The Sunshine Independent Athletic Association (SIAA) State Tournament is taking place this weekend at Daytona Beach State College. We took in last night’s semi-finals.
Semi-Final#1: The Rock vs. Victory Rock
The Rock out of Gainesville entered the tournament as the top seed. However, Joseph Hartman, a 6’5 senior committed to Michigan, was out with a broken hand. Victory Rock Prep, the five seed, hoped to take advantage of his absence.
Victory Rock Prep (VRP) got on the board first with a putback basket from 7’0 senior Moses Dau. The Rock responded with an 8-2 run as both 6’0 freshman Zaire Colbert and 6’5 senior DeAndre Harvey scored four points each to take an 8-4 lead. VRP then seized momentum with an 8-4 run to tie the game at 12-12 with 4:26 left in the opening period. After a bucket from each team, VRP went up four after two free throws from 6’2 senior Gedeon Foduop and a bucket inside from Dau. A Colbert basket got them to within two but Dau was fouled just before the buzzer. He made on of two free throws to give VRP a 19-16 lead.
The Rock opened the second quarter with a 5-0 run as 6’9 senior Trace Westercamp hit a three and Harvey scored in transition. A three from VRP’s Foduop returned the lead to them. Two free throws from Colbert gave the Rock a 23-22 lead, then VRP went on an 8-0 run with both 6’7 senior Abibou Gaye and 5’11 senior Rickey Castillas providing four points each. With 4:30 left in the second, VRP’s lead of 30-23 was its largest of the game. The Rock got back into it with a 6-2 run, four of those coming from 6’3 senior Jacob Pleyer. With one minute to go, VRP went back up seven, 37-30 after two free throws from Castillas. The Rock’s 6’5 senior Cordarius White knocked down a three and after Castillas scored on a drive for VRP, Colbert of The Rock beat the buzzer on a three-pointer to make the halftime score 39-36 in favor of Victory Rock.
The third quarter was played at a fast pace. The Rock got to within one, 45-44 at the six-minute mark but Castillas scored two baskets to push the VRP margin back to five. That didn’t last long as The Rock’s Harvey hit a three then dunked one on the break to tie the game at 49-49 with just over five minutes to play in the quarter. From there, VRP would take a lead only to have The Rock come back and tie the game. With 1:36 to play in the period, Foduop of VRP scored on a drive to give them a 57-55 advantage. Harvey then hit a three for the Rock and then Pleyer converted a three-point play to give them a 61-57 lead. Castillas hit a three to bring VRP to within one but a last second pair of free throws from Harvery gave The Rock a 63-60 lead heading into the final period of play.
That three-point advantage for The Rock stayed in place early in the fourth quarter. With the score 68-65, The Rock went on a 7-0 run as Harvey scored from mid-range and a drive and Pleyer hit a three. With just under four minutes to play, The Rock led 75-65 and time was becoming a factor. The closest VRP would get would be six, 75-69, with 2:47 to play. The Rock would extend their margin to ten and win by the score of 83-73.
The Rock was led by Harvery with 31 points. Colbert added 17, Pleyer finished with 12 and White contributed 10 points.
For Victory Rock Prep, 6’1 senior Noah Mister led the team with 15 points. Both Fouduop and 6’3 senior Mike Willson added 13 points each, and Gaye finished with 12 points.
Semi-Final#2: DME Academy vs. Academy of Central Florida
DME Academy came in as the two seed in the tournament. However, they certainly were not at full strength as 6’1 senior Nathan Kirk was out with a foot injury, 6’9 junior Yohane Kabongo was unavailable with a hand injury and 6’7 junior Ryan Hampton was out with the flu. The Academy of Central Florida now had a numbers advantage but DME wasn’t making any excuses.
For the early part of the first quarter, it was more Troy Fason, a 6’0 junior for DME, vs. Symon Ghai, a 7’3 senior. ACF looked to go inside and use their size advantage each time out while Fason found success attacking the basket. With 6:30 to play, each of those players had their teams’ only points and the score was tied at 6-6. An 8-2 run by ACF, featuring threes from 6’3 junior Martay Barnes and 6’6 junior Marion Martinez, gave ACF a 14-8 lead with 2:35 left in the quarter. DME scored two quick baskets to get to within two but ACF scored the final two baskets of the opening quarter to lead 18-12.
DME’s 6’4 senior Chris Kitenge hit a thee to open the second period. ACF responded with an 8-2 run featuring back-to-back threes from 6’6 junior Adrian Cordoba and now led 26-17. A bit later, Barnes of ACF hit a three to give them a double-digit lead, 31-21, with just under four minutes to play in the quarter. DME got back into it with a 7-2 run as Fason hit two free throws and 6’6 junior Patrick Birmingham dropped in a three and then hit a mid-range jumper to make the score 33-28 with 1:32 until the break. Those would be the last points for DME as Ghai slammed one home inside and Barnes scored in transition to make the score 37-28.
A 6-2 run by DME to open the third period got them back to within five at 39-34. A three from Barnes and two free throws from 6’7 senior Filipe Minzer returned ACF’s lead back to ten. Baskets would be exchanged for a bit and with 4:28 remaining in the period, Fason scored at the rim to bring DME to within seven, 47-40. At than point, the bottom fell out for DME. ACF closed out the period with a 13-0 run. DME struggled with turnovers and some missed shots at the rim during this run and ACF took advantage. With one period left to play, ACF led by twenty, 60-40.
For a bit, it looked like the final period would hold little drama. With 7:31 to play, ACF led 66-45. Now it was DME’s turn to take advantage of errors by ACF. A 10-0 run, highlighted by a Kitange jam, got DME back to within eleven, 66-55, with 5:20 left to play, plenty of time to complete a comeback thanks to the SIAA’s use of a thirty-second shot clock. However, that would be as close as DME would get. ACF hit a couple of timely threes and would go on to win by the score of 76-62.
Barnes led ACF with 19 points. Ghai had 14 points, all in the first half. Cordoba added 11 points and both Martinez and Minzer finished with 10 points each.
Fason of DME led all scorers with 22 points. Kintenge finished with fifteen points and Azjuan Matthews, a 6’8 junior, added 13 points.