Special to The Laker/Lutz News

By Eugenio Torrens

The Land O’ Lakes boys basketball claimed its first district championship since 2001 by beating Mitchell 58-56 on Feb. 10.

The Gators (21-6) squeaked by the Mustangs (20-7) in the Class 6A-District 10 title game in Mitchell’s gym, giving the central Pasco County program its first home playoff game in more than 10 years.

“(It’s) just exciting for the kids,” said Land O’ Lakes coach David Puhalski. “They weren’t even old enough probably to remember that.”

The victory was not without its nerve-wracking moments, including a game-winning layup by Jackson Cannon of a pass from Ernest McClendon.

“Definitely the last pass by Ernest was slow motion,” said Cannon, who finished with six points. “I made the last shot, but that’s not what won the game. Defense won the game.”

The final buzzer sounded as Cannon’s shot trickled through the basket, but the referees huddled together and after a group discussion added 2.1 seconds to the clock.

The Mustangs’ resurrection was unfulfilled as Jake Driscoll’s last-second heave bounced off the backboard and the front of the rim before falling harmlessly to the ground.

The Gators beat Mitchell in both meetings this season, an 11-point win on the road and a 19-point triumph at home.

This time, with the district championship at stake, the Mustangs gave Land O’ Lakes all they could handle — for 29.9 minutes anyway.

“That was close,” said Cannon, a senior forward. “(Driscoll) almost scored.”

Even the first half had an exciting finish.

Mitchell took a 23-21 lead with less than a minute to go when Bernie Conley drained a 3-pointer. McClendon responded with his own circus shot, sinking a trey of his own while being fouled.

McClendon made the and-one to give his team a 25-23 halftime lead. The senior guard scored 17 of the team’s 25 first-half points and finished the night with 20.

“I had to come out strong,” McClendon said. “I knew Driscoll was going to come out strong, so I felt I should try to match up with him.”

The Gators went more to their inside game in the second half. Center Victor Obi, the only Land O’ Lakes starter who isn’t a senior, finished with 14 points.

“It’s a great feeling,” Obi said. “We’ve been planning for this all year. It was our goal to win districts this year. We had our struggles in the beginning, but finally came through and conquered in the end.”

The Gators built a seven-point lead after three quarters, but the Mustangs rallied to tie when Jordan Dong made one of two free throws late to set up Land O’ Lakes’ final play with 10.5 ticks left. Puhalski was a bit nervous with Driscoll, who averages 23.9 points, on the court with any time left.

“Jake Driscoll on the floor, 2.1 seconds is a lifetime,” Puhalski said. “It ain’t over until that ball hits the ground.”

The Gators can add 2011-12 to the banner hanging in their gym, but a pair of early season losses threatened to derail the title run. Land O’ Lakes dropped its first two contests of the year, including a 38-point L at home to Wesley Chapel.

“Coach (Puhalski) gets on us a lot because we haven’t won (a district title) in so long,” McClendon said. “At the beginning of the season, he said we were sitting on something special, but we had those first two losses — so that sort of made us second-guess. But we proved ourselves.”

By Eugenio Torrens

Through one quarter, it was hard to tell which team was the No. 1 seed in the Class 8A-District 7 tournament.

After three more quarters the picture became much clearer.

Top seeded Wharton (24-3) won its district semifinals game over Bloomingdale 54-23 on Feb. 8.

“We fully expected it to be a tough game, and it was,” said Wildcats coach Tommy Tonelli. “District play is like that.”

Wharton extended its win streak to nine games by defeating Plant 68-48 Feb. 10 for the championship, its third straight district title. The Panthers were the only 8A-7 team to beat the Wildcats in the regular season.

Wharton bested the Bulls (10-15) in their two regular season games by an average of 21 points. That could explain why Bloomingdale, which played a man-to-man defense against the Wildcats this year, opened in a 2-3 zone to control the paint and force outside shooting.

