Lakewood Ranch earns first boys basketball state final four berth

Jeremy Schiller emerged from a classroom at Lakewood Ranch High School with popcorn kernels stuck in his hair.

They were just the remnants.

The rest were sprawled across the room, which doubled as the Mustangs’ basketball locker room, spewing from the big garbage bag they originated from.

“I think they were planning it, because I think that bag was from Tuesday,” Schiller said. “It was pretty stale. But, yeah, it was a lot of fun.”

Even in celebration, the Mustangs (27-2) did it a little differently than the typical Gatorade bath for their head coach on Friday.

Lakewood Ranch is heading to the state final four in Lakeland next week for the first time in program history following a 73-68 victory against St. Petersburg in the Class 8A-Region 3 final.

The Mustangs play Tampa Sickles, who knocked off Melbourne, 55-49, in another regional final, in Friday’s state semifinal with a scheduled 2 p.m. tip at The Lakeland Center.

“I didn’t get to play in one as a high school player, but I’ve been coaching for 17 years,” Schiller said. “Eleven of them in high school and I’m really, really proud of this. We work really, really hard. Spend a lot of time doing this and it’s nice to get it validated with a win, even though we validated through our effort. ... It’s a little surreal right now.”

The game-deciding play came in the closing seconds with the Green Devils breathing down the Mustangs’ necks.

A second-half lead that grew as big as 13 points was trimmed to four through the Green Devils’ offensive rebounding and their big three of Serrel Smith, Darius Banks and A.J. Ford.

With 14.1 seconds left, Lakewood Ranch’s Brock Sisson missed two free throws. St. Pete snagged the board and fed Smith in the open court.

Sisson hustled back to defend Smith’s driving dribble.

Hearing St. Pete head coach Chris Blackwell command Smith to drive to the basket, Lakewood Ranch’s Justin Muscara reacted by charging a few steps forward.

It created a double-team that Smith tried splitting, and the result was the ball spinning off Muscara’s knee and squirting to Evan Spiller, who was fouled with 2.5 seconds left.

“I knew I needed to take four steps up,” Muscara said.

A technical foul to St. Pete’s bench following the play nixed any last-gasp tying effort.

Lakewood Ranch’s student section burst into the “Na, na, na, hey, hey, hey,” song.

The Mustangs stayed in the middle of the court, joined by fellow classmates, in celebrating an accomplishment they set as a goal one year ago.

In 2016, they endured a bitter six-point defeat to the Green Devils in St. Pete in the same playoff round.

After Tuesday’s region semifinal victory, center Sam Jackson said it was a quiet bus ride back to Bradenton.

The focus shifted to 2017 and the “We for 3,” hashtag was born. The second step was completed Friday with the region final.

Seeing Palmetto reach a region final during his freshman year, Muscara, now a senior, said he thought his team could get there and to the state semifinals.

On Friday, it took a team effort to not crumble with a halftime lead.

In 2016 at St. Pete, the Green Devils rallied in the second half to eliminate the Mustangs.

It didn’t happen this time.

“They didn’t crack,” Blackwell said. “They’ve got leadership. And their leadership kind of settled in. They bent, but didn’t break.”

Smith, who dropped 28 first-half points on Tuesday, was saddled with foul trouble in the first half. He picked up his third foul when he tripped up Damien Gordon just 3 minutes, 5 seconds into the game.

“It was real tough,” Smith said. “I just wanted to get back out there and play.”

Gordon fouled out in the fourth quarter, and was limited with foul trouble in the second half. However, he shot efficiently and netted 14 points. Senior Sam Hester led the team with 24 points.

“(Friday) was one of the biggest games of my life,” Gordon said. “I just was feeling it. I wasn’t going to let anything stop me from scoring.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2017 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Lakewood Ranch earns first boys basketball state final four berth."