Oak Ridge rallies to top LHP
After a December filled with marquee basketball matchups against out-ofstate teams, nationally ranked Oak Ridge came home to find an Orlando team unwilling to back down from the challenge.
Lake Highland Prep led much of the way before finally succumbing to the Pioneers 70-65 in Saturday’s Showdown at O-Town.
The four-game event concluded with a thriller. Apopka beat host Orlando Christian Prep 63-60 when senior Rodney Lubin made a catch-and-shoot 3-point shot off an inbounds pass to the corner with 2.6 seconds to go.
Oak Ridge (14-3), ranked No. 20 nationally by FloHoops.com and No. 1 in the Sentinel area and state Class 9A rankings, had a slim roster with two players out due to injury and another absent but still opted not to start 6-foot-8 power forward Emmitt Williams.
The Pioneers came out looking like a talented team hoping for a breather, not a battle, and found themselves down 29-19 five minutes into the second quarter upon leaving Lake Highland post player Bryton Belvin open for a 3-point shot. A big crowd seemed even more disinterested than Oak Ridge was at that point.
“It’s a little fatigue,” Texas A&M signee Antwann Jones said after leading the Pioneers with 26 points. “We just refocused ourselves for the second half.”
That comeback came after hearing a terse message from first-year head coach Steve Reece at the break.
“If your man scores you’re coming out of the game,” Reece said.
Lake Highland (9-5), which lost by 19 at Melbourne Holy Trinity on Friday, got a 28-point performance by senior guard Nick Honor, who played alongside of Jones on an Each 1 Teach 1 travel team coached by Reece. Honor joined Jones to put on a 3-point shooting show in the third period.
“We just wanted to come in here and play hard and not care who you’re playing against,” said Honor, a Fordham recruit.
Apopka (6-6), forecast as a threat to reach the 9A final four, scored its biggest victory of an up-and-down season with Lubin making seven 3-point shots and totaling 25 points against 3A No. 1 OCP (7-7).
“Coach [Scott Williams] told me I’ve only got a few games left in my senior year, starting shooting,” Lubin said afterward.
Bishop Moore played without its go-to junior, Hunter Cattoor, for long stretches after he picked up two early fouls. But the Hornets got offensive production from J.P. LaPrade (16 points) and Jess Hartmann (14) and used defense to defuse Melbourne (7-5) in a 61-45 victory. The Hornets have won seven straight games to improve to 11-2.
“I think it’s good for us to learn how to do some things [without Cattoor],” Bishop Moore coach Jim Yarbrough said. “It has to be a team effort on both ends of the floor for us. I think we handled it pretty well.”
Cattoor was limited to just over 20 minutes of playing time but contributed 10 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals with two UCF coaches watching.
DeLand (10-4) surged to start the second half and won 61-57 vs. Master’s.