Orlando, Fla. — The Villages High School boys basketball team fought back — but couldn't finish — a come-from-behind effort Saturday in Orlando.
The Buffalo fell victim to a lackadaisical start en route to a 58-55 loss to Blake (Tampa) in the 11th annual Breast Cancer Awareness Classic at Oak Ridge High School, suffering their second straight one-possession loss to ultimately drop to 1-3 this season.
Despite trailing by double digits throughout the majority of the neutral-site affair, VHS worked its way back to take a one-point lead with just over a minute to play, before eventually seeing the result go the other way.
"No question about it, we have to be better about listening and applying what we've been coached," said VHS ninth-year head coach
Colt McDowell. "We didn't execute or run much of anything that we wanted in the first half and dug ourselves a huge hole. But we finally started to do the right things in the second half, and we gave ourselves a chance to win."
VHS allowed a slew of offensive rebounds and committed costly turnover after costly turnover in the first half, finding itself down 38-20 at the break.
The Villages eventually trailed by as much as 19 midway through third quarter, before the team's comeback effort began in earnest behind an aggressive 1-3-1 zone defense.
Blake (4-1) couldn't find its way through the Buffalo defensive pressure early in the fourth quarter, with VHS starting the final period on a 10-0 run to close within 50-46 and force a timeout with 5:03 to play.
With 1:12 remaining, a drive to the basket by
Chris Washington Jr. resulted in a foul — plus a technical whistled against Blake — sent the sophomore to the line. The 6-foot-8 forward calmly knocked down four consecutive free throws to give VHS its first lead of the game at 55-54.
A pair of free throws on the other end by Blake's Shamar Council put the Buffalo down again at 56-55 with 37.1 seconds left.
VHS came up empty on its next possession offensively and two more made free throws by Blake left the Buffalo with one last opportunity to send the game to overtime, but a shot missed the mark and VHS fell for the second straight Saturday in Orlando.
Washington led the Buffalo with 19 points, while Joshua Lewis paced Blake with 26.
"We went from playing selfish to finally playing together at the end," Washington said. "We'll learn and hopefully we'll learn from it and shake back for the next game."
The Villages is scheduled to return to action at 7 p.m. Monday for its first Class 4A-District 6 contest of the season at Mount Dora.
Cody Hills can be reached for questions or comment at cody.hills@tvcs.org or by calling (352) 259-6890.
