9A-District 12: Western, Cypress Bay reach final
Top-seed Western and No. 3-seed Cypress Bay advanced to the finals of the Class 9A-District 12 tournament Monday night. Here are 5 Takeaways from Piper High School: All Western Coach Kenneth Kelly‘s Wildcats came out firing on all cylinders and…
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Continue ReadingTop-seed Western and No. 3-seed Cypress Bay advanced to the finals of the Class 9A-District 12 tournament Monday night.
Here are 5 Takeaways from Piper High School:
All Western
Coach Kenneth Kelly‘s Wildcats came out firing on all cylinders and jumped all over South Plantation. Western led 18-1 at the end of the first quarter and took a whopping 49-8 advantage into halftime en route to a 67-22 victory.
South Plantation’s first field goal in the game came with 6:40 remaining in the second quarter. The second half was played with a running clock. The Paladins’ season ends at 7-14.
In hot pursuit of Monsanto
Western 6-6 2019 standout Damari Monsanto (pictured, right) led Western with 21 points in a little more than one quarter of action. Monsanto poured in four 3-pointers and had a monster dunk on a breakaway.
Illinois and East Tennessee State are in hot pursuit of Monsanto. ETSU offered and Illini head coach Brad Underwood and two assistants were down to watch Damari in the BCAA Big 8. “They text me every day,” Monsanto said Monday. “Those are my two two right there. I like how they value shooters, they run the court and they play defense.”
Senior guard Lavar Miller (pictured, left) added 11 points and played just a half. Miller canned three 3s on the night.
Krivitzkin, Alexis lead way
Cypress Bay, which went 0-2 vs. Piper during the regular season, kept its season alive with a 45-41 victory over the Bengals. The Lightning grabbed an early 12-3 advantage and pretty much held the lead throughout. Cypress Bay led 24-17 at the half and 38-36 going to the fourth quarter.
Piper did draw even, 38-38, in the fourth quarter on five consecutive points from senior guard Jaquan Brown. But Cypress Bay regained the lead and was able to hold off Piper behind 14 points from 2019 guard Tyler Krivitzkin and 11 from senior Blake Alexis. Alexis nailed three 3-pointers and had 7 rebounds.
“We’ve had very trying season,” Cypress Bay coach Jason Looky said. “We started off a little shaky, but we guard. We guard the ball.”
Piper ends up 18-7
Piper came into the game winners of seven in a row and nine out of 10.
The Bengals had beaten Cypress Bay 49-44 and 48-46 during the regular season. But Piper managed just 3 points in the first quarter and 5 points in the final period. 6-3 senior Keith-Thon Germain led Piper offensively with 11 points, Brown added 10 and senior Gregory McKay 9.
What’s next
Western (18-8) and Cypress Bay (16-6) will meet for the district crown at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Both programs have qualified for regionals.
The teams split during the regular season.
“We shot the ball really well the last time [we played Western],” Looky said. “I think we need to shoot the ball well. We need to challenge … obviously they’re a great shooting team. They do a lot of good stuff to get their guys open. We have to be precise in our offense.”
If you have high school basketball news, you can reach Pat Lammer via text at 954-661-9671.