CFCA holds off Apopka in OT of Metro vs. Florida Challenge

Central Florida Christian Academy overcame a late run from Apopka to win 63-61 in overtime on Saturday in the Metro vs. Florida Challenge at Apopka High School.

Late free throws from 6-5 senior forward Eduardo Placer gave CFCA the lead with 0.7 seconds left in overtime. Placer led the Eagles (1-0) with 21 points.

“More than anything, he’s a high IQ kid,” CFCA coach Andrew Gustafson said. “He made some big shots and great decisions with the ball early in the first half and got us going. He’s a Division I basketball player for a reason.”

Time expired in the first overtime with the score tied at 61. After discussion by the referees, they ruled Placer was fouled with less than a second left to play.

Placer made both free throws to ice the victory.

CFCA led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter but went the entire fourth quarter without making a basket. Placer made a 3-pointer with 2:06 left in overtime to break the drought.

Junior David Marshall scored 20 points for Apopka (1-1), including the tying shot in regulation.

“The biggest thing we try to do for a guy that just needs experience is to stay balanced, to stay

emotionally even keel,” Blue Darters coach Scott Williams said. “When David plays within his box of talent like tonight, he just does some really good things.”

The Blue Darters outscored CFCA 19-4 in the fourth-quarter comeback. On the final play, the inbound pass went to Marshall, who turned around and banked it off the glass to tie the score at 54 to end regulation.

“We kind of put our hard hats on, and we started to see some results,” Williams said. “Win, lose, draw, I’m proud of the fact that we showed the kind of fight and the kind of character we believe we have and that we need to be successful.”

After a tightly contested first quarter, CFCA went into halftime leading 38-24.

The Eagles were buoyed in the first half by 7 made 3-pointers and forced two 10-second violations on defense.

“We had a lot of energy and we want to play that way with a lot of pressure and use our athleticism to turn people over,” Gustafson said. “We kind of ran out of gas on ourselves and that’s my fault.”

Through 26 games, the Florida teams lead 14-12 with two games left to play. Windermere improved to 2-0 on Friday after a 76-55 win over Windermere Prep and Evans also rolled in a one-sided 79-51 victory over Oviedo.