A rising boys’ hoops power, Mater Lakes cruises to Junior Orange Bowl championship

After breaking through with its first ever regional final appearance a year ago, the Mater Lakes Academy boys’ basketball team took another step in the right direction on Friday night.

The Bears became the first South Florida team in 11 years (Hialeah Gardens in 2011) to win the Junior Orange Bowl Basketball Classic after they beat Miami Norland, 72-60, in the boys’ final at Westminster Christian.

Mater Lakes also became only the third boys team from South Florida to win the title (along with Miami Springs in 2007) since the event expanded to include teams from around the country in 2003. It also marked only the second time the boys’ title game featured a matchup of South Florida teams and first since Springs played Dr. Krop in 2007.

The Bears were coming off winning three of four games in a tournament in Las Vegas before rolling to 30-point wins over Hedgesville, West Virginia and Archbishop Carroll (PA) in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.

“Tonight was another big step for us,” said senior Christian Reid who finished with 12 points and 52 points over three games to earn tournament MVP honors. “We had a good showing in Las Vegas and now we came out here and turned in three good days of work and won this tournament so we feel really good where we’re at right now but we also understand that we’ve got a whole lot of work in front of us.”

Reid was talking about that regional final loss last year to a Calvary Christian team that went on to win the 4A state title.

“It was no fun getting all the way to the regional final last year and coming up 10 points short,” Reid said. “I want to do more than just get to Lakeland, I think we’re good enough to win the whole thing.”

Reid, along with teammates Anthony Knowles who was the team’s leading scorer with 16 and Michael Bradley (13 points) jumped out to an early double-digit lead on the Vikings that ballooned to as many as 19 points.

The Vikings (9-3) trimmed their deficit to 39-28 by halftime and got as close as seven early in the third. But the Bears didn’t flinch and quickly extended their advantage back up to 17 and cruised the rest of the way.

“We just played good team basketball tonight and nobody cared who scored what points, it’s just all about finding a way to get the dub (win),” Reid said. “It’s nice to win MVP but that’s all about individual stuff. We do this all as a team and always have each other’s backs.”

“It’s all about building brick by brick with this group,” said first-year Mater Lakes coach Dylan Estock who was an assistant on last year’s regional final team. “We’re still young and still trying to figure out where we’re trying to get. I think with this group that we have right now, every single day we learn something new about ourselves. We tend to go in spurts which is okay but the goal is to get to where we put together a full 32 minutes of basketball.”

MIAMI HIGH GIRLS FALL

So many times, the Miami High girls basketball team has been in overtime thrillers and seemingly every time, the Stingarees always found a way to make the big play in the big moment to pull out big wins.

But on Friday night, taking on Peachtree Ridge High School from Suwannee, Georgia, the defending state champions in Class 7A and defending champions of this tournament could not come up with the big basket in the big moment and dropped a 56-51 double overtime heartbreaker.

There was basically only one reason Miami High wasn’t able to come out on top and that came in the form of Peachtree’s Aaliyah Hunt.

Hunt, a 6-4 center and Georgia State commit, simply dominated from start to finish. Her final numbers of 25 points, 15 rebounds and nine blocked shots (one block short of a triple/double) only told part of the story. Even when she didn’t block a shot, the Stingarees struggled for any quality looks when they approached the basket.

Having to settle to too many outside shots that didn’t fall proved to be MHS’s downfall as Hunt was the unanimous choice for tournament MVP when that was announced in the postgame ceremonies.

“We knew when she got us too deep, we just didn’t have the kind of kids to match up with that,” Miami High coach Sam Baumgarten Jr. said. “So our idea was to try to pressure their guards and not let them look over it and that worked from time to time but it didn’t work as much as it should have.”

With all of Hunt’s dominance, Miami High still had a chance to pull things out. Senior Joelle Wilson, the only returning starter from last year’s state title team led the way with 16 points and her driving layup with 1:05 left in regulation put the Stings up 43-41.

But an MHS foul with 30 seconds left allowed Sanaa Tripp to go to the line and she made both free throws. Miami High’s Hazel Hernandez then drove the lane toward the basket in the final five seconds but Hunt was waiting for her and swatted the shot away sending the game to OT.

