Riviera Prep tops Miami Country Day to secure fourth consecutive trip to state

Riviera Prep’s boys’ basketball team is headed to the state final four in Lakeland for the fourth consecutive year.

The two-time defending state champion beat Miami Country Day 50-46 Thursday night to capture the Region 4-2A title and earn a shot at winning its third consecutive state title.

In front of a boisterous sellout crowd crammed into their home gym — many trying to buy tickets at tip-off were turned away at the entrance — the Bulldogs overcame an early seven-point deficit and pulled away after the Spartans knotted the score at 41 with about three and a half minutes left.

“We’ve been blessed to go [to the state semifinals] four years in a row,” Riviera Prep coach Anthony Shahbaz said. “We’ve been after this three-peat since last year. We won, I gave the kids two, three days off, and said ‘It’s right back to the drawing board.’”

Thursday, the Bulldogs moved another step closer to that three-peat.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” sophomore forward Jeremy Jenkins said. “Now it’s time to go win it.”

“We know we have two more,” senior guard Alonzo Metz said. “So, we’re not resting.”

Jenkins led the Bulldogs with 15 points, junior point guard Mason Fuentes tallied 14, and Metz added 10 off the bench, including eight in the second half during a crucial stretch.

He broke a 31-all tie with a 3-pointer in the waning seconds of the third quarter, scored on a putback for a 38-33 lead and sank another 3 after Country Day had closed the gap to a single point. Of having the confidence to hoist those shots in that situation, Metz said, “I got my coaches supporting me, my teammates supporting me. It’s easy from there.”

Sophomore guard Miguel Orbe led all scorers with 16 points in the loss. Junior swingman Fernando Romero (12) and senior forward Chaim Galbut (10) also scored in double figures for the Spartans, who posted 99 points in a 32-point win against Chaminade-Madonna in the regional semifinals.

“We put seatbelts on people,” Jenkins said.

“We knew everything they were going to throw at us,” Metz added.

The Bulldogs have “prided ourselves on defense since I got here seven years ago,” Shahbaz noted. “Our goal every single game is to hold the other team to their season low [in points].

“Their season low was 54 and we said ‘Hey, we want 53 or better.’ And we were able to pull that off, luckily, because our guys just battled.”

After Country Day tied the score on Orbe’s runner in the lane, Fuentes drew a foul behind the arc and sank all three free throws. Jenkins made a layup with 1:15 left and Fuentes split a pair at the line 33 seconds later to give Riviera Prep a six-point lead.

Orbe drained a difficult off-balance 3-pointer from the corner with 31 seconds left, and after Jenkins made one of two free throws, Aiden Reid drove for a layup to cut the deficit to two. The Spartans fouled reserve guard Emi Moreno with 17 seconds left.

Scoreless to that point, Moreno stepped to the line and calmly sank both free throws to seal the victory.

“I just trusted in myself,” Moreno said. “It’s just like practice. You practice that shot every day and you know that moment is going to come. I had confidence in my free throws when it did. There was no nervousness. My team had my back, so you just live in the moment.”

The Bulldogs fell behind 8-1 in the opening minutes, but ended the quarter tied at 8 and led 21-17 at halftime. The entire game was played at a frenetic pace, matching the electric atmosphere inside the gym.

“Throughout the season we’ve played some crazy games to prepare us for this,” Moreno said. “And we got the outcome we wanted.”