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Asking Eric: Retirement is looming, now come the cold feet

Asking Eric: Retirement is looming, now come the cold feet

18/02/2025, USA, Multi Sports, USA Publications, Article # 32219044

Dear Eric: I will turn 65 in a few months and have announced my plans to retire. I have a long list of things I want to do, and after 50 years of employment and saving, I am well situated for these next years. At least, that is what my financial adviser and balance sheets tell me.

I really yearn for more discretionary time and my physical health tells me I need to get out from under a desk. My problem is that I am getting cold feet about leaving a paycheck behind.

After a lifetime of saving, how do I let myself relax into just spending?

I know this is a good problem to have on the surface, but it really is torturing me. I need some words of wisdom to help me get to the other side. Can you help me?

— Undecided Plans

Dear Plans: There’s a version of yourself in the past who started on this journey of saving and planning with the hope that he would one day be in your shoes. And every time you/he struggled to get through a work week, perhaps you thought of this moment. So, congratulations, to you in the past and in the present. You did something incredible.

You know how sometimes you go on vacation but you’re not in the mood to vacation for a day or two? Unfortunately, we don’t have a relaxation switch. So, don’t try to force yourself to suddenly be in retirement mode if you’re not. Make a plan for your days and your goals that’s realistic. You have time to get used to this new phase.

You’ve trusted your financial adviser thus far; when you start to feel anxious about leaving a check behind, reach out. “Remind me that I’m fine.” People do this with financial advisers all the time. It’s perfectly normal to need reassurance.

This is a transition, a big one. While it might seem like a phase of life that one would leap into happily, it’s right to acknowledge the complicated feelings around it, too. You’re shifting the way that you live and breaking routines that you’ve had for decades. This is going to take some adjustment. Give yourself space and time to feel that and the freedom to change course whenever you want.

Dear Eric: My sister is going through a divorce after 40 years of marriage. It has been a long time coming during which time I have seen her often berate her husband in front of family and friends for doing things the rest of us could not recognize. I’ve also seen her rage at my elderly mother who has breast cancer.

Now she has separated and set up her own place in another state from her husband. I went to visit her and tried to be supportive of her new life.

Over the holidays, I visited my brother-in-law because it is on the way to where we were going to spend the holidays. He introduced us to his new girlfriend.

I had told my sister we would be stopping there but when she found out I met the girlfriend, she became enraged at me saying I wasn’t supportive and should have told her ex that I was uncomfortable with meeting his girlfriend, which I was not.

She has been texting me since saying how disloyal I am and that she can’t talk to me, but I am so angry I just want to tell her to stop contacting me. However, we still have to talk regarding our mom, and I feel guilty knowing she is hurting, and I can’t help her out. I can’t figure out how to go forward. I plan on giving her time but also am so angry I want to break contact with her. Really ruined Christmas and not a great start to a new year.

— Tired of Being Yelled At

Dear Tired: From your telling, your sister’s frustrations in life seem to often boil over into tirades. This is something she can work on in therapy or perhaps with medication. This may not be the ideal moment to bring that up but keep it in your arsenal. She could probably use some help.

For now, acknowledge that her anger is real and that your anger is also real. You don’t need to stay in contact through this, though. Tell her you’re sorry that she was hurt by you meeting the girlfriend and that you’re going to give her some space, but that it’s important that you’re both able to talk through matters with your mom. This puts everything on the table. It communicates with her that you two need to stop talking about the situation with her ex while also setting a clear boundary around what you can and will be talking about.

(Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at eric@askingeric.com or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.)



https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/02/18/asking-eric-retirement-is-looming-now-come-the-cold-feet/
ACC basketball was once king — so how has once-proud conference reached such a low?

ACC basketball was once king — so how has once-proud conference reached such a low?

