Montverde sweeps GEICO Nationals
Montverde Academy’s dynastic boys basketball program won its sixth GEICO High School Nationals tournament and second in a row on Saturday.
And that turned out to be the purple and gold icing on the cake after the Montverde girls earned their first GEICO championship in a morning game at Florida SouthWestern State College in Fort Myers.
The Montverde boys (23-4) held Link Academy (34-2) of Missouri to one basket in the final five minutes to win 60-49. The Eagles finished on an 11-2 run.
The Montverde girls (20-3) defeated top seed New Hope Academy (27-3) of Maryland 61-57 in the early game on national TV.
Duke signee Dariq Whitehead finished strong after a quiet first half and 5-star junior Kwame Evans Jr. made a clinching 3-pointer for a 58-49 lead in the boys game with 36 seconds remaining.
“People don’t know the hours of work we put in,” Montverde senior standout Dillon Mitchell said afterward. “We practice three hours a day, six days a week.”
Mitchell, a Texas signee, had 17 points, 12 rebounds and 3 steals and was named game MVP. Whitehead, who was the MVP of Tuesday’s McDonald’s All-American Game in Chicago, scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half and added 6 assists. He came to Montverde as an eighth-grader.
Malik Reneau, a 6-foot-8 power forward who decommitted from UF last week, had 14 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists in the victory. Evans, a 6-9 junior, was 3 of 6 on 3s and scored 11 points.
The repeat GEICO title for the Eagles’ boys team is the sixth since 2013 for the nation’s most dominant program. Findlay Prep (Las Vegas), which no longer exists, won three of the first four GEICO tournaments which date to 2009. No other program has won twice.
Girls game: Montverde made 19-of-24 free throws Saturday after going 15 of 22 in Friday’s 67-54 semifinal win against DME Academy of Daytona Beach.
Fernanda Ovalle, a 6-foot guard from Santiago, Chile, led the Eagles with 21 points on 8-of13 shooting vs New Hope. She added 3 steals and 2 blocks.
As a Xavier signee, Ovalle is said to be the first Chilean girl to sign with an NCAA Division I basketball program.
Mjracle Sheppard, a junior guard from Seattle, scored 16 points for the Eagles. Janiah Barker, a senior from Marietta, Georgia, added 8 points and 12 rebounds.
Montverde’s regular season losses girls were against Texas state champ DeSoto, 51-46; Tennessee state champ Bearden, 83-79 in overtime; and DME 67-59. Among the Eagles’ wins was a 59-51 victory against FHSAA state champ Lake Highland Prep of Orlando.