Culver boys win
CULVER — There was a sense of deja-vu for the Culver High School boys basketball team Tuesday night, but the outcome turned out much better this time.
Coming off a come-from-a-head loss last Friday, the Cavaliers found themselves in a similar predicament, but this time closed the deal with a 45-37 win over North Miami at John R. Nelson Gymnasium.
“I got a little nervous for a second, but it was the exact same situation - up 7 or 8 with about 3:30 to go - just like our last game (vs. Lakeland Christian),” said Culver head coach Kyle Evans. “Right after that game, we started the next practice with that scenario. (Last night) we took a timeout and talked about it and said, ‘We are going to close out this game.’ Now we’ve gotten over that hump. I’m really proud of our guys.”
Leading 35-24 with 3:31 to play, North Miami cut the lead to five with two minutes left, but from there the Cavs actually extended the lead for the eight-point victory.
Culver was 13- for- 16 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, 8-for-10 in the last 1:37 to help seal the win.
“That’s huge,” added Evans. “Sometimes our guys struggle there so that’s really big. We hit some key free throws.”
The Cavs scored the last 10 points of the first quarter to take a 14-4 lead into the second. Then it was the Warriors’ turn, as their 1-2-2 zone gave Culver fits and the visitors outscored the home team 13-2 in the frame to lead 17-16 at the break.
“We went into halftime and said, ‘Listen, we probably had the worst shooting half we’ll ever have and we’re just down one,” Evans said. “Keep taking those shots because they are going to fall. We see them in practice. When they know they’re not going to get pulled out when they are missing shots, they feel a lot better. They stepped up.”
Did they ever, especially Emiliano Ortiz.
The sophomore nailed a trio of three- pointers and Owen Clingler added another trey to account for all the team’s points as the Cavs outscored North Miami 12-4 in the third quarter. Ortiz finished with a game- high 14 points, including a 4-for-4 effort from the charity stripe in the last four minutes.
“He’s a kid I can’t take off the floor,” Evans said of Ortiz. “He’s an energy train. He’ll make sophomore mistakes, but I can live with them because he makes so many plays for us on both ends of the floor. He’s relentless on the defensive end. He’s going to be a good ballplayer for us for a few years. Those 3s were huge.”
Clingler (two 3s) joined Ortiz in double- figures with 10 points. Parker Johnson led the Warriors with 12. The Cavs enjoyed a 13-2 advantage from the foul line.
Culver’s next two games are also at home - Friday against Covenant Christian, then Saturday versus Knox.
• CULVER 45, NORTH MIAMI 37
At Culver
Score by quarters
N. Miami 4 17 21 37
Culver 14 16 28 45 NORTH MIAMI: Landen Hunt 3 0-1 7, Trevor Simons 0 0-0 0, Alex Masters 2 1-2 6, Parker Johnson 5 0-0 12, Braden Burns 2 0-0 5, Keagan Donaldson 3 13 7, Seth Ireland 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15 2-6
37.
CULVER: Owen Klingler 2 4-6 10, Josh Havron 0 0-0 0, Braxton Conley 3 0-1 6, Jalen King 2 2-2 6, Dalton Powell 2 0-0 4, Auston Zehner 1 2-3 5, Emiliano Ortiz 3 5-6 14. TOTALS: 13 13-18 45. 3-pointers: Culver 5 (Ortiz 3, Clingler 2), N. Miami 5 (Johnson 2, Hunt, Masters, Burns). Fouls (fouled out): Culver 16 (none), N. Miami 15 (none)
Records: Culver 2-2, N. Miami 0-2 JV score: Culver 34, N. Miami 18