We took in the Class 1A Region 2 Championship between district rivals Orlando Christian Prep and Central Florida Christian Academy.  CFCA was the top seed in the region despite losing the district title game to OCP on CFCA’s home court.

CFCA got out to a quick 4-0 start as 6’6 senior Alex Dipaolo scored inside and 5’10 junior Josh Hernandez hit a baseline floater.  OCP got on the board with two free throws from 6’7 sophomore Jayden Strader and tied the game on a putback from 6’5 senior Mason Pandov.  A three from CFCA’s 6’0 senior Sean Storr and another Hernandez score put CFCA up by five.  Strader scored in the lane for OCP and after one period of play the score was just 9-6 in favor of CFCA.

Much like the first quarter, CFCA got off to a good start.  Trevor Miller, a 6’0 junior scored at the rim and 6’5 senior Dylan Campbell drained a pair of free throws to push the Eagles’ lead to seven, 13-6.  OCP scored four straight to get back to within three.  CFCA then went on a 10-0 run to break the game open.  Both Miller and Campbell had four points each while Hernandez finished it off with a driving score to turn a three-point lead into a 23-10 advantage.  OCP stopped the bleeding for a bit with a free throw from 6’8 junior Maddox Harden and a transition basket from Pandov to get to within ten.  CFCA closed out the period with a free throw from 6’6 senior Lucas Robertson to lead by eleven, 24-13, at the half.

The third quarter got off to a different start than the previous two.  The teams matched each other basket for basket for much of the period and the lead for CFCA swung continuously from nine to eleven points for quite some time.  With CFCA up 34-25 just past the midway point of the period, OCP cobbled together a 6-1 run to get the Warriors to within four, 35-31.  Shortly after that OCP bucket, a technical foul was assessed to OCP.  Not only did CFCA hit both technical free throws, but Campbell drained a three to close out the period.  Instead of being down only four, OCP now had a nine-point, 40-31 hole to dig out of.

That hole got larger as CFCA reeled off seven straight points to go up 47-31 early in the final quarter.  OCP responded with a 9-2 run of its own to get the margin back down to nine at 49-40.  After a CFCA score, a pair of putbacks by OCP got them to within seven but now time was becoming a factor.  OCP sent CFCA twice to the foul line, but the Eagles only hit two of the four shots.  Down 53-44, OCP’s 5’10 senior Solomon Bradshaw knocked down a three to get to within six, 53-47.  With under a minute to play, Hernandez found his way to the free throw line with OCP needing to get the ball back.  He hit four straight free throws to keep OCP at bay.  Pandov hit a late three to make the final score 57-52 in favor of CFCA.

CFCA was led by Campbell with 16 points.  Hernandez scored 14 points while both Miller and Dipaolo added 10 points each.

For OCP, Strader led the team with 16 points.  Pandov added 14 points.

CFCA will now face top seed Weston Sagemont at 3PM on Thursday, March 5 in the Class 1A semi-final in Jacksonville.