With Durant’s girls already preparing for the regional tournament, the boys teams from Plant City, Strawberry Crest and Durant all kicked off their district tournament play this week.
Coming off of a 14-11 regular season, Strawberry Crest entered the 6A District 10 playoffs as the fourth seed and hosted 4-19 Armwoood in their district quarterfinal on Monday.
In their two regular season matchups, Crest was able to find victories over the Hawks without much trouble, winning 88-41 on Dec. 1 and 70-49 on Jan. 21. On Monday night the Chargers were able to escape with their third victory over Armwood on the year, keeping their season alive with a 62-51 win.
After a slow start to the contest, with neither team converting a field goal in the game’s first two minutes, the pace picked up as both teams exchanged scores in a close first quarter. After being knotted at 7-7, Crest was able to pull ahead and hold on to an 18-14 lead heading into the second before a run from Armwood to start the period brought it level again at 20-20.
Trailing 22-20, Armwood’s Tim Bailey hit a three to retake the lead. After a bucket in transition from Crest, Armwood answered with another three from Alonzo Lane for the 25-24 advantage. At the end of the first half, both teams were locked up at 28-28.
In the third quarter Crest began to pull away. A 3-pointer from Jordan Lewis put Strawberry Crest up 39-34 for their largest lead of the night to that point, but the gap only continued to grow. Outscoring the Hawks 16-6 in the third, the Chargers took a double digit lead into the fourth quarter at 44-34.
Armwood was able to hit a few crucial buckets in game’s final minutes, keeping it perhaps too close for comfort in Crest’s eyes, but the Chargers were able to hold on and advance to the semifinal against Wharton.
Lewis led the way for Crest with a team-high 19 points and eight rebounds, followed by Tyriq Ghent with 14 points and Jasiah Taylor with 10.
The following night, Crest took on Wharton where the Chargers weren’t able to overcome the top seed Wildcats for the upset. Entering the night with a record of 21-2, Wharton came away with the 72-62 victory over the Chargers to end Crest’s district run.
Across town on Tuesday, Durant entered the 7A District 7 quarterfinal as the fourth seed at 10-13, hosting 2-15 Riverview and grinding out the 64-51 victory.
Despite the sub-.500 record, six of the Cougars’ losses came by four points or fewer, a ray of hope for a team that hopes to make some noise in the tournament.
“I really think that those single-digit losses, all of those close battles, really got us ready for this time,” head coach Jake Baer said. “I really think that that’s going to help us come along where we don’t end up in the loss column anymore. Those games help learn how to handle those situations toward the end of the game and hopefully even avoid them altogether.”
Durant took control of their contest against Riverview early, going up 11-5 at the end of the first quarter and taking a 27-20 lead into the half.
The Cougars got even hotter from the field in the third, outscoring the Sharks 17-10 in the period to take a commanding 44-30 lead into the fourth quarter en route to their ultimate 64-51 victory.
Durant faced top seed Newsome in the district semifinal on Wednesday
“We’re excited,” Baer said before the game. “That’s who we wanted to play, we’re ready to get after it. They’re tough, they’ve had our number the past two games but the old adage is that it’s tough to beat a team three times. So we’re ready to go out there and give it our best.”
Plant City fell 67-48 to Alonso in the Western Conference Finals on Friday, but their 18-5 regular season record was good enough to clinch the 7A District 7 tournament’s second seed and a bye through the quarterfinals.
The Raiders hosted third seed Lakewood Ranch in the district semifinal on Wednesday.
While Plant City and Durant both played their district semifinal games prior to publishing, the contests came after the Plant City Observer had gone to press on Wednesday evening. Continued tournament coverage will be provided.