SANFORD — Two of the hottest local teams in boys basketball, Winter Springs and Lake Mary, capped big weeks with impressive wins this weekend.
The Rams (7-8) inched closer to the .500 mark by completing a season sweep of rival Seminole, 47-44, on Friday, but the No. 3 state-ranked Bears had two huge road wins, knocking off a very good Hagerty team, 60-57, on Friday, then traveling to Orlando on Saturday to upset No. 1 state-ranked Dr. Phillips, 66-54.
Lake Mary center Ozzie Faison came up big for the Rams with 12 points as they handed Arrow Force XVIII (1-13) another tough loss, 47-44.
The Tribe was led by Donte Temple with 12 points.
Winter Springs (13-3) also had its hands full with the Huskies (8-4), but prevailed behind Luis Jacobo, who continued his outstanding play with a game-high 28 points, while Deion Bernard paced Hagerty with 16 points.
Saturday was a completely different story as the Bears threatened to blow out the Panthers (13-2) on their own home court, taking a 17-7 lead on a 15-4 run early in the game.
Dr. Phillips, which had defeated Winter Springs for third place in prestigious Tampa Hoops Classic last month, fell behind by as many as 13 points in the first half, but finally came alive on the strength on a 12-0 run to take a 23-22 lead before the Bears battled back to take a 1-point advantage, 30-29, at intermission.
The second half was dominated by the guests as they outscored the Panthers, 18-10, in the third stanza and then used a 10-point explosion by super-junior Austin Keel, during which he hit two of his five 3-pointers he knocked down in the game, on the way to an 18-15 scoring advantage to stretch the final margin of victory to 12 points.
Keel finished with 21 points, while Jacobo and Daniel Kuhl added 12 points each. Center Spenser Mitchell was also in double figures with 10 points and point guard Brian Holmes just missed double-digits with nine points.
Lake Mary Prep (10-6) also picked up a nice win on Monday as the Griffins traveled to South Daytona to defeat district rival Warner Christian (6-4), 45-42.
LMP built a 27-14 halftime lead and then held off the host Eagles the rest of the way.
The senior trio of A.J. Register (13 points), Josh Ledford (11) and Kevin Forde (9) paced the Griffins, while junior Chris Suris (7) and freshman Ray Lewis III (5) completed the scoring.