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4A-II BOYS BASKETBALL

Photo by JOE DiCRISTOFALO

Springstead High's Dante Valentine scores over West Port's John McNair in Saturday's 4A-II final at Springstead High.

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By CHRIS BERNHARDT JR.

Hernando Today

Published: February 28, 2009

SPRING HILL - The question that hovered over the Springstead Eagles throughout their spectacular season received a thunderous answer in Saturday night's Class 4A, Region II final.

Not just thunderous as in a near capacity crowd cheering on the host Eagles. Thunderous on the court as well, an empathic statement made to all the doubters.

The ninth-ranked Eagles are still perfect at 30-0, and they can now call themselves regional champions and state semifinalists following a beyond impressive 76-47 annihilation of Ocala-West Port.

"I don't have words for this," said usually vocal senior guard Dante Valentine. "It's a big thing for this county; it's big for this school.

"We read the papers too, but we read it, that's as far as we go. We don't go into it too deep. We're still going to play Springstead ball."

A team that has already set school and county marks for wins in a season is the first in school and county history to advance to the Florida High School Athletic Association Finals.

Springstead will take on top-ranked Pensacola on Thursday at The Lakeland Center for a berth in the state championship game. The game is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m.

"We've been about winning tournaments this year," Springstead Head Coach Pat Kelly said. "We have one more tournament to try to win. That's what we set out to do and what we're trying to work on. We'll try to do it."

Domination from start

Many coaches and pundits in the area believed West Port (23-7) had the athleticism and quickness to match the Eagles, as well as a distinct size advantage.

Thanks to Springstead's intense pressure defense and a surprising domination on the glass, the Wolf Pack's interior edge never materialized.

The Eagles forced West Port into 10 of its 26 turnovers in the first quarter, received six quick points by Domnique Roberson and seven apiece from Valentine and Isaiah Mason to open up a 22-11 lead.

Mason put on a show in the first half, tallying 18 points, six rebounds, two blocks, two assists and a steal, and clearly seemed motivated by his match-up with sophomore Jason Pimental.

Pimental, who came in averaging over 10 points and 10 rebounds, had just two points and one board across the opening two quarters.

"We knew we had to come out and play our game, Springstead basketball," Mason said.

Springstead carried a 44-20 edge into the intermission. Valentine added 10 points, four assists and three steals before halftime.
The lead grew to 32, 56-24, when Mason found Nick Steadman on a nice behind-the back pass for a lay-up at the 2:38 mark of the third quarter.

Down 60-30 at the start of the fourth, the Wolf Pack put together an 11-1 run to cut the deficit to 61-41. But the Eagles kept them from getting any closer and eventually emptied their bench with two minutes to play.

Mason finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds, six blocks, four assists and three steals. Valentine posted 20 points, nine rebounds, four assists and six steals to lead the defensive charge.

"Our defense, the Citrus coach said he put 10 JV guys on the court to prepare for our defense and it still wasn't our intensity," Valentine said. "I don't think those guys there (West Port) have ever been pressured. They were athletic, they had size. But our intensity was 10 times higher than theirs."

West Port got 15 points out of Marquis Scott and 12 from Pimental, but leading scorer John McNair had just seven. Kelly credited Addison O'Neil for holding McNair well below his 11.9 regular-season average.

"The first half we played very well," Kelly said. "The second half we got a little careless a couple times when we didn't need to be. But the first half they (the Eagles) were in the zone, making highlights.

"We worked against their sets. We worked on defending their high screens, getting the defense set against their rolls, their post-ups, making them play against five people.

"The one thing that was a critical factor on defense, the pressure disrupted them and they were never comfortable breaking the press. They can break the press but our kids got under their chins and made them do things where they got caught in-between, then capitalized."

Springstead also owned a 33-21 rebounding edge despite West Port sporting three players listed at 6-foot-7. That included Pimental, who grabbed just three rebounds. Markee Teal led the Wolf Pack with 10.

Along with Mason and Valentine, fellow senior Roberson helped on the glass with eight rebounds to go along with 10 points.

Sophomore reserve Sal Latimer, listed at 6-foot-4, got extra playing time to counter West Port's height and answered with 12 points and two blocks. He came in averaging just 3.4 points per game.

"I know I can play," Latimer said. "When I get a chance I step up and that's what coach told me to do, step up.

"…The way I play, I play off my teammates. I feed off their energy and play at their level. I have to thank my teammates and my coach."

So these Eagles are for real, and they'll get another opportunity to prove it against the number one team in 4A. At this point, can anyone honestly say they don't have a chance? They certainly aren't satisfied.

"That's a step in the ladder to the bigger goal," Valentine said of winning the region. "Our goal is winning states. It's another notch to get to our goal."

SPRINGSTEAD 76, OCALA-WEST PORT 47
Qtr. Scoring 1 2 3 4
West Port 11 9 10 17 — 47
Springstead 22 22 16 16 — 76
West Port (47): Teal 3 1-3 7, Scott 6 1-3 15, Pimental 6 0-2 12, Washington 2 0-0 6, McNair 3 0-0 7, Funderburk 0, Dedovic 0. Totals 20 2-8 47.
Springstead (76): Roberson 5 0-0 10, O'Neil 0 2-2 2, Mason 9 3-5 22, Valentine 8 3-3 20, Steadman 2 0-1 4, Latimer 6 0-2 12, Noury 1 0-0 2, Sabaski 1 0-0 2, Wild 1 0-0 2, Inniss 0, Maragh 0. Totals 33 8-13 76.
Three-point field goals: WP 5 (Washington 2, Scott 2, McNair); SPG 2 (Mason, Valentine).
Total fouls: WP 15; SPG 9.
Technical fouls: none.
Fouled out: none.
Records: West Port (23-7), Springstead (30-0).

CLASS 4A, REGION II TOURNAMENT
02-19: Quarterfinals
Springstead 71, Kissimmee-Poinciana 57
Hudson 64, Groveland-South Lake 62
St. Augustine 62, Lecanto 54
Ocala-West Port 65, Ponte Vedra-Nease 58

02-24: Semifinals
Springstead 72, Hudson 49.
West Port 72, St. Augustine 59

02-28: Final
Springstead 76, West Port 47

Sports writer Chris Bernhardt Jr. can be reached at 352-544-5288 or cbernhardt@hernandotoday.com.

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