Should we mention there was a full moon this week?
Two days after pulling a major upset with a 66-57 win over state-ranked Windermere, the Osceola Kowboys found themselves in a boys basketball dogfight with cross-town rival Tohopekaliga. But Osceola would overcome a 21-16 halftime deficit to pull out a 48-37 win for their fifth win in a row.
“This has been typical and the most frustrating part of the season,” Kowboys coach Steve Mason said. “We tend to play with a lot more focus against really good teams and just act like we don’t care on other nights. Give Jesus (Tigers coach Jesus Merced) and Toho a ton of credit, they came out and took it to us in the first half and we didn’t have many answers.”
The Tigers controlled the tempo from the beginning, despite the Osceola (14-4) defense forcing 10 turnovers in the first half. Josh Camejo scored 10 points and Eliei Salva added four points, 12 rebounds and a block as Tohopekaliga led by as many as nine in the first half before settling for a five-point lead at intermission.
“Really a sloppy first half,” Mason said. “I told our kids at halftime, I was not going to call an offensive or defensive play for the rest of the game. I challenged them to just come out and play hard. I told them if they were willing to do that they would win the game and they weren’t willing to do it, we were going to lose.”
The Kowboys came out in a flurry in the third. Ryan Rivera hit a three on the team’s first possession and a swarming Osceola defense forced several turnovers and bad shots. A Sean Combs three-pointer would give Osceola its first lead, 24-23, at the 5:10 mark. Sean Combs would end up with seven points in the period as Osceola out-scored the Tigers 16-4 to take a 32-25 lead after three.
Chris and Sean Combs would combine for 16 points in the fourth as Tohopekaliga could not get any closer than five in the final period. With three minutes to go, a Chris Combs’ dunk off a steal pushed the lead back to nine and ended any hopes of a Tigers’ comeback.
The Combs brothers combined for 36 of Osceola’s 47 points – with Chris leading the way with 18. Camejo led Poinciana 16 points; Salva finished with six points, 16 boards and two blocks.
“We had our chances and just lost our aggressiveness in the second half,” Merced said of his team that fell to 5-2 at home and 8-7 overall.
Osceola’s efforts were a far cry from Wednesday night’s 66-57 win over Windermere, the fourth-ranked team in Class 7A and 20th ranked team in the state.
Osceola trailed most of Wednesday – falling behind 24-16 after one, 33-30 at the half and 49-48 after three. But in the decisive fourth quarter, Osceola kept it close and with the score tied 57-57, Chris Rios hit a three-pointer with less than two minutes remaining to give the Kowboys a 60-57 lead.
“That sort of shocked them,” Mason said. “I don’t think they thought there was any way they were not going to win the game and when Chris hit that shot they started pressing a little. We hit some key buckets down the stretch.”
The Kowboys got 15 points from Chris Combs. 12 from Ryan Rivera and 11 from Sean Combs. Sean Stewart scored a game-high 22 for Windermere.
Mason credited the team’s current five-game win streak to his defense. “We have a lot of quickness and our press defense has been really good the last month. We force a lot of turnovers, but we are still not converting enough of them into points on the other end.”
With five regular season games left before the start of district play, Mason says consistency will be the key to the stretch run. “When we’re focused and play hard and smart, we can be pretty good. But right now we’re still all over the place on a game-to-game basis.”
The Kowboys will try to run the streak to six today (Saturday) at the Kaylin High Masters Classic at the Master’s Academy against Oviedo (15-4) at 4 p.m.
Tohopekaliga next travels to Harmony (12-7), riding their own six-game win streak, on Monday. The Longhorns cruised to a 41-24 win Friday over Freedom (9-11).
Gateway (15-5), after a week off, faces a stern test Monday at Rockledge (14-1).
Celebration (8-8) was dominant in a 65-28 win Friday over Horizon. The Storm next plays Wednesday, hosting Cornerstone Charter at 7 p.m.
