District 7A-6 girls: St. Cloud 39, Harmony 33
Saturday, Harmony’s girls couldn’t pull the upset its boys did Friday night, as St. Cloud took their third district title in four years (and sixth in seven) with a 39-33 win at Coach Mac Court.
The Bulldogs (18-8) pulled the grind-it-out win against a scrappy Longhorns (13-9) team with first-half offense and second-half defense. The low-scoring game was a nod to Coaches Chad Ansbaugh (SCHS) and Paul Strauch (HHS) playing high-level chess against each other. The players then ran with it.
“I’m so, so proud of this kids, they’re so competitive, and give credit to Paul’s kids,” Ansbaugh said. “If we had to play them in two weeks, or if this game had another quarter or two, they probably get us.”
After the teams played to a 7-7 first-quarter tie, the Bulldogs shot their way into the lead with four three-pointers in the second quarter, two by Vanessa Vohs, to take a 21-13 at the half. Arianna Viera, who led all scorers with 13, hit another three right out of halftime to push the lead to 11.
Harmony answered with free throws from Jaymelee Montanez, who led the Longhorns with 10, and a three-pointer from D’Vinity Cook, and stayed in reach throughout the game, trimming the lead to four in two stretches of the fourth quarter.
Bulldog seniors like Viera, Vohs and Savannah Kroener have now appeared in the district championship all four years and won three titles.
“We’ll be able to come back and look at the banner (in the gym listing district championships) and feel like we’ve left a legacy,” Kroener said. “And there’s still more to play for us.
District 7A-9 girls: Haines City 77, Celebration 41
The Storm (12-10) will await to see if they appear on the Region 3 brackets Sunday after losing their district championship game to the Hornets (20-5).
District 5A-7: New Smyrna Beach 56, Gateway 48
The Panthers (20-6) couldn’t make a 39-37 lead hold up against the district’s No. 1 seed Barracudas (22-5), and will likely be on the road when the regional playoffs begin Thursday.
District 1A-9 girls: Victory Christian 58, City of Life 21
District 1A-9 boys: Victory Christian 87, City of Life 47
Regional playoff brackets will be announced by the FHSAA on YouTube on Sunday at 2 p.m. The regional quarterfinals will be on Thursday and semifinals on Tuesday, Feb. 18.
FRIDAY
District 7A-6: Harmony 49, St. Cloud 46
Mason Fontaine broke a tie by knocking down two free throws with 12.3 seconds remaining and Jaden Smith came up with a huge steal as the second-seeded Harmony Longhorns upset #1 seed St. Cloud, 49-46, to claim the district championship Friday at Cypress Creek.
“We knew how talented and explosive their offense can be,” Harmony Coach Duke Leonardo said. “We told our kids if we could hold them in the 30s or 40s than I would like our chances and fortunately we were able to do that.”
St. Cloud began the game efficiently to build a lead. Alex Springs scored nine points and the Bulldogs hit seven of 11 shots to take an 18-12 advantage. The Harmony defense started to assert itself in the second period – holding Osceola to just 11 points – but they only managed three field goals of their own and trailed by nine at the half, 29-20.
All the momentum would switch to the Longhorns after intermission.
A couple of three-pointers early from Ivan Ramos and a three from Sylus Cory cut into the St. Cloud early in the half. Still the Bulldogs used a pair of threes from Josiah Cotto to maintain a 38-34 advantage heading into the final stanza.
Cory, who led all Harmony scorers with 17 points, gave the Horns their first lead since early in the first quarter at 40-38 when he knocked down a three with 4:32 remaining in the game.
After Harmony built a five-point lead, Springs kept St. Cloud in the game with a couple of tough buckets under the basket – including a game-tying shot in the final minute. Harmony decided to run the clock down for a final shot, but Fontaine was fouled with 12 seconds remaining.
After Fontaine made both free throws, St. Cloud had possession and a chance to win the game with a three or tie with a two. Harmony’s pressure forced two quick timeouts by St. Cloud, and Smith tipped a pass away and made a clean steal. He was quickly fouled and made the first free throw to extend the lead to three. But his second attempt missed and was tipped out of bounds with 3.3 seconds left with possession going to St. Cloud
The Bulldogs got the ball in, but Diomar Ortiz’s desperation three from just inside half court bounced harmlessly off the backboard to preserve the Harmony win.
“I can’t say enough about how this fought and clawed all year,” Leonardo added. “Smith has been our best defender and once again Sylus Cory put our offense on his back. We were not a very deep team this season and the four seniors in our starting lineup deserve so much credit for how they battled all year.”
With the win, Harmony goes to 19-8 and gains automatic entry into next week’s Region 2 Tournament. That region is loaded with three teams ranked in the Top 20 in the state across all classifications — including #4 Windermere, #12 Oak Ridge and #17 Wellington – which means that Harmony will most likely be on the road as a six, seven or eight seed when the field is announced on Sunday.
“Regardless of who we end up playing, it’s going to be against a great opponent,” Leonardo added. “But we are going to approach that game the same way we have all season. We will scrap and claw and give it all we have.”
It was a disappointing loss and the possible finish of the season for St. Cloud, who won a school record 23 games this season. The Bulldogs came into the game ranked 38th overall in the state and fifth in the region but now will have to wait to see how the computer rankings come out to see if they garner one of four available at-large spots for the regional playoffs.
Windermere, Harmony, Centennial and Wellington all qualify as district champions; which leaves St. Cloud in a computer fight with Olympia, Oak Ridge, Jupiter, Palm Beach Central and Ft. Pierce Central for one of the four available spots. With Olympia and Oak Ridge ranked higher than St. Cloud, they most likely will take two of those four spots.
“I thought we played a solid game tonight. We missed some shots that normally fall for us and Harmony’s three-point shooting in the second half really hurt us,” Billiteri said. “I believe our team deserves to move on, but we’re going to have to wait how the rankings come out. I told our guys how proud of was of our season, but also told him I wasn’t ready to give an end of the year speech. I am hoping we have some more basketball to play.”
District 4A-7: Bishop Moore 45, Liberty 41
Despite an exciting fourth quarter, the Chargers (16-5) couldn’t pull down their first basketball district title in school history.
Bishop Moore carried a deceiving 6-20 record coming in, as it looked and played the part of a contender. That was evident in the second quarter when the Hornets took a six-point lead, then expanded it to 13, 27-14, at halftime by dominating the offensive boards and getting three straight put-back shots.
“We’re used to getting off to fast starts, and we just came out flat,” LHS Coach Steven Ross said.
Liberty locked down on defense in the third quarter, holding the Hornets to four points. The Chargers trailed, 31-23 entering the fourth quarter and then traded buckets, but the hole was too deep to claw out of.
The Chargers pulled within three at 31-28 when Tijay Jones, who led Liberty with 12, drained a three-pointer with 5:31 left. Bradon Rivera answered with a three for Bishop Moore, but on the next drive down Tasir Best put back his own miss to make it 34-30 with four minutes left. But the Hornets hit their next two shots to build the lead back to six, and the Chargers couldn’t pull within one score.
“We never stopped believing,” Ross said. “I’m proud of these young men, bit as a group we all wanted to win this. We didn’t play our best. But we aren’t done and we’ll get back to work tomorrow.”
Lamar Lee scored all seven of his points in the fourth quarter. Connor Corris led Bishop Moore with 14 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and three blocks.
Liberty, which was last a district runner-up in 2009 and is having its first winning season in a decade, should still earn an at-large playoff berth when the brackets are released Saturday.
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