18/02/2025, USA, Multi Sports, USA Publications, Article # 32218837

By Andrew Carter

The News & Observer

RALEIGH, N.C. — Upon the discomforting speculation that the ACC might only send three teams to the NCAA tournament, one of the league’s coaches had this to say:

“People may think I’m crazy, but there’s just so many games left. It’s not out of the question that a team could catch fire or two teams catch fire. I just think it’s incomprehensible that anybody could suggest with any kind of merit that there would only be three teams.”

This is not a quote from this week or last week or even this year. It’s not a quote from this century, actually. It’s from then-Wake Forest coach Dave Odom, in a February 1999 story in the Winston-Salem Journal. Then, like now, the ACC’s postseason prospects seemed a little dim.

The main difference, in case you’d tuned out some of the major events surrounding college athletics over the past quarter-century: the ACC back then was but a small, quaint, geographically-contained nine-team conference. It just so happens to be twice as large now yet still finds itself at risk of similarly meager (and much worse, proportionally) postseason representation.

The then-and-now, though, underscores just how far the ACC has fallen in its flagship sport. With apologies and respect to the Big East of the 1980s, the ACC remained the nation’s premier men’s basketball conference for decades.

Everett Case and those early league tournaments in Reynolds Coliseum built it. North Carolina’s undefeated 1957 national championship season expanded the popularity. Then came Dean Smith and David Thompson and Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Valvano and, by the 1980s and 90s, no other conference came all that close to the ACC’s sustained legacy of basketball excellence.

That is why Odom in 1999 really did find it “incomprehensible” that the conference might only receive three NCAA tournament bids. But that’s ultimately what transpired: Duke, Maryland and UNC were the league’s only representatives. It happened that same exact way the next season, too, with those same three schools.

Consecutive three-bid seasons in 1999 and 2000 signaled a basketball crisis, for its time. It was fair to wonder what happened to ACC basketball, given that only 33% of its teams were good enough to make the tournament. And yet if we only knew. A little more than 25 years later, the ACC is twice as large — and it’d be kind (and wrong) to suggest it’s only twice as bad in men’s basketball. The reality is the league is immeasurably worse. Unfathomably worse.

In the first academic year of this 18-school coast-to-coast Frankensteinian concoction of a conference, it’s not only conceivable that only three ACC teams will make the NCAA tournament, but that possibility is growing more and more likely all the time. And unlike 1999 and 2000, when Duke and Maryland were consistent top-10 teams, Duke is the only ACC team in that class now.

The Blue Devils are almost assured of earning a top seed in the NCAA tournament next month. Clemson and Louisville are safely in, but neither is projected to be a top-5 seed. And as for the rest of the league? Well, Wake Forest can still play itself onto the right side of the bubble — but don’t count on it happening after the Demon Deacons’ debacle of a recent defeat against Florida State. UNC and Pittsburgh, meanwhile, both have a lot of work to do.

And, um, who knows — maybe somebody else can pull off what N.C. State did last year and come out of nowhere to win the ACC tournament. Just don’t expect it to be N.C. State, which stands a good chance of missing the league tournament in the first year of its new format (and hey, you can’t be dethroned if you don’t actually lose a tournament game, right? Right!?).

We can talk about the ACC’s recent NCAA tournament performance, which has gone a long way toward atoning for its mediocre (or worse) regular seasons the past few years. And it’s true: The conference has remained formidable in March. But it’s also true that this has been a terrible regular season for a once-proud league, and that this poor season comes after a stretch of not-very-good seasons. This one is so bad, though, that it’s arguably the ACC’s worst regular season ever.

How could the conference find itself free-falling into such a basketball abyss?

Some reasons and ruminations:

1. It’s the departed coaches.

The 2018-19 season is probably the most recent one in which the ACC was what it was since, well, pretty much forever. It remains the last truly great ACC men’s basketball season. Virginia won the national championship and, like Duke and UNC that year, was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Florida State and Virginia Tech were both No. 4 seeds.

Louisville made the tournament. Syracuse made the tournament.

Clemson and N.C. State could’ve and probably should’ve made the tournament — with then-State athletics director Debbie Yow memorably reminding the college basketball public how “We. Beat. Auburn,” upon UNC’s loss to that same team in the Sweet 16.