It worked, as the Bulls’ defense held Wharton to five points in the opening period, but the Wildcats held Bloomingdale to the same total.

“We were just pretty off, just taking bad shots, not moving the ball around, not getting transition points and some layups,” said Wildcats junior guard Jaken Grier, who finished with 14 points.

In the second quarter, Wharton found an offensive stride while holding strong on defense, outscoring Bloomingdale 16-6.

At halftime, Tonelli preached passing and attacking. His team heeded his advice and came out in the third quarter scoring as many points (21) as it had in the first half.

By the time the final period started the Wildcats were up 42-17.

“We just go out there and play tough defense and let it all out there on the court,” Grier said. “We have that mentality — that assassin’s mentality — that we’re going to go out there and get it.”

By Kyle LoJacono

The Wiregrass Ranch boys basketball team had a lot of questions entering this season.

The Bulls (17-10) lost seven seniors, including four starters, from last year’s squad that went 22-8 en route to the program’s first district championship and playoff berth.

The players have changed, but the results were similar this year. Wiregrass Ranch defeated Steinbrenner 85-75 in the Class 7A-District 9 semifinals on Feb. 8, clinching a postseason spot.

“It was the best feeling,” said junior forward Rico Kerney, the Bulls only returning starter. He then added, “This shows coach (Jeremy) Calzone is a great coach. We all wanted to win for him and each other.”

Calzone, the only coach in the program’s six-year history, wasn’t nervous about being the only Pasco County team among four Hillsborough squads in 7A-9.

“We’ve been playing Hillsborough schools since we opened,” Calzone said. “What I was worried about was all the new guys being nervous, and they haven’t.”

The Bulls weren’t just moving up junior varsity players and converting guys off the bench into starters this year. They also had to work in two transfers; guards Christian Parra and Dimarco Burgess who came from Wesley Chapel and Freedom, respectively. The squad lost three of its first four games while allowing almost 92 points per contest.

“We were a little shaky at the beginning,” Burgess said. “We practice every day, we don’t take days off, and we’ve also done a lot of team bonding. We’ve been together every day since August, so we’re doing so much better.”

Wiregrass Ranch came up short of consecutive district titles, falling to tournament host Chamberlain 80-65 on Feb. 10. Parra scored 17 against the Chiefs (16-7), while Burgess added nine. Kerney posted 10 points and 10 rebounds.

In the semis, Wiregrass Ranch jumped out early on Steinbrenner (11-10) with a 10-3 lead midway through the first quarter, but the Warriors stormed back to tie it at 14 entering the second thanks to three 3-pointers by Isaiah Goncalves.

Kerney heated up in the second, pouring in 14 of his game-high 32 points after being held off the scoreboard in the opening period.

“I have a (right) ankle sprain and I was thinking about it the whole first quarter,” Kerney said. “My teammates and coach Calzone told me to just block it out. … It hurt, but it was more I was thinking about it.”

The Bulls went into halftime leading 39-29, but the Warriors weren’t done. Steinbrenner scored 16 of the of the first 22 points coming out of the locker room, tying the game at 45 in less than 4 minutes.

Wiregrass Ranch trailed 63-59 minutes into the fourth when Calzone changed the defense from a 1-3-1 zone to 2-3 to get more bodies attacking the offensive glass to negate the Warriors’ height advantage.

“Their coach (Steve Williams) did some things in the second half that gave us trouble,” Calzone said. “We’re always going to be out-sized, so we just challenge our big guys to do the best they can rebounding.”

Burgess, the shortest Bulls player at 5-foot-9, scored six of his 10 points in the fourth while picking up steals on back-to-back possessions. He also pulled down a critical rebound setting up Larrentz Manora for two of his 22 points to give the Bulls a 75-71 lead they never relinquished.

“He might be the smallest guy, but he has the biggest heart,” Calzone said.

Burgess and Kerney each had seven steals. Kerney also added 14 rebounds.

Goncalves led Steinbrenner with 24 points including six 3-pointers. Joey Maloney scored 19, while Ke’Shawn Ingram and Drake Wagner added 14 and 11, respectively.

