Seminole defense derails Ocoee’s hopes
SANFORD — Seminole’s frenetic defensive pressure disrupted Ocoee when it mattered most and the ’Noles scored a 68-65 victory over the Knights in Friday night’s Class 7A, Region 1 boys basketball championship game.
The Seminoles, now 26-1 with 14 straight wins, trailed by 10 in the third quarter and were still down two with three minutes to go. But they got key stops and buckets as time wound down on a matchup that drew a near-capacity crowd.
The biggest shot may have come from senior forward Erric Wynn after officials conferred and changed their call after ruling a ball out of bounds off Seminole. They switched the possession to Seminole, which appeared to be the right decision, and Wynn took an inbounds pass and knocked down a 3-point shot from the top of the key for a 61-60 lead with 2:50 to go in the game. It was Wynn’s second fourth quarter trey.
Seminole then pressured Ocoee (22-8) into several mistakes, including a 10-second backcourt violation, and finished strong.
“We put a little more pressure on them,” said ’Noles coach Sylvester Wynn. “We got some turnovers and capitalized on them.”
The ’Noles will make their first state tournament appearance in 40 years to play a state semifinal game next Friday at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. They will face top seed West Palm Beach Forest Hill.
The other semifinal will match Oak Ridge (21-8) against Miramar (22-6). The state final is a week from Saturday.
“We finally got over the bump,” said Seminole senior
O’Shae Baker, who played on teams that lost region finals the past two years. “We just had to keep fighting. We outran them and got ’em tired.”
Baker scored 15 points, mixing daring drives against Ocoee’s tall front line with perimeter shots.
Senior sharpshooter LaDarron Cleveland led Seminole with 20 points, including four 3-point shots. Sophomore guard Demari Henderson added 7 points and was one of the most disruptive of Seminoles defenders.
Ocoee got a stellar performance from senior David Green, who scored 22 points before fouling out with 50 seconds to go. Green, a Hofstra signee, opened the game with a 3-point shot to spark a 7-0 start for the Knights and he continued to make key plays. That included a fastbreak score in which the 6-foot-7 lefty switched to his right hand for an acrobatic tally in traffic.
Kordell Brown, a 6-6 senior for Ocoee, had 16 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.
“That was a war,” Ocoee coach John “Sarge” Siers said of the game. “I think we lost our composure in the last three minutes.”
Ocoee broke the school record for wins set by its 2014-15 team that was 21-5.
Seminole surged ahead when it scored six unanswered points on two trips down court late in the second period. Cleveland, coming off a 38-point performance against Apopka, made like James Harden with a step-back 3-point shot. After a stop at the other end, Seminole went inside to its one true big man, 6-foot-6 senior Shawn Shaukut. He missed on his post move but rebounded the ball and scored as he was fouled by Ocoee center Alston Andrews. Shaukut made the free throw for a 31-24 lead.