Ah, yes. The good old days.

But compared to now, they really were the good old days. The ACC was still arguably the best conference in the country, though ranked third — and not far behind the Big 12 and Big Ten — according to kenpom.com. The league’s basketball dominance, showcased in an epic ACC tournament semifinal game between Zion Williamson-led Duke and a deep and talented UNC team, appeared in little danger.

And why? Well, look at who was coaching in the conference back then:

Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Roy Williams at UNC. Jim Boeheim at Syracuse. Virginia Tech still had Buzz Williams. Virginia still had Tony Bennett. Even the league’s non-tournament teams that season still had proven coaching talent — notably Mike Brey at Notre Dame and Jim Larrañaga at Miami. And at Georgia Tech, Josh Pastner was at least eternally entertaining.

By the end of the 2019 season, the ACC was home to four coaches who’d won a combined 10 national championships (with K and Ol’ Roy responsible for eight of those). Bennett looked like he’d be at Virginia for a long time. The league had plenty of leadership depth.

And since then? Well …

Roy Williams retired. Coach K retired. Boeheim retired. Buzz Williams left for Texas A&M. Mike Brey got out of college coaching. Bennett retired before this season. Larrañaga retired during this season. Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton announced he’d be retiring after this season. And not even a pandemic-era ACC tournament championship — replete with the comically ineffective plastic facemask he wore during his postgame presser on Zoom — could save Pastner.

The ACC has, very literally, lost all of its most proven and successful head coaches in recent years. And a few of them just so happened to be among the best coaches in college basketball history. The result of all that turnover is what we’re now seeing. The simplest and most concise explanation behind the ACC’s basketball woes can be distilled to two words: coaching exodus.

But also …

2. The new hires haven’t exactly overwhelmed.

Here’s the complete list of current non-retiring ACC coaches who’ve won the conference tournament: Mike Young, Jon Scheyer and Kevin Keatts. That’s it. The list of current non-retiring ACC coaches who’ve led their teams to a Final Four is similarly short. It includes Keatts, whose goodwill from the Wolfpack’s miracle run of last March didn’t even last one full season, and Hubert Davis, who’s attempting to navigate his own crisis at UNC.

Scheyer, in his third season at Duke, might just be the ACC’s best coach — but it’s difficult to make that argument so early into his tenure. He’s certainly embraced the modern realities of a changing sport and positioned the Blue Devils for continued long-term success in a turbulent and unpredictable environment. His hiring in 2022 of Rachel Baker, who was the first general manager in college basketball, looks especially prescient in hindsight.

Outside of him, though, who’s in the conversation for best coach in the ACC? Brad Brownell, who has been at Clemson since 2010, is poised to be the league’s longest-tenured coach and he’s done an admirable job at a place where success hasn’t come easily. Still, the list of major accomplishments is lacking. Keatts not long ago led State to its highest basketball high in 40 years, but the lows there have been far more plentiful, and the Wolfpack is in the midst of one of its worst seasons in school history.

Davis’ UNC teams have been consistently inconsistent, and a legion of spoiled fans is in full-on tantrum mode. And nobody else has either A) been around long enough to get a sense of the possibilities, or B) arrived in their positions with a proven record of success elsewhere.

It’s the second of those that’s most concerning. Head coaching jobs in the ACC used to be destination gigs. It was the conference everyone wanted to get to. It was the league where every coach wanted a chance to prove himself. Outside of Scheyer and Davis — two keep-it-inside-the-family hires, more or less appointed by their Hall of Fame predecessors — the jobs that have actually been open in recent years haven’t exactly attracted star power.

There’s been a ton of coaching turnover in the ACC, and the new class of coaches is full of those who are unproven at this level. Some of them may indeed turn out to be fantastic. Scheyer, for one, is well-equipped for these times and has a team capable of winning the national championship this season. At Louisville, Pat Kelsey has worked wonders in his first season.

