Road Warriors: OCP rallies to top Pioneers
Monday’s matchup billed as Orlando’s high school boys basketball game of the year hardly lived up to the buildup artistically.
But Orlando Christian Prep, the top-ranked team in the Sentinel Super 16, was able to prove once again that it can win ugly if it has to. The undefeated Warriors overcame an early 10-point deficit to win 59-56 on the road against secondranked Oak Ridge in the third and final game in the Martin Luther King Dream is Real Classic at Oak Ridge.
Two state-ranked Metro Conference teams, Olympia and Apopka, scored wins in the first two games of the tripleheader.
OCP is the top-rated team by MaxPreps across all seven FHSAA classifications.
Oak Ridge, MaxPreps’ top-ranked team in Class 7A, came out firing. Guards Michael James and Fabio Basili both made two early 3-pointers as the Pioneers jumped out to a 14-4 lead. OCP scored the next eight points to close the gap but was still down 22-16 midway through the second quarter.
OCP took its first lead when its leading scorer, A.J. Brown, scored his first points of the night on a 3-point shot that came off an inside-out pass from Ven-Allen Lubin. That made it 23-22 in favor of the Warriors. Lubin then scored off a rebound and OCP led 27-24 at halftime and 47-40 through three quarters.
OCP stretched that lead to 54-44 with 4:07 to go when Brown penetrated and bounced a pass to Lubin for a two-hand slam. The Warriors then went three minutes without a bucket and hurt itself with missed free throws. OCP was 10-of-20 from the line for the night, and that would have been worse had not senior guard Omar Figueroa made 7-of-9.
The Warriors held on as Oak Ridge had its own struggles from the free-throw line.
“The ball wasn’t going in, so we had to dig in a little and force them to miss some shots,” OCP coach Treig Burke said. “We were able to get the clock to run out with us on top.”
Lubin scored 18 points and Figueroa 13 in the win.
James scored 20 and Basili 19 for Oak Ridge. They combined to make seven 3-pointers.
Oak Ridge played without two senior starters, Jalen Smith and Roddrick Henry.
Smith, an SMU signee, suffered injuries to both of his wrists early in Friday’s win against DP and underwent surgery.
Henry is undergoing tests for cardiac-health issues and has been sidelined since the December holiday break.
OCP has won three tight games. The Warriors edged 3A No. 4 Jacksonville Bishop Snyder 68-66 in December and then had to claw back from an early 15-point deficit to beat area No. 3 Windermere 62-59 on Jan. 9.
A rugged stretch for OCP continues when it plays in the Wally Keller Classic in Punta Gorda this weekend. The Warriors play the home team, Punta Gorda Charlotte (12-4), on Friday night and then meet a Jacksonville Jackson team (10-3) on a hot streak on Saturday afternoon.
BLUE DARTERS WIN: No. 6 Apopka defended well, drew fouls with dribble penetration and made free throws in a 65-51 win against No. 9 Central Florida Christian Academy that snapped a losing streak and buoyed a team playing with heavy hearts.
The Blue Darters (9-5) got 26 points from senior leader John Latimer III and stymied CFCA comeback hopes by making 14 consecutive free throws in the second half. They were 22 of 26 from the foul line for the game. Latimer hit 12 of 14.
It was Apopka’s first victory since assistant coach Earl Graham died on Jan. 8 after contracting COVID19.
“I think this is a big game for us. I think that swings the momentum,” Latimer said. “It’s been hard.”
The challenged was made harder because Apopka head coach Scott Williams missed four games due to his own coronavirus quarantine during the five-game losing streak. That disrupted practices and preparation for a team that already was pained.
Apopka lost four of those games against ranked teams, including a Saturday loss to OCP, and lost three times by three points or less.
“I was ecstatic with the way we played Saturday. And this was a really big win against a very good team,” Williams said. “Every day for us is about basketball healing and emotional healing and finding that balance.”
Jamar Houston made five 3-point shots, four in the third quarter, and finished with 23 points for CFCA
(10-6). But the Eagles struggled to make free throws and missed 14 of 15 field goal tries in an ice-cold stretch in the first half.
TITANS TAKE OVER: Olympia, No. 5 in the Super 16 and No. 7 in 7A, dealt Class 6A No. 6 Auburndale only its second loss of the season, earning a 66-46 win. The Titans went on a 17-2 first-half run to take control.
Senior forward Tyeree Bryan led the Titans with 25 points, mixing three 3-point shots with strong inside finishes. Jalen Adams also hit three treys and totaled 13 points.
Olympia has won 12 of its past 14 games.
Auburndale (11-2) lost for the first time this season to an FHSAA team.