Mater Lakes boys cruise to title; Miami High girls fall short in OT
After breaking through with its first regional final appearance a year ago, the Mater Lakes Academy boys’ basketball team took another step in the right direction on Friday night.
The Bears became the first South Florida team in 11 years (Hialeah Gardens in 2011) to win the Junior Orange Bowl Basketball Classic after they beat Miami Norland, 72-60, in the boys’ final at Westminster Christian.
Mater Lakes also became only the third boys’ team from South Florida to win the title (along with Miami Springs in 2007) since the event expanded to include teams from around the country in 2003. It also marked only the second time the boys’ title game featured a matchup of South Florida teams and first since Springs played Dr. Krop in 2007.
The Bears were coming off winning three of four games in a tournament in Las Vegas before rolling to 30-point wins over Hedgesville, West Virginia, and Archbishop Carroll (PA) in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.
“Tonight was another big step for us,” said senior Christian Reid who finished with 12 points and 52 points over three games to earn tournament MVP honors.
Junior Orange Bowl Girls’ final — Peachtree Ridge (Ga.) 56, Miami High 51 (OT): So many times, the Miami High girls’ basketball team has been in overtime thrillers and seemingly every time, the Stingarees found a way to make the big play in the big moment to pull out big wins.
But on Friday night, taking on Peachtree Ridge High School from Suwannee, Georgia, the defending state champions in
Class 7A and defending champions of this tournament could not come up with the big basket in the big moment.
There was basically only one reason Miami High wasn’t able to come out on top, and that came in the form of Peachtree’s Aaliyah Hunt.
Hunt, a 6-4 center and Georgia State commit, simply dominated from start to finish. Her 25 points, 15 rebounds and nine blocked shots (one block short of a triple/ double) told only part of the story. Even when she didn’t block a shot, the Stingarees struggled for any quality looks when they approached the basket.
Having to settle for too many outside shots that didn’t fall proved to be MHS’s downfall as Hunt was the unanimous choice for tournament MVP.
“We knew when she got us too deep, we just didn’t have the kind of kids to match up with that,” Miami High coach Sam Baumgarten Jr. said. “So our idea was to try to pressure their guards and not let them look over it and that worked from time to time but it didn’t work as much as it should have.”
With all of Hunt’s dominance, Miami High still had a chance to pull out a victory. Senior Joelle Wilson, the only returning starter from last year’s state title team, led the way with 16 points, and her driving layup with
1:05 left in regulation put the Stings up 43-41.
But an MHS foul with 30 seconds left allowed Sanaa Tripp to go to the line, and she made both free throws.
Miami High’s Hazel Hernandez then drove the lane toward the basket in the final five seconds but Hunt was waiting for her and swatted the shot away, sending the game to OT.