But look around the ACC. Among its head coaches, there’s a lot of “to-be-determined” going on — and that’s in the best case, for some of them.

Of course, attracting and hiring the best talent often comes down to …

3. Money, money, money.

No, the ACC isn’t as wealthy as the Big Ten or SEC. Yes, the relative lack of money matters — especially as it relates to NIL compensation directed toward players. The SEC, especially, has taken advantage of its riches and gone all out to enhance its profile everywhere. That league has come a long, long way in men’s basketball, and the progress has come quickly.

There’s no denying that money matters more than ever in major college athletics, and that the gap is widening between the wealthiest schools and leagues and everybody else. The richest of the rich can afford the most sought-after coaches, and can enhance their staffs with all manner of analysts and support personnel. The most well-off NIL collectives are in a strong position to buy the best players — or at least those who are most inclined to be driven by the pursuit of money.

These are just facts. It pays to be rich, more than ever.

The ACC in the 1990s was, on a per-school basis, the wealthiest league in the country. It remained pretty much even with the Big Ten and SEC through most of the 2000s, too. What’s happened since has been well-documented: football became more and more important in terms of television ratings, and the value of that sport increased exponentially. The Big Ten started its own TV network. The SEC followed. Those leagues began separating themselves, financially.

And here we are. Make no mistake: The ACC is far from impoverished. To the contrary, the league continues to set revenue records, almost every year. It’s just no longer as rich as its two primary conference rivals. We’re starting to see the effects of a widening divide. The SEC’s investment in basketball in recent seasons is clearly paying off. The Big Ten has remained strong (despite not having won a national championship since Michigan State in 2000).

Would the ACC be in a better position in men’s basketball if the league were wealthier? Maybe. Probably. Even so, does not having as much as the Big Ten or SEC explain the ACC’s demise?

It’s difficult to make that argument, for a couple of reasons. For one, look at the Big 12. That conference isn’t as well off as the ACC, financially, and yet it hasn’t precluded the Big 12 from maintaining its place as a basketball power in recent seasons. Kansas is Kansas, yes, and Arizona, a Pac-12 refugee, has been among the nation’s elite for decades.

But is there any reason why the likes of Houston, Texas Tech, Iowa State and Baylor have much stronger men’s basketball programs than pretty much any ACC school outside of Duke? What do those schools have that ACC schools don’t? Are you going to make the argument that Iowa State and Baylor have more advantages than, say, N.C. State or Georgia Tech?

And this says nothing of ACC schools that have, at times, been among the very best of the best but are now struggling to recapture the glory. We’re looking at you, UNC and Syracuse and N.C. State and even Wake Forest and Georgia Tech and Virginia and Notre Dame. Carolina, especially, should never be looking up to the likes of Iowa State or Texas Tech. But the Tar Heels are, for now.

The second clear example of why the money excuse is overused and overblown: Connecticut.

The Huskies have managed to win consecutive national championships despite their home in the revamped  risen-from-the-ashes Big East — you know, the league that the ACC raided, twice, and nearly put out of business. Indeed, the ACC is much better off than the Big East, in terms of money. But that hasn’t stopped UConn from becoming college basketball’s most successful program over the past 25 years.

If UConn can maintain its place as a national power and if the Big 12 can prove its might year after year, then there can really be no excuses for the ACC. It’s true that the league is not as wealthy as the two wealthiest conferences. But it’s also true that there’s still plenty of money for ACC schools to be a lot better than they’ve been. And yet in a league built on a tradition of basketball excellence, one of the main reasons for the decline in that sport is the sad reality that …

4. What mattered for a long time matters a lot less.

And there’s layers to that reality, too. In the micro specific-to-basketball sense, the college version of the sport has become more and more niche. Not coincidentally, it has become more transient, too. Rosters turn over year after year. The very best and most talented players are gone after one season. Long gone are the days of watching teams take shape over a span of years.

