St. Cloud girls won their tourney last week, too
After being held to three points through three quarters, junior Alex Springs scored eight fourth quarter points to lead St. Cloud to a 43-37 victory over Poinciana in the 2024 Orange Belt Conference championship game Friday at Celebration High School.
The win continues to build on what is becoming a dream season for St. Cloud, which also won the OBC girls basketball title last week.
Not only did the Bulldogs win their first OBC boys basketball title in school history – beating the No. 1 (Harmony) and 2 seeds (Poinciana) in the process – but they picked up their 16th win on the year after enduring over two decades of losing seasons.
“Winning the Orange Belt Conference and district tournaments are always among our team goals,” first year head coach Tommy Billiteri said. “But privately, I felt that if we could post a winning record and be competitive against the better teams in the county, it would be a successful year. But these kids continue to surprise. They work so hard in practice and they are so aggressive and play so hard in games, they continue to exceed any expectations many people had for this team.”
The game did not start off great for the Dogs. Eagle Hakeem Alvena scored six points and dominated the boards with five rebounds as the Eagles built an early 16-11 lead. But the momentum quickly changed; late in the first quarter Poinciana forward Daniel Melendez went down awkwardly and left the game with what appeared to be a significant leg injury.
St. Cloud outscored Poinciana 12-2 in the second period despite making just one field goal. Josiah Cotto spurred the comeback, scoring 10 points in the period – including 8 of 10 from the free throw line as St. Cloud took a 23-18 lead into the half.
“Poinciana sort of surprised us a little with their defense. They are such a good team when playing man-to-man defense but they went back into a 2-3 zone for much of the period,” Billiteri noted. “Josiah was able to attack that zone and draw contact.”
Neither team did much in the way of offense in the third period – each scoring just four points in the first six minutes. But Poinciana point guard Elijah Davis spurred an 8-2 run in the final 90 seconds as the Eagles reclaimed the lead 30-29.
But Springs took over the game in the fourth. He hit two shots early in the period and then gathered his own miss and was fouled laying it back in. He completed the three-point play, giving the Dogs a 39-25 lead with under two minutes remaining.
“I said the other day I thought he was one of the best, if not best, player in the county and I think he put that on display again tonight,” Billiteri said of Springs’ heroics.
But the junior was far from the only hero for St. Cloud. Cotto ended up with 12 points, thanks to 10-of-12 shooting from the charity stripe. Sophomore center Xavier Perez had five rebounds and four blocked shots. Sophomore center Malaki Baker had seven points and six boards; Diomar Ortiz –who hit the game-winning three-pointer against Harmony in the semifinals – tallied five points.
“It’s been a great season so far and we are just going to keep playing hard and see how far we can take this thing,” Billiteri added. “We have a lot of basketball left this year, but since we are playing so many sophomores and juniors, it’s hard not to think about the future too.”
Poinciana, which fell to 13-5 with the loss, was led by Alvena with 15 points. Davis chipped in 11 and Devin Williams had four points, six rebounds and a block.
The Eagles conclude the regular season with games against Horizon and Discovery this week. They will compete in the Class 7A, District 6 tournament the following week – where they could collide with county schools Harmony, Osceola, Celebration and Tohopekaliga.
St. Cloud had three games left in the regular season, facing Horizon, Melbourne Central Catholic and Tohopekaliga as they fight for playoff seeding for the Class 6A, District 7 tournament.
Earlier Friday, Harmony went to 17-4 on the season with a 61-60 overtime win over Osceola in the tournament third place game. Trailing 58-56, Jeremy Penner’s three-pointer put Harmony up 59-58. A Luke McCrimon basket put Osceola back in front, but with five seconds remaining, Noah Tribe was fouled on the floor. He hit both free throws to put the Longhorns back in front and the game ended with Osceola’s Helio Quinan’s desperation shot bouncing harmlessly off the backboard. Osceola, which fell to 8-11, lost a third straight game to Longhorns by two points or less.
