Montverde tops Sunrise for GEICO Nationals crown
Montverde Academy rode a near-perfect third quarter to a record-setting fifth GEICO High School Nationals boys basketball championship Saturday afternoon.
The Eagles broke up a backand-forth battle against Sunrise Christian of Kansas after Baylor recruit Langston Love opened the second half with consecutive 3-point shots. They went on to win 62-52 in the nationally televised game played in Fort Myers.
Montverde (24-1), which went 3-1 against Sunrise (21-4) this season, made all 12 field goal attempts —— including Love sinking all three of his 3-point attempts during that run —— in the third quarter to expand a two-point halftime lead to 51-38.
Sunrise, which stopped a 44-game Montverde win streak with an overtime win in early February, used a 9-2 run to close the gap to 53-47. But two 3-point shots by Michigan signee Caleb Houstan and another by Creighton-bound point guard Ryan Nembhard shut down any threat of a Buffaloes comeback.
“We put it together finally,” Montverde coach Kevin Boyle said. “It was our best half all season against a quality team.”
The victory makes Montverde the consensus national poll champ for the sixth time since 2013, including last year’s 25-0 team that was not able to play the
event due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Atlanta Westlake (22-0) won the girls championship.
Montverde made just 36% of its first-half shot attempts but upped that to 66.7% in the second half, including 6-of-10 on 3-pointers.
Houstan led Montverde with 16 points, 12 on treys.
Love came off the bench to contribute 13 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Jalen Duran, Montverde’s 6-11 powerhouse junior center, had nine points and nine rebounds.
Nembhard, who was a reserve player as a Montverde sophomore and junior, finished with 12 points, seven assists and two steals. He made four of his five shot attempts, including 3-of-3 on 3s.
“I think coach Boyle just does a great job of having confidence in everybody and showing everybody that it’s a process,” Nembhard said after the game. “We all believe that if we do what he says, we can win games and move on to the next level and be successful.”
Montverde already held the tournament record after winning titles in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018.
The Eagles have won 49 of their past 50 games and are 266-18 in 10 years under Boyle, who migrated from his native New Jersey in 2011 to take a position that pays more than many college coaching jobs.
The Eagles had eight players ranked as Top 50 prospects in their grade level by ESPN.
Recruiting insider Paul Biancardi hinted during Saturday’s telecast that the number will soon grow to nine with Nembhard likely to be added to the bluechip list.