By John Morton

Laker Correspondent

The Wesley Chapel boys basketball team is playoff bound, but for the second straight year it must take to the road in the quest for the program’s first state title.

The Wildcats (24-4) suffered a 68-61 setback to Hudson (18-10) in the Cobras’ home gym on Feb. 11 in the Class 5A-District 8 championship.

“We really didn’t play very well, but I think better days lie ahead and our best basketball is still to come,” said Wesley Chapel coach Doug Greseth.

The Wildcats maintained a lead until late in the second quarter, but fell behind by as many at 16 points in the fourth. Jamal Branco poured in 36 points to put Hudson on top of the No. 1 seeded Wesley Chapel.

Erik Thomas, who led the team with 26 points, and Julian Vann, who added 10, fueled a late comeback that got the Wildcats to within five with 3:35 to play, but Branco hit two free throws to ice the game with 30 seconds remaining.

“Our kids fought back hard, which showed a lot, but give (Hudson) credit for building that lead and holding it,” Greseth said. He then added, “We got into foul trouble late in the half and guys were tired. That was probably the turning point in the game.”

An array of turnovers plagued the Wildcats all night, as did problems converting down low.

“We made some uncharacteristic mistakes and missed an awful lot of layups,” Greseth said. “That’s not like us.”

Despite scoring 26, Thomas found the going tough in the paint, as the Cobras held him to two first-half field goals.

“The one thing we have, and maybe as much as anyone in the county, is length,” said Hudson coach Jason Vetter. “Thomas is going to get his points because he’s that kind of a player, but we bottled him up and didn’t let him control the game.”

By Jeff Odom

Laker/Lutz News Correspondent

The Academy at the Lakes boys basketball team couldn’t overcome early offensive miscues as the Wildcats fell to Cambridge Christian, 43-34 in the Class 2A-District 8 title game on Feb. 11.

Still, Wildcats coach Tom Haslam said his team played tough in solidifying the first postseason appearance in program history.

“If you would have told me at the beginning of November that we could be a district runner-up and go play a road game for a regional game, being one of 32 teams left in the state, I’d say I’ll take it,” Tom said.

After the two teams combined for eight points in the first quarter, the Lancers (21-4) began to set the offensive pace after the academy (15-8) missed a pair of open 3-point attempts.

Cambridge’s Phillip Johnson knocked down a long 3-pointer to give his team early momentum.

The Wildcats tried to answer with outside shooting, but many were well off the mark. Tom said the game plan was to focus on perimeter shooting because of the Lancers’ size advantage and defensive awareness.

“We’re not very good at going in there and getting tight, going at those guys and going up over the top,” Tom said. He then added, “We didn’t think we could pound them inside.”

With his team down six midway through the third quarter, academy’s Ethan Haslam found a rebound off of a wide 3-point attempt from teammate Jarrett Harvey and slammed it home for two of his 13 points to get the Wildcats within four.

That’s the closest it would get, as Cambridge pulled away heading into the final period.

“Our kids will get over this real quick, we’re still real proud of what we did,” Tom said. He then added, “We got our meat and potatoes, but this would have been gravy to win the title. … We’re young, we only have two seniors, so the future looks really bright.”

By Eugenio Torrens

When Sunlake denied Land O’ Lakes its eighth straight district championship 3-2 on Jan. 27, the Gators wanted a rematch in the playoffs.

Mission accomplished.

Land O’ Lakes (21-3-2) beat the Seahawks (17-7-3) 5-1 in the Class 3A regional semifinals on Feb. 3 to advance to the third round of the playoffs for the first time since 2005 — when the current Gators senior class was in fifth grade.

“The guys were very upset that they weren’t getting their eighth in a row, and I know that affected them,” said Land O’ Lakes coach Mark Pearson. “I don’t know if that was a revenge factor, but I know that they felt they could play much better than they did, and they came out tonight and proved it.”

