Focused Pride cruise to win
Coblin’s 19 points lead balanced effort in 2A quarterfinal.
BOCA RATON — Grandview Prep’s most important objectives in its 9040 rout of Davie-Posnack Jewish Hebrew Day in Thursday’s Class 2A quarterfinal Thursday night were for the Pride to stay focused and injury-free.
Grandview had a handle on its opponent early and a 20-point lead at the end of the first quarter that only increased as the game wore on. The Pride didn’t want to fall into the trap of not taking an opponent seriously as they look to contend for a state championship.
“Coach ( Joe Dawson) always tells us never to look at the score and to keep playing like we’re losing,” said Jamal Palmer, who had 13 points and eight rebounds for the Pride.
Jordan Coblin led Grandview (24-3) with 19 points and the Pride made it a point to spread the ball around as much as possible. Jacob Schner added 15 points, Juwand Frazier contributed nine points and a career-high 15 assists, Matt Schner had 10 rebounds and 10 assists, and Jacques Marcelin had nine points and 10 rebounds.
“We just try to concentrate and still try to play hard and play the right way,” Dawson said. “We just don’t want to devel- op bad habits. We want to share the ball and be unselfish, and I thought our guys did that, and we were able to escape injury to move on to the next round.”
The Pride found their groove from 3-point range in the second half. Of Grandview’s 14 field goals in the second half, nine were 3-pointers, which Dawson said was a product of his players utilizing their strengths and taking the available shots.
“We have a really good 3-point shooting team and when we move the ball and guys aren’t selfish, we do have, every time, at least four guys on the floor who can shoot it,” Dawson said. “Especially in the second half, we were able to really move the ball and guys weren’t selfish, and we made open shots and that’s a big thing for our team.”
Grandview will play the winner of the game between Deerfield Beach-Zion Lutheran and Hialeah-Champagnat in Tuesday’s regional semifinals.