Now they have a few months. The season, itself, is something that happens between recruiting the transfer portal. The good news is that teams are only ever a good transfer (or incoming freshman) class away from competitiveness. Look at Louisville this season, for instance. The bad news is that it’s difficult to define what a program really is anymore, given the constant turnover.

In the ACC, Duke has blended the past and present to an enviable degree. It has learned to play the game as it has to be played, if tradition-rich schools want to maintain their relevance. UNC, meanwhile, is on the opposite end of the spectrum. There, Davis has clung to tradition. There’s been a resistance to adaptation. Approaching the end of his fourth season, Davis has only recently concluded that, yes, a general manager is necessary; that the ways of the old no longer apply.

College basketball has lost a lot of what allowed its rise in popularity throughout the 1980s and ‘90s. There’s little continuity year-to-year. Players are usually gone before the casual fan has a chance to remember them. March is still March, yes, but the enduring popularity of that one month has come to overshadow everything else. The sport is mostly a national afterthought until mid-February. Even in the heart of Tobacco Road, it’s different than it used to be.

What’s happened in recent years in the macro beyond-basketball sense has hurt, too. Football has come to rule everything in major college athletics. Or, to be more precise, the pursuit of football TV money has come to rule everything. Schools feel immense pressure to raise their profiles in that one sport. Conferences are desperate to maximize their football television “inventory,” which has led to realignment that has crushed old rivalries, led to the destruction of the Pac-12 and made for bizarre, nonsensical nationwide conferences.

The ACC’s basketball tradition is second to none, but how much does that matter in a football-first world?

Parts of what made the conference such a basketball utopia are long gone. The geographic proximity, for one. The double round-robin, with every school playing each other home and away. At Duke’s game against California recently at Cameron Indoor Stadium, it became easy to think, “Why?” As in, why is this a conference game? Why did Cal travel back East for the third time since early January to play an ACC game? Why are we doing this? What are we doing?

And the answer, of course, is obvious: Because of TV. Because of football.

If the ACC wants to get back to what it long was in men’s basketball, it’s time for the conference to go back to its roots. Bring back the Big Four Classic, for one. Find a way for what’s left of the ACC’s core to play each other twice a year, home and a way. Foster those old rivalries among the former Big East schools. Minimize the travel to the degree that’s even possible.

Make it all matter again. In recent years, the league’s emphasis has been on football at the expense of everything else. The conference has been desperate to enhance its standing in that one sport. Perhaps it’s understandable, to a degree. Meanwhile, the sport that made the ACC has fallen by the (Tobacco) roadside, neglected. Once, a long time ago now, the thought of the league sending only three teams to the NCAA tournament was incomprehensible, indeed.

Not anymore, though. The conference is twice as large as it was then, and not even half as good. It has attempted to shed its identity as a basketball-first league and, in a way, that effort has proven more successful than it ever seemed possible.



https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/02/18/acc-basketball-was-once-king-so-how-has-the-once-proud-conference-reached-such-a-low-2/
Commentary: The coup and you: Sure signs you’re living in a changing America | Pat Beall

Commentary: The coup and you: Sure signs you’re living in a changing America | Pat Beall

18/02/2025, USA, Multi Sports, USA Publications, Article # 32218838

Friends, are you waking up to the subtle but noticeable taste of impending doom? Is the color orange triggering a thrumming between your ears? Are your gutters going uncleaned because  you stay up late rereading the complete works of the French existentialists? Have you and your Sharpie been banned from Barnes & Noble because you were caught crossing out “Gulf of America” on maps?

You might be in a coup.

Pat Beall is an editorial writer and columnist for the Sun Sentinel, focusing mainly on Palm Beach County issues.
Courtesy
Pat Beall is an editorial writer and columnist for the Sun Sentinel, focusing mainly on Palm Beach County issues.

It’s a rare condition in North America. Now, though, it has made the leap across the Atlantic. But unlike France — which has both Napoleonic history and darkly muttering existentialists wandering the streets of Paris to remind everyone just how bad things can get — we Americans have no natural immunity. Sure, we may have spread the disease across half of South and Central America (Apologies, Chile. Mea culpa, Nicaragua.), but we haven’t had to deal with it here at home.

