City of Palms Classic
Montverde Academy 83, Marietta Wheeler (Georgia) 72
The moral of Montverde Academy’s story on Tuesday: Not happy, but moving on to the fifth-place championship.
Montverde head coach Kevin Boyle stormed out of the locker room after his team’s win over Marietta, frustrated by an apparent lack of officiating. He did not talk to reporters following the win.
But in the fourth quarter, Montverde all but closed the door early.
Marietta cut the deficit to as little as three points early in the third quarter, but it would be the closest the Wildcats would get in a rematch of last year’s City of Palm’s championship as Montverde extended out its lead in the fourth and never looked back.
Following two free throws from Marietta’s Al-Wajid Aminu with 5:31 left in the fourth quarter, the Eagles went on a 10-2 run to extend the lead to 15 and then pushed it to as high as 16 before closing out the game at the free throw line.
Montverde’s Rowan Barett finished with 20 points and five assists, while E.J. Montgomery added 16 and 10 rebounds. Micah Potter had 13 points.
A day earlier, the Eagles, the No. 1 ranked team by USA Today’s Jim Halley, lost to No. 2 Chino Hills 83-82 and failed to advance past the quarterfinals for the first time since 2010.
But responding from the loss, the Eagles dominated long stretches against Marietta, which had 27 turnovers, and shot 54-percent from the field in the second half.
“Obviously us losing like that, we cleaned up the little things that we didn’t do last night,” Barrett said.
The Eagles move on to face Westerville South (Ohio), which won via buzzer-beater over Miami Norland 59-58 in the other fifth-place semifinal on Tuesday, on Wednesday at 5:00 p.m.
Westerville South (Ohio) 59, Miami Norland 58
Jordan Humphrey drilled a turnaround jump shot as time expired to push the Wildcats to victory in a fifth-place bracket semifinal game.
Humphrey grabbed a rebound with 3.5 seconds left and dribbled the ball into the corner before shooting an arching shot while fading away that found the bottom of the net.
The shot completed Westerville South’s comeback as the Wildcats trailed by as many as 10 points in the third quarter.
“It felt like the ball was in the air for about 20 minutes,” Humphrey said of his game-winning shot. “I noticed how much time was left on the clock and just got it and shot it.”
Humphrey’s shot spoiled an excellent game by Norland senior Dewan Huell. Huell, a Miami signee, finished with 22 points and 15 rebounds in 27 minutes.
The Vikings led 31-26 at halftime and 39-29 midway through the third quarter. Norland scored just 19 points in the final 17 minutes of play.
Andre Wesson led the Wildcats with 17 points. Kaleb Wesson scored 13 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for Westerville South.
The buzzer-beater was Humphrey’s first of his career.
“It’s a great feeling,” Humphrey said. “It’s a great feeling…It came down to the last play and we took advantage of our opportunity.”
Brooklyn Thomas Jefferson (New York) 75, Spain Park (Alabama) 71
Brooklyn Thomas Jefferson (New York) earned a 75-71 victory over Spain Park (Alabama) on Tuesday in a semifinal consolation game.
It started over an hour late due to a power outage.
“We didn’t close them out the way I wanted to close them out, but we did good, got the ’W’ and that’s all that matters,” Thomas Jefferson head coach Lawrence Pollard said.
The Orange Wave kept the lead throughout the first half and went into halftime with a 41-36 advantage on 55 percent shooting.
The Jaguars outscored the Orange Wave in the fourth quarter 21-15, but were unable to get within four points of Jefferson.
Orange Wave senior Shamorie Ponds went 11 for 22 and netted 28 points.
Curtis Smith added 23 points, going 7 for 10 from the field and 4 for 4 from the free-throw line.
Spain Park’s Austin Wiley, a 6-foot-10 center signed with Auburn, led all scorers with 34 points and had 14 rebounds. Jamal Johnson contributed with 18 points and 10 rebounds despite going 7 for 19 from the field.
West Linn (Oregon) 69, Wesleyan Christian (North Carolina) 67 OT
West Linn (Oregon) defeated Wesleyan Christian in overtime in a consolation semifinal game.
“I was disappointed in the first half because we weren’t making shots, and we kind of stopped doing what we were supposed to be doing,” Lions head coach Eric Viukola said. “I got on them at halftime and I thought we did a great job in the second half.”
Wesleyan led West Linn 37-21 at halftime, shooting 15 for 27 while it gave up just five West Linn five points in the second quarter. But the Lions bounced back from a 13-point deficit in the third quarter, moving ahead of Wesleyan 47-45 going into the fourth.
The teams went into overtime tied at 56 points, but the Lions took control in the extra frame, outscoring Wesleyan 13-11 in the period.
Payton Pritchard lead all scorers with 26 points and added 11 rebounds. Tate Hoffman and Will Mathiessen both added 13 points and eight rebounds for the Lions.
