Region boys basketball: Tampa Prep takes over in third quarter

LAKELAND — For a change, the team that has provided its audience with breakneck tempos, blowouts in profusion and above-the-rim artistry was featuring something altogether different Tuesday night: suspense.

For the better part of a half of the Class 3A region semifinals, Lakeland’s McKeel Academy was hanging with hugely favored Tampa Prep. After eight minutes, in fact, the score was tied.

Then, before you could say alley-oop, this would-be grudge match segued into a formality.

A 29-6 third-quarter run propelled the Terrapins (28-1) to a 76-44 romp, setting up a highly anticipated region final Saturday night in Tampa against Orlando First Academy. Tampa Prep fell to First 68-49 in last season’s 2A state semifinals.

“We’ve got to have it,” said junior point guard Josh Heath, who tallied a double double (12 points, 10 assists) Tuesday. “They beat us last year. The state championship’s most important to us. It’s at home. It’s all ripe for us, we’ve got to get it.”

They’ll need to avoid the start they endured Tuesday. Hampered by early turnovers, Tampa Prep watched the Wildcats (25-2) score the first five points en route to a 15-all first-quarter deadlock.

Then, 6-foot-8 Rwanda native Adonis Rwabigwi, who scored seven in the opening quarter, started getting help on the perimeter. It began when Heath found Butler-bound guard Devontae Morgan for an alley-oop dunk off an inbounds pass to give Tampa Prep a 17-15 lead.

Heath, Morgan (17 points, eight rebounds, seven assists) and sleek sophomore Marshall Holmes (13 points) all later scored during an 8-0 second-quarter run that helped give the Terps a 32-23 halftime advantage. From there, the rout was on.

Rwabigwi finished with 20 points, 18 boards and four blocks. “Obviously, he was an advantage in a game like this,” said Terps coach Joe Fenlon, who can clinch his eighth final four trip with a victory Saturday.

“I think we forced it into him too much early, and as a result we were a little bit out of synch. And as the game progressed, and they had to start guarding on the perimeter … that created the opportunities for Adonis to have a little more freedom to go.”

Teams in post

• Tampa Prep