2011 champ LHP improved
Joel Berry said Monday that nothing about his team has really changed since Lake Highland established itself as a Class 4A boys basketball state championship contender by winning Winter Park’s Rotary Tipoff Classic last December.
Technically, the standout junior guard is correct. But his humble assessment left out the fact that all of the Highlanders’ starters are a year older, stronger and more experienced.
Lake Highland ( 2- 0), which scored impressive wins against 7A Evans and 8A Dr. Phillips to start the season, brings five of its top six players back to this week’s Tipoff tournament. It would have been six of six had not burly forward Landon Stokes injured a knee in his final high-school football game. The Vanderbilt football commit is still with the basketball team but is not expected to play this season.
“Losing Landon, that’s about eight points and eight rebounds a game,” Berry said. “We miss his physicality, but Nik Dean comes in and he’s a workhorse. He makes us even faster.”
Dean was a productive reserve as a junior, whenthe Highlanders were 28-4 and state runner-up.
Rice signee Denzel Davis (6-foot-8), junior guard Jay Henderson and senior guard B.J. Simpson are the other starters alongside Berry, whowas the 2011Tipoff MVP to crank up a campaign in which he averaged 23.4 points per game and became Florida’s first sophomore Mr. Basketball.
Berry is averaging 28.0 ppg this season.
Lake Highland’s quarterfinal Thursday night will be against 8A West Orange (1-0), which the Highlanders beat for the title in a memorable 85-83 shootout last season. Berry had 49, including the winning basket on a contested drive.
“I definitely thought this tournament last year was a great springboard for us,” LHPcoach Jeff Turner said. “That West Orange game was such a battle. That gave us a lot of confidence.”
The eight-team field includes five preseason Super 16 teams: No. 2 Lake Highland, No. 3 Orlando Christian Prep (0-1), No. 4 Boone (0-1), No. 9 Oak Ridge (0-1) and No. 11 Wekiva (1-1).
Host Winter Park (2-0) will play Lake Brantley, which was 2-1 before a Tuesday game.