James lifts Olympia to Rotary Tip-Off title
Oak Ridge scored 94 points in a Saturday Breast Cancer Awareness victory
E.J. James, who goes by the nickname Jizzle, scored 14 of his career-high 36 points in the fourth quarter to spur undefeated Olympia to a 74-66 win against Central Florida Christian Academy in Saturday night’s championship game of the 45th annual Rotary Tip-Off boys basketball tournament.
The game was tied 50-50 through three quarters before James, a 6-foot-2 junior guard, took over. He converted a 3-point play to open the final period and then scored 10 points in the last five and half minutes of play at Winter Park High School.
“Do whatever it takes for my team to win,” James said of his mindset. “Now we’ve got to keep this up with good consistency. Keep pushing. Keep grinding. We can’t get content.”
Olympia came into the tournament at No. 4 in the Sentinel Super 16 area rankings and knocked off No. 1 Orlando Christian Prep 50-48 on Wednesday.
CFCA (3-1) was No. 6 and gave Olympia fits with lightning bug point guard Ta’Veon Jones scoring 22 points.
Jones, a sophomore lefty listed as 5-7, made three of CFCA’s eight 3-point shots and was able to set up teammates with his darting dribble penetration.
“I don’t know that we’ll play against a little guard all year that has that athleticism and skill set. He’s special,” Olympia coach Rob Gordon said of Jones. “That team [CFCA] is very, very talented.”
Gordon had high praise for his team too. James did most of the scoring but Dillon Lytus contributed two key 3-point shots and Clodner Pierre, Kevins Charles and Kamran Jones did a lot of the
blue-collar work against a team that matched the Titans’ athleticism.
“Man, I’m so proud of our guys’ commitment to this program and what their accomplishing,” he said. “It’s early December, obviously. But our guys are learning how to win big games and that’s really special.”
Olympia could face two more undefeated opponents this week. The Titans play at Hagerty on Wednesday and host Apopka on Friday. The Huskies are 3-0 and Blue Darters 5-0 going into the week.
Jamar Houston, a 6-2 senior, contributed 13 points and put on a dunk display for CFCA. That included a breakaway windmill slam followed by a stick-back dunk in the early going.
Houston and Jones joined Olympia senior Joeh Meo and Orlando Christian Prep senior Ven-Allen Lubin on the all-tournament team. James was the
MVP and Olympia junior Kevins Charles won the hustle award.
Oak Ridge scores 94
Host Oak Ridge, the fifth-ranked Orlando area team, improved to 4-0 with an outstanding offensive showing in a 94-71 win against No. 11 Evans in the nightcap of the Breast Cancer Awareness Classic.
Senior guard Fabio Basili scored 37 points for the Pioneers, who have put up 80 or more points in three of their four games going into a Tuesday home game against Lake Nona.
Jyshaun Melvin scored 24 for Evans (2-2).