Osceola, St. Cloud, Liberty to host games; City of Life at Victory Christian Saturday
Six Osceola County boys basketball teams will play in four district championship games over the next three days to determine the bracket for the regional playoffs.
Tonight, check AroundOsceola.com for result of the District 7A-9 title game at Osceola between the Kowboys (22-3) and Poinciana (16-9).
DISTRICT 7A-6: St. Cloud 86, Lake Nona 56; Harmony 54, Cypress Creek 47
Lake Nona was physical and they were chippy, but that proved to be no match for No.1 seed St. Cloud and its smothering defense as the Bulldogs blasted the Lions, 86-56, Wednesday.
The Bulldogs (23-3, who extended their school record for victories, will host Harmony (18-8), a 54-47 winner over Cypress Creek in its semifinal Wednesday, at 7 p.m. Friday for the district championship.
“We need to forget about this game quickly and get ready for Harmony,” St. Cloud head coach Tommy Billiteri said. “They are always going to play hard and Duke (Leonardo, Longhorns coach) is always going to have them ready to play. Being a rivalry game just adds another dimension to it.”
The teams split a pair of regular season games this year; St. Cloud won 61-52 at home in December and Harmony taking the home rematch, 50-47, Jan. 10. Both teams have been playing well of late with the Longhorns winning six of their last seven and the Bulldogs winning five in a row and seven of eight.
As much as Billiteri would like to forget about Wednesday night’s blitz of Lake Nona, it may be difficult. St. Cloud put up its most points of the season while holding Lake Nona to just 21 first-half points.
“I really like the intensity and fire we came out with tonight,” Billiteri said of his team that forced Lake Nona to miss their first nine shots and held the Lions without a field goal to the 3:04 mark of the first quarter in building a 12-0 lead. “When we play with that attitude and execute our game plan, I think we can be a pretty good team.”
The St. Cloud bench also impressed. With his team playing a pressing man-to-man defense, Billiteri replaced all five starters with three minutes to go in the first period and saw that group outscore Nona 9-6. That group scored 27 points and held court against the Lake Nona starters.
After building a 21-9 lead the first, Malaki Baker, who led St. Cloud in scoring with 19 points, erupted for eight points in the second period as the Bulldogs scored another 21 in the second quarter to double up Lake Nona at the half, 42-21.
With Alex Springs picking up a fourth foul early in the third period, Lake Nona attempted to mount a comeback. Kyami Dixon, who scored all 12 Lions’ second-quarter points, exploded for 13 more in the third period as Nona crept to within 13 points. But Baker threw down two thunderous dunks and added a three-pointer. Josiah Cotto scored eight more as the Bulldogs pushed the lead back to 18 after three, 58-40. Dixon, who finished with a game-high 33, accounted for 24 of Lake Nona’s 31 points in the second and third quarters.
It was both a physical and chippy game as the teams combined for more than 30 fouls – including six technical fouls, with four being called on Lake Nona. Even with that number, Billiteri was not necessarily unhappy.
“It was a physical game and there were a lot of fouls called. But our two technical fouls were for delay of game after slapping the ball away after a basket,” he said. “There was a lot of chirping from the other side and I was proud that our guys ignored it for the most part.”
With the game in hand, Billiteri substituted freely in the fourth quarter. Baker finished with a team-high 19 points but he was far from the only offensive star in the game. Four other players finished in double figures for St. Cloud – 15 from Cotto and 11 each from Springs and Ryan Rodriguez. Julian Fox had 10 and Lenuel Narvaez chipped in nine the fourth quarter.
It’s that depth that Billiteri believes will be the key as St. Cloud seeks its first district championship.
“We have a lot of young players that getting more playing time as they begin to grasp our system,” he said. “I believe we have one of the deeper teams in our region and that should serve us well as continue through the post-season.”
DISTRICT 4A-7: Liberty 77, Tenoroc 48
The 16-4 Chargers will play for their first district title in over a decade Friday when they host Orlando Bishop Moore (6-20) on Friday at 7 p.m.
DISTRICT 5A-7: Pine Ridge 69, Gateway 56
Gateway (11-11) was also the No. 1 seed in the District 5A-7 tournament, but found itself short on size and long on foul trouble Wednesday, and lost its district semifinal, 69-54, to No. 4 seed Pine Ridge (9-17), who will play New Smyrna Beach Friday for the 5A_7 title.
While Panthers Coach Travis James said he thought the numbers would work out that a win would have all but locked up a regional playoff spot, he team must now await the results of computer rankings.
The Volusia County school, also the Panthers, was led by 6-7 "point forward" Wilmer De La Rosa, who did a little bit of everything Wednesday, going off for 18 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, three steals and three blocks. He was one of four starters to score at least 12 points.
Pine Ridge seemed to snare every rebound -- they led that stat, 31-20 -- and the Panthers missed their last five shots of the first quarter and trailed 14-7 after taking an early 6-2 lead. Gateway slowed Pine Ridge down a bit in the second quarter and narrowed the gap to 26-22 at the half. Isaiah McGill hit a pair of free throws to make it 30-27 with 4:24 left in the third quarter, but that was as close as the hosts got. De La Rosa scored eight points in Pine Ridge's 18-4 run to close the quarter; it was 48-31 heading to the fourth quarter.
Seniors Gabe Haynes (13 points) and Yangel Malpica (12 points, five rebounds, four assists, four steals) led Gateway.
DISTRICT 1A-7: City of Life Christian 71, All Saints Academy 33
The Warriors will compete in a doubleheader on Saturday in Lakeland against Victory Christian, as those two schools' girls teams also meet for their title Saturday.
