TAMPA – The Jesuit Tigers and Spoto Spartans punched their tickets to a Class 6A-Region 3 berth on Wednesday night, but before that, a district final will ensue. Both the Spartans and Tigers pioneered commanding victories over their semifinal opponents at Robinson High School.
No. 1 Jesuit 76, No. 4 Jefferson 37:
Jefferson (4-22, 2-8) was not as fortunate in their 80-54 victory over Middleton on Tuesday in their battle with Jesuit (21-4, 9-0) the following day. Jesuit got back on track after their ten-point loss to rival Tampa Catholic last week.
The Tigers got off to a slow start in the first quarter, only leading 6-4 at the four-minute mark, but Tyson Dunn knocked down a couple of big three pointers to get the 2016 6A Final Four participant Jesuit a commanding lead after the first quarter.
Jesuit lead 22-9 at that point and never looked back. Stevie Darst did his thing in the second, scoring 15 points in the quarter, giving them a 18 point lead at the half. Darst, who scored a career-high 30 points against Tampa Catholic last Friday, finished with 22, leading all scorers on the evening.
The game moved quickly along, the Tigers in full control, eventually getting the running clock in the third quarter. Outscoring the Dragons 33-12 in the final two quarters, Jesuit finished out strong and took one of the two spots in Friday’s district final.
Dunn finished with 15 on the evening for the Tigers. Lucas Uzdavinis added 12, while Thierry Moliere scored nine.
David Harris had 12 for the Dragons, who were eliminated from play after the loss.
No. 3 Spoto 70, No. 2 Robinson 52:
The hometown favorite Knights (12-11, 6-3) came into the affair after sweeping the Spartans (11-9, 4-5) in their season series, but only by an 8.5 margin of victory. That didn’t matter to Spoto, who came out very strong and rode the momentum to the regional tournament appearance.
Spoto’s Jose Cruz was all over the court in the first quarter, knocking down three three-pointers, almost successively, and then getting back on defense to block shots. He had 11 in the period alone. Robinson quickly found themselves down 22-9 after one.
Then, things got a little interesting. Spoto jumped out to a 5-0 run to put them up by 18 early in the second quarter when Robinson Head Coach Steve Smith Jr. called a timeout. After the timeout, the Knights go on a quick 9-0 tear of their own, cutting the lead to nine with 4:46 to play in the half.
Robinson found itself only down by six at the half.
Misfortunes occured. Robinson forward Javier Spires went down with a nasty ankle injury late in the third quarter and never returned. He led the Knights with 11 points when he departed.
Things went from bad to worse. Arguments along the bench resulted in several Robinson players walking out of the gym while the game still was going on, as Spoto’s lead continued to grow in the fourth. The Spartans outscored Robinson 21-10 in the final quarter on the way to the district final. Quinnton Brown sparked Spoto with eight points in the final period.
Spoto’s Niles Bright led all scorers with 19 and Cruz finished with 15 en route to the victory.
The victories by the Spartans and Tigers sets up a No. 1 Jesuit v. No. 3 Spoto district final that will take place on Friday night at 7 p.m. at Robinson High School in South Tampa.