Sagemont’s resurgent boys’ basketball season ends with loss to OCP in state championship
Sagemont’s season began with uncertain expectations.
The Lions only had three players back from last year and only two really played because Nedas Zukauskas dealt with nagging injuries. They had four new starters to put in place and none had much of a reputation as a star in South Florida. They did click in summer workouts and preseason tune-ups, but those would only tell David Roe so much.
After years of middling season and early playoff exits since its last run to the final four in 2015, Sagemont was still trying to find the right alchemy to get back to Lakeland, and the coach wanted to wait and see what it would look like once the season actually began before he elevated expectations too high.
It turned out the Lions found it in their offseason and it was enough to get them to the Class 2A boys’ basketball championship Saturday at the RP Funding Center. It was as far as it would take them, though. In the second half, the Lions ran out of steam during a 66-49 loss to Orlando Christian Prep.
“OCP is as tough as they get. And we battled and battled, and battled and battled,” said Roe, who was an assistant coach for Sagemont’s two state title-winning teams. “I hope this becomes commonplace again for us.”
The Lions (25-7) trailed by 10 in the first half and managed to battle back to cut Orlando Christian’s lead to 33-30 at halftime, and then the Warriors (26-4) ran away. Led by a pair of Division I-bound guards and another blue-chip post player, Orlando Christian Prep opened the second half on an 8-0 run and outscored Sagemont, 15-4, in the third quarter to pull away for its third straight state title.
The Warriors are now only the third team in state history to win 10 Florida High School Athletic Association championships and all 10 have come since 2008. The Lions are still looking for their third after winning in 2011 and 2014, and losing title games in 2008, 2012, 2015 and now 2022.
They were never able to get comfortable against Orlando Christian Prep, which is ranked No. 33 in the nation by MaxPreps. Guard Adrian Cruz, who scored 40 points in Sagemont’s overtime win in the 2A semifinals, finished with 15 points and shot just 6 of 22 in his final game as a Lion, and the Warriors outscored Sagemont, 30-18, in the paint. The Lions hung around by making nine three-pointers, only it took them 38 attempts to get there and they went cold in the second half, shooting just 3 of 20 from long range.
“The length—it was pretty difficult,” Cruz said. “Normally, most of my points come off layups and floaters, and it couldn’t come tonight because they’re pretty solid and pretty big.”
On the other end, AJ Brown, who signed a national letter of intent with the Ohio Bobcats last year, scored 21 points on 8-of-18 shooting, while fellow guard Ven-Allen Lubin, who signed with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds.
Those two — plus star forward Jayden Hastings, who’s a top-100 recruit in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2023 — helped keep the Lions at bay, even after they sliced a 14-point second-half deficit down to seven in the final three minutes.
After Cruz hit a wild and-one three-pointer to cut Orlando Christian Prep’s lead to 56-49 with 2:48 left, the senior missed the free throw and and Sagemont sent Lubin to the line. The senior also missed his free throws, but Hastings grabbed the offensive rebound, then another and finally scored to push the Warriors’ lead back to 58-49. Forward Nedas Zukauskas missed the front end of a one-and-one on the other end and the Lions’ final push fell short.
“Against [Hastings], it was pretty rough in the first half,” Zukauskas said. “I tried to hit him a little bit, but in the second half he was outdoing me, I could say. I tried my best and he was tough—big, strong, big muscles.”
Zukauksas was Sagemont’s only other player to score in double figures, finishing with 14 points and five rebounds on 6-of-10 shooting.
He and Cruz were the only seniors to play for the Lions this weekend. They’ll be challenging to replace, Roe knows, but it’s part of what it will take to get Sagemont back to where it was about a decade ago, when it went the state semifinals in 6 of 8 years from 2008-2015.
In the next six years, the Lions never got past the region semifinals. Those days, Roe hopes, are over. Even as he leaves, Cruz is confident they are.
“I said it to Coach Roe,” the senior said. “’We’re back to being a powerhouse again.’”
This story was originally published March 5, 2022 at 11:31 AM.