Not only did the Gators win keep their season alive — it also gives them bragging rights over the cross-town rival Seahawks.

“It seems really to have evolved into one side of town against the other side of town I guess you could say,” Pearson said. “I think it’s a great rivalry.”

Coming into the regional semifinals, the two teams had split the season series, one game apiece and a tie, but Land O’ Lakes had the most lopsided victory with a 5-1 W on Dec. 12.

When Sunlake beat the Gators for the Class 3A-District 8 district championship six weeks later, it marked the first time the fifth-year program has gotten the better of Land O’ Lakes ever.

Losing the district served as motivation seven years in the making for the Gators.

“You don’t even understand, every single one of us players was thinking ‘Hey, come on, we obviously dominated the last game (against Sunlake, 5-1),” said Land O’ Lakes senior forward/midfielder Miguel Laliberte, who scored a goal in the semis. “There’s no way we can’t get the result the next game. … It means a lot to everybody to win a game like that to find out that we’re the better team at the end of the year.”

The two teams scored a goal each less than two minutes apart in the first half. The Gators got on the board first in the 12th minute on a header from Josh Davis, but the Seahawks responded when Calvin Restrepo booted in a firecracker from 25 yards out.

Despite an evenly contested first half, Land O’ Lakes stepped up the offense with constant pressure on Sunlake goalkeeper Brandon Jungbauer in the second, pouring on four goals while shutting the Seahawks out.

The Gators second-half offensive onslaught was almost stopped in its tracks early when a ball got through Jungbauer’s legs, but a defender was able to stifle the scoring attempt. Seconds later, Land O’ Lakes went ahead when Sean Young got a loose ball off a corner kick and fed Jake Frahm to make it 2-1.

Frahm assisted Laliberte in the 54th minute to put the game out of reach.

“Obviously we wanted to win the district championship and that loss just made us want to beat them that much more,” Frahm said. “Coming into districts, I think since we beat them 5-1 before, we could just beat them, walk onto the field and beat them and that wasn’t the case.”

The Gators didn’t stop attacking with the 3-1 lead. Their last two goals came with less than 10 minutes to play, in the 72nd and 73rd minutes, by Davis and Andy Garcia, respectively.

Land O’ Lakes won 4-0 at Fivay in the regional quarterfinals on Jan. 31. Garcia got the Gators on the board first off a pass from Nathan Dalton, who scored the game’s next three goals.

Sunlake bested Gulf 4-1 in its quarterfinals contest, the first home playoff game in program history. The Seahawks got goals from Jared Landry and Conner Gilboy, along with a pair of tallies from Connor Spencer.

By Kyle LoJacono

The Gaither boys soccer team won its first two regional tournament games this year, but only had to take the field once.

The Cowboys (19-4-1) defeated Eagle Lake Lake Region (17-7-3) 3-1 at home on Jan. 31 in the Class 4A regional quarterfinals. They were scheduled to play at Lakeland George Jenkins (21-4-2) in the semis on Feb. 3, but the Eagles had to forfeit the contest after using an ineligible player in their quarterfinals game against Freedom.

Gaither coach Eric Sims said he got official word from the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) around 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 3. FHSAA spokesman Corey Sobers said Freedom will be credited with another win this year, moving its record to 12-5-1, but the Patriots won’t get the chance to move on as per the association’s bylaws.

The forfeit gives Sims 200 wins during his 11 years coaching high school, all with the Cowboys.

Gaither started the quarterfinals contest slowly, but got on the board first in the 20th minute when Jonas Bukh buried home a pass from Cody Hodgens, who subbed in less than a minute before the tally.

The Thunder answered in the 29th minute. Jacob Kalogridis hit a through ball to Brent Moore, who capitalized.

The home squad allowed seven shots on goal while taking four. Lake Region also controlled possession for most of the half after the water break.

“My message to them at halftime was we played about as bad as we can play and we’re not losing,” Sims said. “That’s a good thing. Somebody has to find a way to step up and light a fire under us.”

