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Preps

Big first half keeps Packers out front

LARGO -- In the second half of Tuesday's key Class 5A, District 9 game, Countryside got 20 points from Julian Mascoll, held Largo's Mike O'Donnell to seven points, outrebounded the Packers by a wide margin and limited them to 26 points.

Now, about that first half ...

Countryside's furious rally in the final two quarters was all for naught thanks to the way the Cougars played the first two quarters: poorly. Behind O'Donnell's shooting and a scad of costly turnovers, Largo built a 22-point halftime lead and held on for a 76-66 win to complete a season sweep.

The win makes third-place Largo 5-4 in the district, while Countryside remains in second at 6-3. But the Packers' remaining district game is against winless East Lake, while the Cougars travel Friday to unbeaten Clearwater. A Largo win and Countryside loss would flop the teams in the standings and give the Packers a first-round bye.

If that happens, Countryside (12-11) will rue Tuesday's first half. The Packers (18-6) led 50-28 at halftime, a surprising edge considering Countryside came in yielding 56 points per game. But with O'Donnell scoring 20 of his 25 points and fueling the Packers defense with seven of his 11 steals, Countryside quickly fell behind.

Mascoll, the Cougars' leading scorer, had one shot in the first quarter and made it; the rest of the team was 3-for-13.

"I've been concerned with our lack of execution all year," Countryside coach Randall Leath said. "It's just being focused. We have a very big problem with being focused."

Largo held leads of 12-2, 26-11 and 48-24 in the first half, making seven of 12 3-pointers.

But the second half was a different story. Largo struggled with turnovers and a lack of rebounding. Mascoll scored eight points in the third quarter, including a putback to trim the lead to 59-47 before baskets by Largo's Quinton Gunter and Julius Oie stemmed the Cougars' rally.

"We got kind of complacent. I thought we got lazy, and they started hitting their shots," Largo coach Phil Price said. "We took a couple of bad shots and quit moving off the ball, which was a key for us in the first half when all five were moving without the ball."

Mascoll continued to push his team. He inadvertently passed the ball to himself off teammate Collins Okafor's head for one basket, and converted a nice drive into a 3-point play to get Countryside within 63-56.

Another Mascoll free throw got Countryside within five with 2 minutes, 1 second remaining, but that's as close as the Cougars could get. They went cold down the stretch, and Largo made seven of eight free throws in the final 53 seconds to get the win.

"We might have run out of gas a little bit," O'Donnell said. "But there's no excuse for letting that lead get away."

Mascoll finished with a game-high 28 points, and Okafor added 19. No other Cougar scored more than six.

Gunter scored 17 for Largo, and Fred Marshall added 12.

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