Seniors Griffin, Johnston give Westminster chance for 3-peat

LAKELAND — Veteran Westminster Academy coach Ehren Wallhoff got misty-eyed just talking about it.

Wallhoff and the twotime defending state champion Lions advanced to their fourth consecutive Class 4A state championship game Wednesday with a 64-57 victory over Jacksonville University Christian in the 4A state semifinals at the RP Funding Center.

Westminster Academy (25-4) will face Seffner Christian in the championship game at 2 p.m. Thursday. Seffner Christian took down Miami Riviera Prep, 68-59.

“It’s been really fun to have guys like this who compete day in and day out,” an emotional Wallhoff said. “I love ’em. They do the little things in practice. They work.

“They never give me grief. It’s been that way since we started the run four years ago. It’s been exciting to see what they’ve been able to accomplish, knowing how good the can be ... knowing the experience ... knowing what it takes to get here and get back.”

The Lions are shooting to become just the second program in Broward County history to win three consecutive state championships. Dillard High won four in a row from 2000-2003.

This is the fourth consecutive year seniors Chase Johnston and Tony Atkinson have played in the 4A state championship game. Westminster lost in the finals three seasons ago before winning it all the past two years.

Texas Arlington guard signee Sam Griffin led Westminster offensively with 25 points and 6 rebounds. Johnston — a Purdue Fort Wayne signee — added 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Johnston canned 3 of 7 3-pointers Wednesday to increase his number of career 3-pointers made to 542. That is the national record.

“The two of them play off each other so well,” Wallhoff said of Griffin and Johnston. “They are just playing at a high level and it’s exciting to see. You add what Stephan [Swenson] does — finding people, creating and getting people open and spreading the floor. And when you have Ben [Middlebrooks] and Tony rebounding the way they are ...”

Middlebrooks, a 6-foot-8 freshman, had a huge game in the paint, pulling down 17 rebounds and blocking 8 shots. Swenson contributed 10 points and 6 assists.

Denzel Wiggins led University Christian (28-4) with 21 points and Lenzy Hancock Jr. added 16.

The Christians shot just 4 for 25 from 3-point range and were badly out-rebounded by Westminster, 43-26.

“The one key today was definitely they out-rebounded us,” University Christian coach Keith Stroud said.

“They beat us on secondchance points.”

University Christian closed to within five points in the fourth quarter but that would be as close as the Christians could get.

Westminster Academy built a 34-20 halftime lead thanks in part to a 13-0 run late in the second quarter, capped off by Johnston’s third 3-pointer of the first half.

The tide turned when University Christian’s Hancock had to go to the bench with his second foul.

Westminster Academy broke out to a 15-6 advantage early behind an eightpoint spurt from Johnston. The shooting guard canned his first three shots of the game, including two 3-pointers.

University Christian fought back with an 8-2 run of its own to cut the margin to 17-14 at the end of one quarter.