The Pines Charter and Stranahan boys’ basketball teams advance to regional final
When it meant the most, the Pembroke Pines Charter high school boys’ basketball team silenced the home side in this budding rivalry.
The Jaguars held of a stubborn Northeast side to defeat the Hurricanes 76-69 in a Class 5A regional semifinal at Northeast High on Tuesday.
Pines Charter (24-2) will travel to Okeechobee in a regional final on Friday. It will be Pines Charter second trip to the regional finals in school history.
Geoff Sprouse scored a team-high 23 points, including 11 in the final quarter to help hold off Northeast. Seven points on free throws.
Dallas Graziani also added eight of his 20 points in the final quarter.
“We had to play as a team,” said Pines Charter coach Dave Roca. “Talent doesn’t always win game, but teams do. We just had to play discipline basketball.”
Every time Northeast cut deep into he deficit, Pines Charter answered, while never relinquishing the lead.
The victory also erases the Jaguars only two losses of the season that both came to Northeast.
Pines Charter shot themselves in the foot in any attempted comeback by missing 16 free throw attempts. The late in the fourth quarter had four turnovers.
Wesley Cardet led Northeast (21-7) with 23 points, and Tyrecke Francois added 15 points
Early indicators suggested a high-scoring ferocious first half.
Both teams running up and down the court with recklessness. And early on Pines Charter looked like they would run Northeast out of it own gym.
Pines Charter was locked on converting three-pointers, dropping five in the opening quarter for a 26-15 lead.
Northeast, though scrappy at times hung in there, chipping away at the deficit as Cardet held his team close to withing five of the lead at 34-29
Stranahan advances to regional final
Daquion Vickers has had five game-winners in his high school career but none bigger than Tuesday when his buzzer beater kept alive Stranahan’s bid for a repeat state title and ended University School’s bid for a state three-peat.
With the overtime clock winding down Thaddeus Squire found Vickers for the game-winning basket as the Dragons shocked University School 63-61. As the final buzzer sounded, Stranahan fans stormed the University School court to join their team in a raucous celebration. University School fans and players, on the other end of the emotional spectrum, stared up at the scoreboard in disbelief.
Vickers’ winning shot off a wild scramble and capped a hard-fought battle between defending state champions meeting for the third time. Vickers said the Dragons, who won the 6A title las year, were bent on revenge after dropping their first two games to University School (back to back Class 5A state champions) by double digits.
“This is an emotional feeling,’’ said Vickers. “We are going to Lakeland next week. I told my team to get me the ball. Thaddeus Squire . It was off a scramble. He saw me and passed the ball. This is a good feeling right here. We lost to them twice this season . We had practice all week and coach [Terrence] Williams said University School is not going to beat us three games in a row.”
The Dragons will travel to face Gulliver Prep in the Regional Final on Friday.
University star guard Jett Howard led all scorers with 25 points, highlighted by a three-point heave off one foot that fell in to tie the game 58-58 with 48 seconds left in regulation and a tip in that put the Sharks up 61-58 with 2:40 left but fouled out with 1:48 left in overtime.
The Dragons were led by Chayse Culpepper who guarded Jett Howard for most of the night and finished with 18 points. But it was Dave Herrard (15 points) who sparked the Dragons when they needed it most with back-to-back three-pointers during a pivotal 13-0 run to forge a 31-31 half time score and then followed with emphatic breakaway dunk in traffic to start the fourth quarter.
Herrard gave up his starting spot four games ago to give the Dragons more punch off the bench and the move has the Dragons a game away from a return trip to Lakeland.
“I bring more energy off the bench,” Herrard said. “That dunk just cut the head off the body. That dunk was unbelievable. The first two games we started off strong but faded down the stretch This game we started off slow but finished off good. Our coach said play like we are down 21.”
Inady Legiste added 13 points for the Dragons. Roger McFarlane had 12 points for the Sharks.
—FABIAN LYON
BOYS’ VOLLEYBALL
▪ Mourning d. Barbara Goleman 3-0 (25-12, 25-18, 25-20): Grant Davis 11 digs, 6 kills, 8 services points; Ethan Negas 6 kills, 7 services points, 5 digs, Bruno Giudici, 9 assist, 10 services points, 2 kills.
▪ Columbus d. Terra 3-0 (25-22, 25-12, 25-19): Ignacio Brito 10 kills, 2 digs; Andre Gonzalez 9 kills, 6 digs; Gabriel Garcia 3 kills, 12 digs, 27 assist.
▪ Hialeah Gardens d. Coral Park 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-23): Daniel Mirabal 16 kills, 4 aces, 7 blocks; P. Gabriel 2 kills, 2 aces, 3 digs.
SOFTBALL
▪ Miami Beach 20 Ronald Reagan 6
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 9:28 PM.