga turned things around this season with a 10-10 record under coach Jesus Merced. Senior guard Josh Camejo (17 ppg) leads the Tigers in scoring; while senior Orlando Descartes (9.1 ppg) and junior Eliel Salva (8.7 ppg) also having good seasons. Still, the Tigers will need at least one upset, if not two, to advance to regional play.
Class 6A, District 6
Seeds: 1. South Lake (14-7), 2. Harmony (16-9), 3. Poinciana (6-13), 4. East Ridge (9-11), 5. St. Cloud (4-21); 6. Liberty (4-14).
South Lake and Longhorns have earned byes to the semifinals, with Poinciana hosting Liberty and St. Cloud traveling to East Ridge in Tuesday’s 7 p.m.quarterfinals
St. Cloud has struggled this season, going 0-9 against county competition but picked up a little momentum in their last game with a 57-55 against a decent Ridge Community team. The Bulldogs are led in scoring by Sean Quionnes (10.9 ppg). The Eagles have beaten the Chargers twice this season.
The winner will travel to Harmony on Wednesday. The Longhorns are 4-0 this year against St. Cloud, Poinciana and Liberty. Harmony is led in scoring by a pair of juniors in Miguel Tirado (12.9 ppg) and Rafael Balines (11.7 ppg); while junior Caden Scarborough controls the paint with 9.2 rebounds.
Harmony may have a chance to advance with a second place finish; the other three county teams would have to win the district to move on.
Class 5A, District 7
Seeds: 1. Jones (15-7); 2. Auburndale (13-11); 3. Gateway (17-7); 4. Bishop Moore (14-10); 5. Lake Minneola (16-8); 6. Lake Wales (4-18).
High seeds host in this tournament — Gateway hosts Lake Wales, who Gateway coach Travis James is more than concerned about, Tuesday at 7. Despite the 4-18 record of his opponent.
“It is an extremely tough district. You may look at Lake Wales record but then you see the teams they have played and how many close games they have lost and you realize they are not bad.”
The winner goes to Auburndale on Wednesday at 7.
James has been pleased with the consistency his team has shown this year, led by the outstanding guard play of senior point guard Jeremy Velez and junior shooting guard Dimas Cervantes, but has expressed some concern about a recent injury to Aiden Lake.
“Until he got hurt, he was giving our big men some valuable rest during games,” James said. “He is definitely out for districts, which means we will have to rely on a guard to fill that position and we weren’t that big to begin with.”
James believes his team will have to win two games in districts to advance.
“In a less talented district it might be different, but I really think we are going to need two wins to insure a trip to regionals. Regardless, we are going to go into the game with a win-or-go-home mentality.”
Class 2A, District 8
Seeds: 1. Orlando Christian Prep 19-4; 2. City of Life Christian Academy 19-6; 3. Faith Christian 16-9; 4. Merritt Island Christian 16-8; 5. Florida Prep 2-10.
Playing a combination of Christian schools and local teams, City of Life has put together a nice season and hosts Orlando Faith Christian in the semifinals.
COLCA has a balanced offensive attack led by a trio of juniors in Joel King (14.2 ppg), Lawrence Mitchell (14.1 ppg) and Kalik Shape (10.6 ppg). Two other players are averaging more than eight points a game as City of Life has displayed a balanced scoring attack all year.
A district title is a tall ask — Orlando Christian Prep is a national power – ranked 34th in the nation and seventh across all classifications in Florida.
Boys soccer playoffs Wednesday
Celebration (12-0-4) earned the Region 7A-2 No.4 seed and hosts Sarasota Riverview on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Harmony and Gateway earned at-large bids as the No. 8 seeds in their region. The Longhorns make the short-ish drive to Viera on Wednesday at 7, and the Panthers travel to Gainesville High.
Girls regional playoffs Thursday
Thanks to their big 71-33 win over East Ridge Friday to claim the district title, St. Cloud gets a first-round home game Thursday at 7 p.m. against East River in the Region 6A-2 quarterfinals.
Gateway earned a Region 5A-2 at-large berth; the Panthers travel to Lake Weir as one of four teams from District 5 to get in.