Bukh worked with Paul Barrett, who was moved from midfield to forward after halftime, to light that fire. Bukh sent a through ball to Barrett that he fired past goalkeeper Fernando Aguirre in the 52nd minute.

“It was unbelievable,” Barrett said. “I started off kind of slow, but I was able to bounce back with Jonas helping me out. He just hit it up to me, and all I had to do was chase it down and get a shot. I missed two early, but Jonas kept passing it to me.”

The two combined on an almost identical goal in the 74th minute.

“Paul makes good runs, so why not get him the ball,” Bukh said. “I know he can finish.”

Sims said of Barrett, “He’s so big and so strong and so fast. Once he gets going he’s hard to stop.”

Bukh’s goal was his fifth in three games, giving him 21 this season. Just having Bukh was a gift for the Cowboys, as the senior forward lived in his native Denmark last year after spending his freshman and sophomore years at Gaither.

“The season he’s put in is up there with some of the top performances we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Sims said. “Early in the season he would have a good game, then a not so good game, so he wasn’t consistent. Now it seems like he’s more consistent because he’s fit.”

Cowboys goalkeeper Carlos de Oliveira, a converted midfielder, made nine saves, six in the first half.

“The thing with Carlos is he isn’t your typical keeper,” Sims said. “The way that he plays is different, and I think that’s played to our advantage. He’s made some saves that regular goalkeepers wouldn’t make.”

Reaching the regional finals is nothing new to Gaither as the program has done so seven times in its 27-year history, but just making the postseason was a bit of a surprise for a squad that lost 10 seniors including its top-two goal scorers and its starting goalkeeper from a year ago.

“We were expecting to get back to regionals even though we lost a lot of players,” Barrett said. “We had a bad first half (against Lake Region), but overall we’re playing our best soccer.”

By Kyle LoJacono

The Wharton boys soccer team had outscored opponents 71-24 entering the playoffs, but the Wildcats’ offense dropped off in the regional tournament.

Wharton (18-5-1) was unable to score any goals in its last three contests this year, including the Class 5A-District 7 finals and its two playoff games.

The Wildcats survived the regional quarterfinals Jan. 31 at Countryside in penalty kicks but were upended 2-0 at Palm Harbor University (16-1-4) in the semis Feb. 3

“We had an excellent season and the boys played very well,” said Wharton coach Scott Ware. “It’s probably the best bunch of boys I’ve had since I’ve been at Wharton. The family atmosphere we’ve created out here; I’m happy with the way this whole season went. It’s just unfortunate tonight we came up a bit short.”

The Hurricanes struck in the second minute and added an insurance goal 13 minutes after halftime.

The Wildcats had plenty of possession against Palm Harbor, but the ‘Canes defense stifled Wharton in the final third of the field to prevent quality scoring chances. The Hurricanes had 11 shots on goal while allowing only two.

“They’re very organized,” Ware said. “They don’t lose shape very often. We didn’t get enough boys up into the attack to generate more chances around the 18 and crack that defense.”

The Wildcats were in the game thanks to nine saves from 5-foot-10 junior goalkeeper Keenan Kushner.

“He’s what gives us confidence in front of him,” Ware said. “If we didn’t have him it could have been a different story all season long. He kept us in the match tonight. … He gave us hope and he’s been just a wall. I’m glad we’ll have him back next year.”

Wharton will have to find replacements for nine graduating seniors, including its top three scores. Felipe Desousa set a Wildcats record with 28 goals this season while adding 14 assists.

“I’ve had some good senior classes and this one is up near the top,” Ware said. “They’ve done things for each other and not for themselves all season. Felipe had 28 goals, but he also gets everyone involved and picks them up. They’ll be tough to replace.”

Wharton reached the showdown at Palm Harbor after needing extra penalty kicks to defeat Countryside. Joseph Ferrin buried home his penalty kick on the Wildcats’ 10th attempt to send his squad to the semis.