Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dillard champs again
Dillard High players fall to the floor in celebration following their convincing 75-43 victory over Orlando Edgewater in the Class 7A state championship game on Saturday in Lakeland. It was Dillard’s second straight state title.
LAKELAND — Dillard is at the top of the state once again.
Jordan Wright scored 23, Raiquan Gray had 16 as the Panthers won their second consecutive championship in a dominant display with a 75-43 rout of Orlando Edgewater in the Class 7A state championship game at the Lakeland Center on Saturday afternoon.
Dillard won its Broward County-best seventh state title overall — all under coach Darryl Burrows, who ties Blanche Ely coach Melvin Randall for the state mark. Burrows is the only one to do it at one school.
It’s the program’s first back-to-back since winning four state titles in a row from 2000-2003. The Panthers also won it all in 2008.
“This was a brand new team,” Burrows said. “We didn’t talk much about last year. We talked about what we were going to accomplish this year, so we set those goals and we set the bar pretty high.”
Dillard (28-4) became the third Fort Lauderdale school to bring a title back to Broward County this season. Earlier Saturday, Calvary Christian — coached by Dillard alum and 2001 champion Cilk McSweeney — won the Class 5A crown, and on Friday night, Westminster Academy took home the 4A title. Last year, the Panthers were joined by Ely and Coral Springs.
Dillard stormed out to a 22-0 second-quarter run, scoring layup after layup either on the fast break or pounding the Eagles inside in halfcourt sets. The Panthers scored 48 points in the paint.
“We just knew to keep playing hard and not to let up,” said Wright, a 6-6 Kentucky signee for football where he plays defensive end. “We played team ball.”
Edgewater started the second quarter with a made free throw and hit a pair to end the frame. In between, Dillard scored the 22 unanswered as the Eagles were held without a field goal the entire quarter. Between a first-quarter 3-pointer and a third-quarter layup, Edgewater went nearly 12 minutes without scoring from the field.
“We knew we could not let that team get into a comfort zone where they can come down and dictate to us their will,” Burrows said.
Dillard held Edgewater to 23-percent shooting, and the Panthers won the rebounding battle 47-19.
The Panthers flirted with a running clock (35-point lead) at multiple points in the third quarter. Their largest lead was 33.
Wright began getting to the basket at will during the long second-quarter run. Gray, a 6-8 FSU signee who also had 11 rebounds, was hot early, scoring 13 by the end of a back-and-forth first quarter that made Saturday’s game appear like it would be competitive.
“I was kind of shocked myself with the shots I was hitting,” Gray said.
John Sellars scored nine points, and Bryce Oliver and Robert Johnson pitched in eight apiece.
Robert Allen led Edgewater (23-9) with 16 points.
Last year, the Panthers downed Largo 66-55 in the 6A title game.
Dillard’s lone loss within the state on the season came at the buzzer against Miami Christian, the Class 2A champion, in the Hoophall Invitational in December.