Windermere, Fla. — The Villages High School boys basketball team couldn't quite overcome a cohesive Windermere Prep squad on Saturday night, falling 76-72 on the road in the Orlando Health Hoopfest in Windermere.

The Buffalo (3-4) and Lakers (4-1) exchanged the lead a half-dozen times in the second half — including a 4-point VHS advantage with just over six minutes to play — before Windermere Prep outplayed the Buffalo down the stretch to close out a hard-fought battle between two state Final Four squads from a year ago. 

"I thought our focus and our effort was good," said VHS head coach Colt McDowell. "But it's tough — it's supposed to be tough — we're playing a tough team that's really talented and well-coached, and we're doing it in their gym in a tough environment. We've still got a lot of coming together to do."

VHS trailed 20-14 after one quarter of play, before an 8-0 run by the visitors from Middleton opened the second quarter and gave the Buffalo a 22-20 advantage. 

A 10-2 run by Windermere Prep right back was a sign of the back-and-forth contest to come, as the Lakers jumped back in front at 30-24.

Windermere Prep eventually held a 35-31 lead at the half, before Chris Washington Jr. tallied 11 points in the third quarter — a period  in which VHS outscored the Lakers 23-17 — to take a 54-52 lead into the fourth.

The two teams swapped the lead three times each in the early part of the final period, with a bucket-and-foul from Brandon Bass Jr. putting Windermere Prep in front with just over four minutes to play. 

VHS was able to close the deficit to a single possession on a handful of occasions down the stretch, but the Buffalo ultimately dropped their third loss by four points or less this season.

"Hopefully, we'll learn from this and use it for the end of the year, and I think we will," McDowell said. "If we won (tonight), we probably have their attention to learn from it for maybe 45 minutes at practice on Monday. Now that we've lost, I've got it for probably a week, and hopefully we get a lot of growth out of it in that time."

Washington led The Villages in scoring with 19 points, while Adyn Corbin added 15 and both Jomar Bernard and Aaron Britt Jr. each finished with 11. Bass tallied 31 points to lead all scorers for Lakers. 

VHS will now turn its attention toward another state Final Four participant from a year ago, as the team travels to Orlando on Tuesday night for a 7:30 p.m. tip at Oak Ridge. 

"I'm proud of everyone because we really stuck together tonight," Corbin said. "We played through a lot of adversity and even though we didn't get the win, we kept fighting and pushing forward. We'll use that as motivation going forward."


Cody Hills can be reached for questions or comment at cody.hills@tvcs.org or by calling (352) 259-6890.