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CLASS 5A: Lake Howell score the final eight points to eliminate Durant, 45-38.
By ANTHONY GAGLIANO
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 5, 2003
WINTER PARK -- Durant exhibited all the signs of nervousness down the stretch Tuesday in its Class 5A region semifinal as Lake Howell overtook the Cougars with a game-ending 8-0 run and advanced to the final with a 45-38 victory Tuesday.
Up a point with three minutes to play, the Cougars (20-12) went to their four-corner offense for more than a minute but failed to score, giving the Silver Hawks life.
David Edwards converted two free throws to give Lake Howell (27-6) a 39-38 lead.
"Basically, they were just playing solid defense and waiting for us to make a mistake," Durant senior Kerry Guy said.
That was exactly what the Cougars did, turning the ball over on the next possession to lead to a layup for Lake Howell.
"I didn't think they had enough ballhandlers to keep the ball for that long," Lake Howell coach Steve Kohn said. "They could have proven me wrong, but fortunately, we got the turnover and the layup.
"I was glad they were doing that because if they kept going inside to (R.L. Bond), he's a very good player."
Bond had 16 points and 12 rebounds but was held to two points in the fourth quarter.
On Durant's next possession after the free throw, Guy forced up an errant 3-pointer with 47 seconds left
"It felt like you had to move fast when you looked at the one clock (which was missing some bulbs) and then you hear the crowd, and you don't know really what to do," Guy said.
Added Durant coach Gary Jordan, "Kerry's got a lot of confidence in his game, and he just wanted to do it. It wasn't selfish, what he was doing. He just felt he needed to do something."
Brian Hoffar gave Durant another chance by missing the front end of a one and one but David Edwards grabbed the rebound and Joey Forestier hit two free throws to put Lake Howell up 43-38 with 33.3 seconds left.
The ensuing inbounds pass was an errant toss out of bounds, giving the ball back to the Silver Hawks under the Durant basket. Forestier hit 2-of-4 free throws to finish the scoring.
Durant led 25-24 in the third but Hoffar hit two 3-pointers as the Silver Hawks went on a 10-0 run.
The Cougars charged back with a Pedro Coronado banked 3-pointer sandwiched between five points from Chris Holley to put Durant back in front 36-34 with 5:57 to play.
Andrew Pieters' 3-point play, his first points of the game, gave the Silver Hawks their first points of the fourth quarter and put them back on top 37-36. That was when Bond answered with a powerful spin to the basket to put Durant in front 38-37 with 3:43 remaining.