Tampa, FL – Against the odds all season, Chamberlain has responded positively each and every time and Tuesday Night’s 5A Regional Semifinal provided another opportunity for more.  Down five points with just over four minutes to play and their leading scorer having just fouled out, Chamberlain must have felt like they had the 2009 5A Runners-Up and District Rival Sickles right where they wanted them.

All they did from that point was go on a 12-3 run to advance to the 5A Regional Finals on Saturday Night against Gibbs by a score of 48-45. The teams meeting for the 4th time this season provided what was by no means an exhibition in fundamental basketball, but quite possibly their greatest show in the series.

“I don’t know if that was our best game fundamentally, (tongue-in-cheek) but it was the best game by far in this series,” said Chamberlain Head Coach Christopher Snyder.

Chamberlain was led by Sophomore Guard Reggie Hart with 20 points before fouling out. Senior Guard Eric Storts was well below his average of 18 points with only 12, but showed why his coach thinks he’s the most underrated player in Hillsborough County.

“Eric showed tremendous amounts of confidence in his teammates. On a night when he wasn’t exactly at his best, he was still making people better around him.” One thing that the Chiefs did well was shoot 80% from the Free-Throw Line in the 2nd Half; arguably the difference in the game for both teams.  Sickles’ Rashawn Rembert was the only offense the Gryphons could manage with 17  in the losing effort. He has played his last game and now is on to East Tennessee State in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Chamberlain (24-2) will now face Gibbs (22-7) on Saturday for the right to advance to Lakeland next week. Gibbs were 62-39 winners over Northeast in Saint Petersburg.