Also, coup symptoms may vary. This makes diagnosis difficult. For instance, are you screaming at the TV because of coup-related cable news headlines, or are you simply experiencing the much more treatable schizophrenic break with reality? And how can you tell the difference?

Let me help.

You might be in a coup if the head of the Department of Transportation says air safety was compromised the moment the ladies arrived and everyone started talking about flight decks instead of cockpits.

You might be in a coup if one of your Florida congressional representative, Anna Paulina Luna — still roaming the halls of power without an adult chaperone — announces she will reinvestigate JFK’s assassination by bringing in members of the Warren Commission. They are all dead.

You might be in a coup if cafés in British Columbia have started selling “Canadicano” coffee instead of “Americano” coffee.

You might be in a coup if the U.S. Senate phone system nearly buckled under the weight of 1,600 calls every 60 seconds instead of the usual 40 calls, and callers weren’t checking in to show their solidarity with the 19-year-old popcorn heir who goes by “Bigballs” online and is getting access to their IRS records as part of Elon Musk’s team of merry saboteurs.

You might be in a coup if the businessman American co-president who wants to build in other countries just made it legal for American businessmen who want to build in other countries to bribe those other countries. “It’s going to mean a lot more business for America,” Trump explained.

You might be in a coup if the acting head of the DOJ’s National Security Division is ousted after about four weeks because vibes.

I’m sorry. Would you like to take a break? I only ask because your eyes have started to bulge like Igor in “Young Frankenstein” and also, you’ve got that whole throbbing neck vein thing going on. (By the way, rewatching “Young Frankenstein” is a non-FDA approved treatment to relieve coup symptoms.)

Onward, then.

You might be in a coup — or, alternatively, a locked psych ward — if an actual congressman filed an actual bill to rename Greenland, an actual part of Denmark, “Red, White and Blueland.”

You might be in a coup if 20,000 Denmark citizens subsequently sign an online petition seeking the “Denmarkification” of California. The persuasive pitch includes allowing Danes to both rename Disneyland after Hans Christian Andersen and create an endless avocado toast buffet. Lego executives would lead negotiations.

You might be in a coup if the blue-stocking American Bar Association broke free of its prim restraints long enough to issue a statement to its membership saying, and I paraphrase here: “You’re in a coup, and you might want to support the rule of law.”

You might be in a coup if your president and Donald Trump went full Rumpelstiltskin when multiple lawyers and judges did just that, pausing multiple assaults on multiple rules of law in multiple agencies.

You might be in a coup if that makes you feel a little bit better.

Sadly, there is no immediate cure for coup.

But we’re working on it.

Until then, eat well. Get some sleep. Call a senator. Kiss a cat. Avoid French existentialists. And get that throbbing neck vein thing checked out.

Pat Beall is a Sun Sentinel columnist and editorial writer. Contact her at beall.news@gmail.com.



https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/02/18/the-coup-and-you-pat-beall/
FHSAA basketball: Windermere, Oak Ridge, Osceola lead 5 Orlando-area 7A teams into region finals

FHSAA basketball: Windermere, Oak Ridge, Osceola lead 5 Orlando-area 7A teams into region finals

18/02/2025, USA, Multi Sports, USA Publications, Article # 32218349

The odds on Orlando area boys basketball to land three-fourths of the FHSAA Class 7A final four got even better Monday night when Sanford Seminole traveled up I-95 and scored a 59-56 win against Creekside, the top seed in Region 1.

That makes it certain the Region 1 champ will be either Seminole or Apopka, which will host the Seminoles in a Thursday night region final.

Another Greater Orlando matchup has Oak Ridge, the area’s top-ranked team for much of the year, playing for the Region 2 crown at Windermere, which is now No. 1 in the area and No. 2 in 7A behind Miami powerhouse Columbus.

Kissimmee Osceola can be the third large-class semifinalist if it wins a Thursday night home game against streaking Sarasota.

