Riviera Prep boys’ basketball rides smothering defense to school’s first state title
Riviera Prep boys’ basketball coach Anthony Shahbaz had a good feeling about his team.
Three days earlier Shahbaz watched eighth-grader Myles Fuentes’ game winner with one second left send the Bulldogs back to the state finals.
And five days before that, he watched Riviera Prep erase an 18-point deficit against Westminster Academy to earn a trip back to Lakeland.
“I felt after the way those last two games ended that there was something bigger waiting for us,” Shahbaz said.
It turns out Shahbaz was onto something.
Riviera Prep brought home its first state championship in emphatic fashion with a 51-27 rout of Windermere Prep in the Class 3A state final on Saturday at the RP Funding Center.
The Bulldogs (27-6) used a smothering defense that held Windermere Prep to the lowest point total scored by any team in a state final since 1950.
That was the year Riviera Prep opened its doors as a K-8 school, later expanding to become a high school in 2011. The Bulldogs completed their third state final four appearance with their first championship in only the sixth season for their boys’ basketball program.
“I thought we’d have a chance to blow them out not because (Windermere Prep) is a bad team or has a lack of talent, but I just saw this team laser-focused during the past two days of practice,” Shahbaz said.
The Lakers nearly committed as many turnovers (26) as they had points. Windermere Prep’s leading scorer Brandon Bass Jr. (18.1 points per game this season) shot 0 for 11 and was held scoreless with five turnovers.
Windermere Prep led 5-4 just before a 10-minute delay due to a scoreboard malfunction. When play resumed, the Bulldogs took the lead on a layup by Dante Allen and would never trail again.
“We’ve prided ourselves on defense all year. Out of the 33 games we’ve played in 27 of them, we’ve held the other team to a season low,” Shahbaz said. “We take it personal with scores and we feel we are going to make you earn every point. We win with class but we’re a little nasty on defense.”
Riviera Prep had 15 steals led by 7-foot sophomore Gustavo Guimaraes, who had four of those takeaways and led the Bulldogs on the offensive end with 20 points on 7 of 12 shooting.
Guimaraes, who played his second season for Riviera Prep since moving to Miami from his native Brazil, also did a great job shutting down Windermere Prep’s own 7-foot center Sinan Hua (two points).
“The last game I didn’t play my best game and I just wanted to do the best I could for my team,” Guimaraes said.
Allen finished with 14 points on 7 of 12 shooting, but found himself in more of a distributor role in Saturday’s game, which drew praise from his coach after the game.
Allen, Cooper Josefsberg and Joe Radcliffe Ametepe each had three steals.
Ametepe delivered another performance that may not have been as eye-catching on a boxscore, but nonetheless vital to the team’s defensive performance.
Ametepe, one of two senior starters for a predominantly young Riviera Prep team, totaled eight points, six rebounds and three steals. But it was the job he did neutralizing talented forward Christian Watts, who came in averaging 13.4 points per game to only seven points. Watts committed six turnovers.
“(Watts) kept bumping me and trying to foul me out, but I kept my composure,” Ametepe said. “I knew we needed to play team ball. You don’t know how much this means to me.”
Shahbaz called Ametepe the “heart and soul” of his team for the way he carried himself during his career on and off the court and nearly got emotional knowing he had played his last game in a Riviera Prep uniform.
“I’ll probably shed that tear tonight that this was the last game coaching Joe. He’s so unselfish and doesn’t care about anything but winning,” Shahbaz said. “Joe put it on display tonight as (Watts) had a rough night and that’s because of how physical he was with him.
“If we don’t have this guy, I’m not sure we’re here right now. His motor never stops and it’s contagious. Everyone on this team takes a small piece of what he brings to the table. We lost by one point last year and he didn’t have his best game. Every single day he sent the same message that he was not going to let it happen again.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2023 at 1:44 PM.
