Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Wellington stays perfect en route to tournament semis
WELLINGTON — The Wolverines’ perfect season continues, as the team clinched a berth in the boys basketball state semifinals on Friday.
Senior forward Jonathan Philistin took over the game in the second half and scored a game-high 15 points as Wellington pulled away for a 55-41 victory against Deerfield Beach in a Class 9A regional final.
Wellington (30-0) remained undefeated and will play Miramar in Lakeland next Friday. The Wolverines have reached the state semifinals in three of the past four years.
“It’s a great feeling and so happy for the kids and what they were able to achieve,” Wellington coach Matt Colin said. “We were very unselfish and we were able to share the basketball and open up the offense in the third quarter.”
The Wolverines outscored the Bucks (22-9) 14-6 in the third quarter to take a commanding 38-26 advantage. Philistin scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half.
After holding on for a two-point victory against Boca Raton and a threepoint win over Atlantic leading up to the regional final, the Wolverines had a strong finish in the fourth on Friday.
The Bucks cut the deficit to 42-33, but Philistin scored on a pair of layups to help the Wolverines regain the momentum and seal the win.
Wolverines senior guard Bryan Williams and Nico Toledo each scored 11 points. Cornelius Butler added nine points and Linton Brown had eight.
The Bucks, who went on the road and earned an upset of Coral Springs in the regional semifinals, trailed 24-20 at halftime.
Jerome Loy scored 13 points and Victor Robinson added 12 for the Bucks..
LEESBURG 77, STRANAHAN 43: Defending state champion Leesburg used a decisive 13-0 run in the first half to propel the Jackets over the Dragons in a 6A boys basketball regional final.
Leesburg’s relentless defensive pressure created seven steals and forced eight Stranahan turnovers before halftime, and the Jackets converted many of those miscues into fastbreak layups or slam dunks.
Cyrus Nance was the top scorer for the Dragons with 15 points.
Leesburg (28-1) led 19-13 after the first quarter on the strength of a 10-0 run. Lance Erving, who finished with a game-high 23 points, hit a pair of 3-pointers to start that Jackets run.
Trailing 38-18 at halftime, Stranahan (20-7) made a run to start the third quarter, trimming the lead to 39-26 on a free throw by Nance, however, Leesburg answered with an 11-0 run to take a 50-26 lead. Dray Graham, who had 18 points, had the final six points of that run for the Jackets.
MIRAMAR 54, SOUTH MIAMI 48: According to Miramar coach Tramaine Stevens, one of the strengths of his players all season has been their composure and their ability to avoid getting rattled.
That determination was put to the test as the Patriots hit their final eight consecutive free throws to earn a win over the Cobras in a Class 9A Regional Final at home.
The win propels Miramar (27-3) to the state tournament for only the second time in school history. The Patriots will face Wellington in a state semifinal next Friday in Lakeland.
The game was a grinding, low-scoring affair early as the Patriots led the entire first half. South Miami (20-5) took its first lead with 30 seconds to play in the third quarter and held on to hold a 46-42 lead with 4:09 to play.
That’s when the Patriots’ toughness kicked in, not allowing the Cobras to score another field goal the rest of the way. A baseline layup by Immanuel Crump tied the game at 46 with 2:14 to play. From there, four different Patriots hit both free throws every time they went to the stripe.
Crump converted a pair with 34 seconds to play to push the Patriots’ lead to four, and Damian Miller sealed the win with 10 seconds to play converting both ends of a one-andone. Crump and Miller each finished with 12 points.
TAMPA CATHOLIC 68, OXBRIDGE ACADEMY 63: Oxbridge Academy knew the task at hand when the boys’ basketball team walked into the Tampa Catholic gym for at Class 5A regional final.
For the previous two years, the ThunderWolves were denied their first state tournament appearance with regional final losses to this same team, on this same floor.
Oxbridge (21-8) could not change its fortune this year. The ThunderWolves, who had won their past nine games and 14 of their previous 15, lost again to Tampa Catholic 68-63. The Crusaders (26-5) won their eighth straight game and will make their third consecutive final four appearance Wednesday in Lakeland.
“It’s heart-breaking,” Oxbridge coach Brandon Strassburger said.
Oxbridge scored nine of the game’s first 11 points and never trailed in the first half, but went into intermission tied at 26 when Tampa Catholic’s Marcellus Crutchfield banked in a 3-pointer from straight away at the buzzer.
With the game knotted at 31 early in the third period, Oxbridge fell behind for good when Tampa Catholic scored nine unanswered points.
Oxbridge cut a 47-35 deficit to three points three times in the final quarter — the last time at 66-63 on an A.J. Cajuste 3-pointer with 8.1 seconds left. But the Crusaders put the game away at the free-throw line, where they made 25 of 33 attempts after neither team had a foul shot in the first half.
Jack Meyers led Oxbridge with 20 points. Cajuste added 12 and Dante Wilcox 11.
“We battled foul trouble in the first half and we missed a lot of layups,” Strassburger said. “[Tampa Catholic] had a lot of momentum going into the third quarter, they hit a couple field goals to start [the quarter], and we never really recovered from that.”