Three 6A teams — Evans, Edgewater and Lake Howell — also have reached the elite eight.

Windermere pulls away

TJ Drain missed three of his first four shots before he settled into his usual role and the Windermere defense ramped things up in the second half as the top-seeded Wolverines eventually rolled to a 60-41 victory vs. visiting St. Cloud.

Drain, a 6-foot-8 senior, led all scorers with 25 points and also pulled down 10 rebounds and blocked 3 shots. Andreas Smith added 16 points for Windermere (24-5).

St. Cloud (24-5) played the Wolverines to a tie in the first half but scored just 14 points after the break.

“I thought our defense was better in the second half and it helped that we started making some shots,” Windermere coach Mark Griseck said. “When you score, a lot of times it correlates to better defense.”

Alex Springs scored 14 points for St. Cloud, which beat Olympia last week for its first regional win since its 1965 team reached the state tournament.

By Chris Hays

Reece for Ridge

Senior guard Jalen Reece scored 31 points, 7 of those on one trip downcourt, to lead second-seeded Oak Ridge to a 91-65 homecourt win against No. 3 Wellington (22-5). Jamier Jones added 22 points for the Pioneers (17-9).

Oak Ridge broke a 24-24 tie on two free throws by Reece and a dunk by Jones. Treyvon Maddox dunked at the buzzer to give the Pioneers a 40-33 halftime lead. That grew to 61-48 when Reece hit a halfcourt shot to beat the buzzer ending the third period.

With five minutes to go, Reece made three free throws after being fouled beyond the arc, then two more after a technical was whistled on the Wellington player who fouled him. Oak Ridge inbounded the ball and Reece was fouled again and made two more freebies.

By Rick Staudt 

Darters defense

Apopka defused Winter Park’s deliberate Princeton offense and scored a 50-39 homecourt win to avenge a season-opening loss to the Wildcats.

Jahi Bowden, a 6-1 senior guard, scored 14 of his game-high 17 points in the first half to stake the Blue Darters (21-7) to a 19-14 lead that swelled to 35-22 early in the fourth quarter after Rafael Betancourt made a 3-point shot and Jermichael Johnson added two treys.

The Wildcats (20-8) pulled to within 37-30 with 4:45 to go. But Johnson delivered a no-look pass against pressure to Jude Angervil for a layup that stretched the margin back to 42-31.

“I thought our commitment to do what we wanted defensively was really good,” Apopka coach Scott Williams said. “That’s a hard team to play against.”

By Buddy Collings 

Kowboys rebound

Top-seeded Kissimmee Osceola made 13 of 15 free throws down the stretch to overcome a four-point deficit and defeat Tampa Plant, 75-66.

The Kowboys (25-3), winners of seven in a row, will be home Thursday to face Sarasota (27-2), winner of 17 in a row.

Osceola scored the first 13 points. But its offense stalled out and a 19-5 run gave Plant a 32-27 lead at halftime.

“We got off to a great start and frankly I think we took our foot off the gas a little bit and you simply can’t do that against a good team,” Osceola coach Steve Mason said.  “We tied the game in the fourth period and during a timeout I told our kids we needed to lock them down and they did so.”

Jordan Mason, the coach’s son, came up with a couple of steals and six  fourth-quarter points. He finished with 21 and Luke McCrimon scored 20 — including making 8 of 9 free throws in the closing minutes.  Helio Quinlan added 17 points, 15 on 3-point shots.

By J. Daniel Pearson

6A winners

Top-seeded Evans dominated the first half and beat Bartow 73-50. Rahean Edmonds scored 18 points — all on 3-point shots — for the Trojans (23-6). David Rushing added a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Arosco “Trey” Dubois scored 19 points.

Evans will stay at home to host Edgewater (19-8) for the 6A Region 2 title.  The Eagles overwhelmed Viera, 71-49.

