North Broward Prep avenges loss to Mater Lakes, advances to first state final four
Nearly a year to the day after they suffered a brutal five-point loss one step short of the state final four, the Coconut Creek North Broward Prep boys’ basketball team returned to the same gym to play the same team hoping the result would be different on this night.
That’s exactly what happened.
Thanks to a combination of great defense and perhaps their opponent having a disastrous shooting night, North Broward Prep turned the tables on defending 4A state champion Mater Lakes Academy on Friday night, cruising to a 49-37 victory in the Region 4-4A final.
“This group went through a tough experience last year, they remembered what it felt like after that game and I think they learned from that,” North Broward Prep coach Casey Wohleb said. “We had a little rough patch during the season but these kids kept working their tails off. Their confidence kept growing and growing, they stuck with it and now we’re playing really good basketball right now. This is a really confident bunch of guys.”
The loss avenged the Eagles’ 58-53 loss to the Bears in last year’s region final and they made some history in the process as they earned the program’s first ever trip to the state final four. North Broward Prep (24-7) will head to the RP Funding Center in Lakeland as the No. 2 seed and take on No. 3 St. Pete Gibbs in a 4A state semifinal on Thursday at 11 a.m.
To say the Eagles, the No. 3 seed in the region, earned their trip to Lakeland would be an understatement.
In a three-day span they went on the road and stunned Fort Lauderdale Calvary Christian 50-48 on a tip-in as the buzzer sounded. Then came Friday’s hostile atmosphere as NBP beat a team that rarely loses at home.
“Last year was a really tough moment for us and we came in here tonight wanting revenge,” said NBP senior point guard Raul Perez-Ruiz, who led all scorers with 18 points. “But that alone can’t carry you. We had to come in here tonight and play as a team and stay composed because this is a tough atmosphere to win. We earned this moment.”
Not only did the Mater Lakes fail to make shots in the first half, even the Eagles struggled from the floor as well as the halftime score read like most scores at the end of the first quarter – 16-9.
But it was NBP which enjoyed that seven point lead and when the Eagles came out and went on a 9-3 run in the first half of the third quarter, they led 25-12 and were in firm control of the game.
The Bears (21-9) got their deficit within nine to start the fourth quarter but when Perez-Ruiz got fouled and converted a three-point play to open the quarter, making it 30-18, Mater Lakes was never able to cut its deficit inside of single digits again.
“The key tonight was our defense,” said Perez-Ruiz. “We played some good zone defense, 2-3, 3-2, sometimes man-to-man which kind of kept them guessing what we were going to do. It’s incredible, what an honor to be part of history for this program but now that we’ve done this, we want more. After they beat us last year, they went on to win the championship. Now we want to do the same.”
A thunderous breakaway dunk by power forward Enrico Borio brought the Eagles bench and their fans to their feet as the lead ballooned to 44-27 with just over three minutes left.
“This was personal for us tonight,” said Borio who had the game-winning buzzer-beating tip-in against Calvary and finished with 12 points on this night. “We prepared for this game all season and just knew that somehow we were going to wind up coming in here again and we were going to make sure it was a different result. Now it’s time to go to Lakeland and make even more history.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2024 at 12:10 AM.