Winter Park Wildcats fall in state semifinal

Winter Park

Battling their way into the state final four last week, the Winter Park boys basketball team lost to the team that would go on to win the whole thing. The 53-49 Friday loss to Coral Springs, ending the Wildcats’ season, came just a game shy of the championship game.

It was a loss that until the final moments was an impending victory for the Wildcats, who had taken a 48-48 tie with 2 minutes left and turned it into a narrow lead before things fell apart. Coral Springs overtook Winter Park with less than a minute remaining. Then as Winter Park fouled to try to slow the game, Coral Springs kept making free throws, and the lead grew insurmountable.

For the overachieving, undersized Wildcats, it was a long run into the postseason, though coming up just short of a fourth state championship since 2010.

UCF

Since the end of January, the Knights have only won one game. In February, they lost seven straight, destroying their chance of finishing in the top half of the American Athletic Conference as the conference tournament approaches.

For the Knights (11-16, 5-11), it’s been more of the familiar late-season collapse that they saw when they fell apart last year and the year before after promising starts. The Knights won four of their first five AAC games this season. Since then, they’ve lost 10 of their last 11. In the conference standings, they’ve been in free-fall, though a trio of conference doormats has kept the Knights from having the worst record in the AAC. That belongs to Tulane (10-19, 3-13), who the Knights faced at press time Wednesday night.

The last time the Knights met the Green Wave was also the last time the Knights won a game, on Feb. 4. That night Daiquan Walker unloaded the biggest shooting night of any UCF player this season, dropping 33 points in the basket.

After they’re done taking their most likely shot at a conference win they’ve had all season, the Knights finish the regular season off with a road trip to UConn to tip off at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Huskies (20-9, 10-6) handed UCF their second biggest blowout loss, and their lowest scoring game, all season when they pounded them 67-41 on UCF’s home court Jan. 31.

Rollins

The Tars started out the Sunshine State Conference Tournament at home Wednesday night at press time, hosting Lynn (12-14, 6-10) in the quarterfinal. With a win, the Tars will be through to the semifinal round at Daytona Beach’s Embry-Riddle, tipping off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The championship is at 1 p.m. Sunday at Embry-Riddle. After that, it’s on to the Division II South Region Tournament, starting the following weekend.