Montverde advances to the Beach Ball championship game

All of the teams in the 35th Beach Ball Classic have aspirations of winning the title in the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, and possibly using the tournament experience to prepare to win a state championship.

Montverde Academy (Fla.) has goals many of the other teams can’t aspire to.

The Eagles have won the Dick's National High School Championship at Madison Square Garden three consecutive years, and a title this week may be a prerequisite if they want to capture a fourth.

Montverde will have a chance to earn the Beach Ball championship in its first tournament appearance on Thursday night after defeating Seton Hall Prep (N.J.) 66-59 Wednesday.

“For us, our goal is we’re in this tournament to win this tournament, and hopefully to compete for the national title. We won the last three,” said Montverde coach Kevin Boyle, who won the 2008 Beach Ball title as the head coach at St. Patrick (N.J.). “There’s no great team in high school basketball this year, so it’s possible. But we have to get better because we’ve been inconsistent in the same game. There were parts of this game where we looked probably like the best team in the country, and there were parts where we looked beatable by a lot of people.”

The first half was where the Eagles (14-1) looked beatable. Seton Hall played Montverde to a stalemate in the first half, as point guard and Notre Dame commitment T.J. Gibbs had 10 points and Trevon Bennett added eight of Seton Hall’s 25 first-half points.

The Eagles, who were ranked No. 1 in the country before a one-point loss to No. 2 Chino Hills (Calif.), resembled the best team in the country in the second half, when their athleticism and pace took over.

“They were always trying to slow the game down, pass the ball, move it around and look for open cutters for an open layup,” said Micah Potter, a 6-10 senior who is committed to Ohio State. “I really think our defense stepped up a lot in the second half. We did a great job contesting shots and rebounding, and that allowed us to get running.”

Montverde’s size was a consistent factor. Potter had 13 points and six rebounds, and 6-8 sophomore Simisola Shittu and 6-9 senior Bruno Fernando added 20 combined points off the bench.

“Why not use our size?” Potter said. “We’re if not the, we’re probably one of the top three biggest teams in the country. We have six guys that are 6-8 and over. … So we definitely try to impose our size on other teams and dominate the inside.”

Montverde outscored Seton Hall 40-18 in the paint and slammed down 12 dunks.

“We tried to simulate what they do defensively, but it’s tough to simulate their length,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Williams said. “I was pleased with the way we executed our offense. We got looks … our backdoor cuts and looks we were getting we missed under duress sometimes, and the difference is their rebounding on the other end and hammering down 10 to 12 dunks.

“Their three or four trees in the middle grabbing rebounds and throwing them right back down is tough for our little guys from New Jersey to defend.”

Montverde went on two key runs in the second half, the first one early and the second one midway through the half after Seton Hall had answered.

Montverde trailed 30-29 two minutes into the second half and went on an 11-0 run that was started by an Anfernee Simons 3-pointer and included a pair of dunks by Shittu.

After Seton Hall pulled within five points with an 8-3 run keyed by 3-pointers from Stephen Ferraro and Ryan Toohers, a 9-0 run to the 5:20 mark gave Montverde command for good.

Fernando started the clinching run with a dunk, and pressure on the ensuing inbounds pass forced a turnover that led to a Shittu tip-in. That was followed by a Devonta Jordan dunk on a fast break and a three-point play by R.J. Barrett.

Seton Hall was able to avoid a blowout with near-perfection from the free throw line, as four players went a combined 17-for-18 in the game. Gibbs hit all 10 of his free throws and finished with a game-high 20 points.

“It was a seven-point game with us shooting 29 percent from the field,” Williams said. “Maybe a few of those shots go down and maybe we’re playing in the later game [Thursday].”

Seton Hall (5-1) will play in the third-place game at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Montverde will be in the championship game scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

“It’s a tournament, and for us it’s about winning and advancing in these things,” Boyle said. “We all like to play great and win by a lot, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t win the tournament.”

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 10:10 PM with the headline "Montverde advances to the Beach Ball championship game."