Coral Springs’ rally falls short
GREENACRES — John I. Leonard had never won a regional title, but Saturday night, they looked like a team that deserved one. The Lancers held on to beat Coral Springs 80- 69 at home in the Class 8A regional final, and will advance to next week’s state final four.
Remone Birch opened the game with a breakaway dunk, but itwas the long ball, and an athletic defense, that carried Leonard past Coral Springs. The Lancers hit nine 3- pointers, including five in the first half, to take a double digit lead, and hold off a late push fromthe Colts.
Leonard will now face Winter Park on Friday at The Lakeland Center in the state semifinals.
The regional final appearance was the first for the Lancers ( 17- 12) since 2003, but there were no nerves for a team which finished with a losing record last season, that is until late in the fourth quarter. Leonard led 41- 24 at halftime, but Coral Springs ( 20- 4) came out of the break and shifted to a defensive press. The Colts pieced together a 13- 4 run to make it a single- digit deficit, and by the 2: 35 mark in the fourth quarter it was just a fivepoint game.
Birch took control of the Lancers’ offense with the pressure on, and drove to the lane for a bucket, before connecting on a free throw to secure Leonard’s first regional title.
“It feels great, we’re part of history,” Birch said after the game. “This is history in the making. A lot of people didn’t expect us to make it this far, butwe made it.”
The senior guard finished with 21points and junior forward Mario Saunders had a team- high 25 points.
Coral Springs was led by sophomore forwardsMyron Dewar and Jonado Fils, who each scored 20 points and helped spark the second- half turn around.
“I feel like we escaped a bullet. I didn’t want two more minutes of that game,” Leonard coach Jim Howell said. “We did a great job of holding the ballandwe stuck together. ... We have to focus onthe big prize, I’m so proud of these kids.”—