Wildcats repeat in regionals

It was a battle to the end on Winter Park’s home court Saturday night. And amid a raucous crowd packing the gymnasium, the Wildcats pulled off a stunner, barely outlasting DeLand 63-57 to win the regional championship.

The game had been wild from the start, with teams trading narrow leads early on and remaining deadlocked through the first half. With much of the crowd coming from DeLand for the game, the momentum of cheering cacophony frequently switched sides in the room as either team went on a streak of points.

“They came ready to play,” Wildcats Coach David Bailey said.

But those streaks rarely lasted long, as turnovers would prove the most important factor of the low-scoring game. In the second half, the Wildcats would strip the ball from the Bulldogs a dozen times to keep them from scoring.

Frequently those wild turnovers turned into breakaway jams for the Wildcats, who had dunks or fast-break layups by nearly every starter.

One of those starters, senior Brett Comer, put on a show of force, bamboozling Bulldog defenders on multiple drives to the net, and at one point launching a 3-point attempt, then diving into a crush of three DeLand players to wrestle the ball away and put it up for a layup.

Comer would emerge with 14 points, 6 steals, 5 turnovers and 4 assists on the night, tossing the ball up for multiple alley-oop dunks by Austin Rivers.

Rivers again put on a show, picking up 11 rebounds, plus 25 points despite missing all but one of his 11 attempts from 3-point range. He would make up for it, and keep the crowd on its feet with wild drives into the paint through a blur of players to easily score at the post, again and again.

Also helping keep the score up was Austin Keel, who hit 16 points and grabbed 5 rebounds and 2 turnovers.

Moving ahead, the Wildcats will play in the state semifinals in Lakeland on Friday, taking on Miami’s Columbus Catholic, which is 25-3 this season, coming off a 65-50 win over Miami Lakes.