Lake Howell (23-6) won 40-31 at home against Ocala Forest (22-6) in 6A-1. Isaac Buckley scored 19 points and Janiel De Los Santos had 12 points and 2 steals.

TMA turnaround

The Master’s Academy, trailing 31-22 at halftime, reversed the script in the second half and again held off The First Academy in a 50-48 home win in 2A. The Eagles (24-5) used a 21-2 second-half run to take control.

Senior guard Jack Kaley finished with 17 points, 15 on 3-point shots. Senior guard Josh Pitts added 14 points. Micah Taber, also a senior, sparked the Eagles with 9 points and some big defensive plays.

TFA (18-9) took a 31-22 halftime lead, riding high on the back of junior guard Max Simmons, who made five 3-pointers. He finished with 21 points.

“When you’re playing with seniors, they don’t want to play their last game,” TMA coach Reggie Kohn said.  “Micah and Jack’s scoring burst at the end was a huge force. And seeing the basketball go in, it gives you a little bit of life on the offensive and defensive end.”

Master’s beat TFA 54-52 on a buzzer-beating shot by Pitts in a Feb. 7 district final.

By Chris Martucci

TC tops Highlanders

Tampa Catholic, playing on the road, pulled away from Lake Highland Prep in the second half and ended the Highlanders’ 12-game winning streak with an 82-64 victory in 3A. It was the 20th road game of the season for the Crusaders (21-9).

Juniors Michael Madueme and RJ Ingram each scored 21 points for the Lake Highland Prep (23-5).

By Jean Racine 

Region results

Monday region semifinal games and Thursday final matchups:

7A Region 1

Seminole 59, Creekside 56

Apopka 50, Winter Park 36

Thursday’s final:

No. 5 Seminole (19-8) at No. 2 Apopka (21-7)

7A Region 2 

Windermere 60, St. Cloud 41

Oak Ridge 91, Wellington 65

Thursday’s final:

No. 2 Oak Ridge (17-9) at No. 1 Windermere (24-5)

7A Region 3

Osceola 75, Plant 66

Sarasota 81, Plant City 66

Thursday’s final:

No. 2 Sarasota (27-2) at No. 1 Osceola (25-3)

6A Region 1

Lake Howell 42, Forest 31

Tocoi Creek 68, Milton 55

Thursday final:

No. 2 Lake Howell (23-6) at No. 1 Tocoi Creek (26-3)

6A Region 2

Evans 73 Bartow 50

Edgewater 71, Viera 49

Thursday final:

No. 2 Edgewater (20-8) at No. 1 Evans (23-6)

Class 5A Region 2

Leesburg 60, Wesley Chapel 54

Lecanto 48, Auburndale 43

Thursday final:

No. 2 Lecanto (26-3) at No. 1 Leesburg (16-7)

Class 4A Region 2

Eustis 67, Alachua Santa Fe 52

Atlantic 67, North Marion 46

Thursday final:

No. 2 Atlantic (22-7) at No. 1 Eustis (20-8)

Class 3A Region 2

Tampa Catholic 82, Lake Highland Prep 63

Villages 80, Discover 47

Thursday’s final:

No. 3 TC (21-9) at No. 1 Villages (24-5)

2A Region 1

Masters Academy 50, The First Academy 48

University Christian 46, Providence 35

Thursday’s final:

No. 2 Master’s (24-5) at No. 1 UC (21-8)

2A Region 2

John Carroll 65, Cornerstone 47

Santa Fe Catholic 68, Benjamin 24

Thursday’s final

No. 6 John Carroll (17-11) at No. 1 SFC (22-8)

1A Region 2

CFCA 65, Zephyrhills Christian 45

North Tampa Christian 85, Legacy 49

Thursday’s final:

No. 2 CFCA (21-8) at No. 1 NTC (23-6)

1A Region 3

Victory Christian 82, City of Life 61

Seacrest 64, Donahue Catholic 45

Thursday’s final

No. 2 Seacrest (17-8) at No. 1 Victory (23-6)

Varsity content editor Buddy Collings can be contacted by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.



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