Lions cap ‘purr’fect season with tourney title

WILSON – The Manila Junior Lions put an exclamation point on an undefeated season with a 53-43 win over the Osceola in the championship game of the 3A-3 District Tournament.

The Jr. Lions won all 25 games on their regular season and postseason slate – all but one by double digits.

“These guys, eighth and ninth graders, we preach to them about not getting complacent almost to the point where they make a joke out of the word complacent,” said second-year MJHS head coach Brayden Brewer who emerged from the winner’s locker room after being showered with water. “They didn’t have a single digit margin of victory until last Friday against Osceola.

“We just preach and harp to play the same basketball regardless of who we’re playing,” he added of the team’s run through the season. “It’s just a solid group of guys who accomplished a great deal.”

Unlike the majority of their previous games, the outcome to this one was well in doubt considering the Jr. Lions struggles in the first half. However, Brewer was confident in his squad’s knack for righting the wrongs of the first 12 minutes of play.

“So me and Coach (Heath) Matheny work with all 22 guys every day,” explained the MJHS head coach. “We know what they’re capable of. Yes, we missed some free throws and some shots around the rim but I told them, those shots are gonna start falling in the second half.

“We didn’t need to worry too much about that just defend and get the rebounds. I knew the offense would start clicking because these guys are just too talented for it not to.”

Manila shot a paltry 28 percent from the field in the first half and missed all but one of their five free throws. Despite the struggles, they only trailed 20-19 at the break after they being behind by as many as nine points in the second quarter.

“We ran our typical 2-2-1 press and more often than not we have success with it,” explained Brewer, “but not tonight. So we adjusted to a half court 1-3-1 defense.

“We thought that would slow the pace of the game; maybe force them to take some bad shots then we could rebound the miss,” he continued. “That’s what we thought it would take to beat a talented team like (Osceola).”

The strategy change slowed the Jr. Seminoles game and even OJHS head coach Tracy Allen conceded his players were slow to adjust to the zone.

“That 1-3-1 pressure certainly affected us,” said Allen. “We weren’t quite prepared for it and it showed.

“Fatigue started to catch up with us, too,” he added, “and missing all those free throws down the stretch didn’t help either.”

Trailing by just six points with :56 left, the Jr. Noles had an opportunity to trim the lead or even overtake Manila but missed 5-of-6 free throws over the next 34 seconds.

“That was a big moment in the game for us,” said Allen.

Meanwhile, the Jr. Lions benefited from aggressive guard play from its trio of ninth graders, Noel Salomon, Espn Burrow and Daniel Azucena. The three combined for 48 of the team’s 53 points with a majority of the baskets coming around the rim against the taller Osceola squad.

“Yes, they were very aggressive all night,” said Brewer. “Sometimes we can be overly aggressive and it almost came back to bite us there in the end. We go 100 percent all the time.

“We have the lead late with no shot clock and we should probably pull it out and run some time,” added the head coach. “But it’s much easier to slow someone down then to speed them up. So I’ll take them being aggressive every time.”

On the flip side, Osceola’s Jaylen Hatch had a monster game himself finishing with a double-double with 23 points and 20 rebounds, plus collecting three steals.

“He’s come up big for us all season,” said Allen, “and he certainly had himself a game tonight.”

“Yeah, we would like to win,” he continued, “but I couldn’t be more proud of the effort. They left it all on the floor so there’s no reason to hang our heads. We lost to a really, really good Manila team. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Salomon posted a game-high 25 points but the small in stature player also grabbed seven rebounds. Burrow chipped in 16 points and eight boards, while Azucena scored seven points and had three steals.

The Jr. Lions joined the girls’ squad in sweeping the regular season and district crowns. While the players and coaches deserve the praise, Brewer was quick to credit the town of Manila, too.

“It says a lot about the school, yes, but it says a lot about the community too,” he said. “When we get these kids in seventh grade, they’re already know how to compete and that can be attributed to the parents and youth basketball programs.

“This community loves basketball and the crowd we had here tonight for junior high games shows that,” Brewer added. “That feeds into our team and I believe that’s a big reason why we see a lot of success in our basketball programs, boys and girls alike.”