Prep boys basketball: Naples wins district with easy victory over Palmetto Ridge

Naples High School basketball coach Pierre Eaton said his Golden Eagles are an entirely different team this postseason, but he likes what he’s seeing.

Following a 38-point win in the district semifinals, Naples didn’t miss a beat against a much tougher opponent in the finals. The Golden Eagles blitzed Palmetto Ridge in the second quarter Friday and never looked back in a 66-38 win to claim the Class 7A-District 12 championship at Barron Collier.

“We just came out hard,” Naples senior guard Sevin Brown said. “We didn’t want to lose. When we got going, we didn’t stop.”

The Golden Eagles will host District 11 runner-up Fort Myers in the 7A regional quarterfinals on Thursday, a rematch of last year’s first-round playoff game which Naples won. Palmetto Ridge will play at District 11 champ Lehigh.

Palmetto Ridge (22-6) came in with just five losses, three of them by fewer than five points. The Bears were 13-1 since the start of 2018. However, the one loss was to Naples (19-7) by four points.

The first quarter and a half of the 7A-12 final was close. Then Naples turned it on with first minutes left in the first half.

Over the next 10 minutes and 55 seconds of game time, the Golden Eagles went on a 29-5 run and Palmetto Ridge did not make a field goal. By the time the Bears finally hit a shot, Naples was up 48-23 with 2:13 left in the fourth quarter.

Naples won its second straight district championship. The Eagles also beat Barron Collier 54-16 in the 7A-12 semifinals on Wednesday.

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“Against Barron the other night, it was like a totally different team,” Eaton said. “All the sudden, we just started playing on a totally different level. We did it again (Friday). Defensively we played about as good as you can play.”

Palmetto Ridge entered the postseason averaging 65 points per game. On Friday, the Bears had their lowest point total and worst defeat of the season.

Bears coach Steve Crowder was unavailable to media after the game. Several Palmetto Ridge players declined comment.

Palmetto Ridge was going for its first district championship since 2008 and just the second since the school opened in 2004. Instead the Bears will have to settle for the program’s third regional appearance, the last one coming in 2016 when Palmetto Ridge advanced to the regional finals as a district runner-up.

Eaton called the win a total team victory. Brown led the way with 17 points, including nine in the crucial second quarter. Seniors Wooby Theork and Jack Youmans each scored 13.

Even before the game got out of hand, Eaton used 10 players in his rotation. Nine of them scored, and all 12 players who dressed Friday played.

Ricky Jean Baptiste led Palmetto Ridge with 18 points. Jacquez Carter and Calvin Celestin added eight apiece.

Boys basketball

Thursday

Regional quarterfinals

Class 7A

Palmetto Ridge at Lehigh

Fort Myers at Naples

Class 6A

Bradenton-Bayshore at Immokalee

Class 5A

Community School at Tampa Catholic

Regional semifinal

Class 3A

Bradenton-St. Stephen’s at First Baptist