More bad stuff came just one minute into the first overtime when Wilson fouled out. But the Stings (11-4) kept battling. And when Joelle’s sister, Sydney Wilson (who finished with 12 points) went to the line for two shots and her team down 47-46 with 30 seconds left, the Stings could’ve taken the lead. After she made the first, the second bounced high up off the back rim and straight in. But in the process, the ball touched the wire above the rim nullifying the shot.

“It was just so hard to play her (Hunt) on defense without fouling because she’s just so big, a real wide body,” Joelle Wilson said. “Then unfortunately I picked up my fifth foul in overtime and couldn’t finish. Even though we didn’t win it tonight, playing really tough games like this will help us in the long run because we just don’t face teams like this in the district. Gives us a look once we get to the playoffs.”

On Thursday, Miami High knocked off nationally-ranked Lovejoy (Ga.) 62-46 in the semifinals, two tough quality games that were not lost on Baumgarten Jr.

“Playing a team like this tonight and the team we beat last night (Lovejoy, Ga.), this is exactly what we need and what gets you ready for where you want to go in February,” he said. “We don’t get a lot of this in the county, you have girls going to major Division I schools, have college coaches out here, it’s a great environment, a great atmosphere.”

OTHER GIRLS RESULTS

Third place – Lovejoy (GA) 60, Miami Palmer Trinity 54: When Palmer Trinity came out and buried a pair of 3-pointers to open the second half, they led nationally-ranked Lovejoy 30-19.

But the heavily-recruited Bryanna Preston proved to be too much as Lovejoy then took off on a 20-5 run to take a four point lead to the fourth quarter and never trailed again.

Preston, one of the top point guards in the country and who is near the top of the University of Miami’s target list, led all scorers in the game with 24 points while pulling down eight rebounds and dishing out four assists. Angelina DeLeon and Jade Leon led the way for the Falcons (8-4) with 17 and 14 points, respectively.

Fifth place – Somerset Silver Palms 50, Miami Norland 48: With the game tied at 48, Shanaii Gamble drove to the basket for a driving layup with 10 seconds left to give Silver Palms the win. Norland had a chance to tie when a Vikings player was fouled with one second left. But the first free throw was missed and the Vikings could not get the rebound on the second which was intentionally missed.

Dianka Hardisson and Ashley Martinez led the way for the Stallions (12-3) with 12 and 11 points respectively. Martinez, just a ninth grader who has been playing for SSP since the sixth grade is just nine points away from crossing the 1,000 point barrier. Shania Swan led the way for Norland (9-4) with 16 points.

Seventh place – Colegio Adianez (Puerto Rico) 48, Hollywood South Broward 45: South Broward (10-3) led by four (38-34) going to the fourth quarter but could not hold the lead as Colegio made the long trip from Puerto Rico worth it by picking up the win. Jamesha Card and Fabiana Poindujour led the way for South Broward with 20 and 15 points, respectively.

OTHER BOYS RESULTS

Third place – Archbishop Carroll (PA) 74, Lakota West (OH) 60: Having lost to two local teams in the semifinal, the two out-of-town teams battled it out for third place. Carroll (from the Philadelphia area) was led by Dean Coleman-Newsome who led all scorers with 21 points.

Fifth place game – Gulliver Prep 76, St. Brendan 57: The Raiders and Sabres went back and forth trading off three pointers (a combined 49 attempts) for nearly three quarters before Gulliver (11-4) pulled out of a 41-41 tie with a 9-0 run late in the third and never looked back, outscoring St. Brendan (9-4) 22-8 in the fourth to secure the win. Jeremy Arnum (22 points, 6 rebounds) and Jackson Mansfield (18 points, 7 rebounds) led the way for Gulliver. Adrian Alicea was St. Brendan’s top scorer, finishing with 15 points.

Seventh place – Hedgesville (WV) 50, Miami Westminster Christian 30: The Warriors hosted the tournament on their floor but walked away winless in three games as Hedgesville pulled away from a 15-13 halftime advantage to outscore WC (7-6) 35-17 in the second half. Gunnar McCormick led the way for Westminster with 11 points.