Newsome puts it together at exactly right time

It's all about peaking at the right time.

And that's what the Newsome High boys basketball team is doing.

Before this season, Newsome had never won a playoff game. In the last two weeks, however, the Wolves have captured the program's first district title and are one win from playing in the state final four.

"I still can't believe it," said senior forward Samal Shepherd, who leads the team with 17.6 points per game and is the school's all-time leading scorer. "To have never won a district [title] to being one game away, I'm trying to figure out if it's still true."

Tonight, the Wolves (22-8), will host No. 7 state-ranked Bartow (22-5) in the Class 5A Region 2 championship with a chance to advance to next week's state tournament in Lakeland.

Not only is Newsome playing its best basketball of the season this postseason, but the team is playing with a newfound confidence.

"We're the underdog and the pressure isn't on us," Shepherd said. "We've been hot in the postseason. If we play our game and play comfortable, we'll be OK."

On Tuesday, Newsome defeated Ocala Forest, 52-49, in the region semifinals on a buzzer-beater from senior forward Jake Hodges. Hodges, who is second behind Shepherd with 15.2 points per game, said winning on the road in a frantic environment proved the team can handle any situation.

"We weren't scared against Forest," he said.

"[Tuesday] night was tight," Newsome coach Jon Mackey said. "Forest was a senior-driven team and I told my [assistant] coach, 'I bet we won't shoot well'. They smothered Samal. I mean he could barely get to the ball, let alone get a shot off."

"But other guys stepped up. [Junior point guard] Trent [Mackey] hit five 3's and Jake made some shots, and of course he hit the big one at the end. We had some balance."

Newsome lost two of its last three games entering the Class 5A-District 8 tournament, arguably the most difficult district in Hillsborough County. One of the losses, a 69-59 defeat to Tampa Bay Tech, took the Wolves from first place in district standings to third. Yet the team defeated a talented Durant squad in the district semifinals and avenged the loss to Tech in the district final.

"I didn't think we'd be here," Hodges said. "I believed we could do it, but we could have lost to Durant. Any one of the top three teams in our district could have been where we are."

Mackey, the program's only coach since the school opened in 2003, has preached to his players they can't be content with just making it this far.

"I told them 'this is the time in your life when you want to be greedy.'"