Published: Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Class 4a, Region 3 boys basketball

Red Devils Pull Away, Reach Final

LAKELAND

Kathleen's up-and-down game was mostly up Tuesday night. The Red Devils got their transition game going in the second period, then kept the burners on in the third, racing to a 78-56 victory over Bartow in Willie Speed Gymnasium.

The victory came in the Class 4A, Region 3 semifinals and put the Red Devils in a regional championship game Saturday night at home against Palmetto Ridge.

Bartow (19-7) was playing Kathleen (23-4) for the fourth time.

And the other three meetings had been much closer.

"I told our guys at halftime, our season could last 16 more minutes, or 48 minutes or more," Kathleen coach Drew Taylor said.

Kathleen was ahead at the half, 37-28, against a dangerous Bartow team which had made seven 3-pointers in the first two quarters.

"We played zone to start with, and they hit their 3's," Taylor said. "When we went to the man-to-man, our usual defense, that changed."

Senior Miguel Paul, who plays shooting guard or point guard for the Red Devils, had 24 points, including eight straight free throws.

"He's definitely a Division 1 player," said Taylor of the 6-1 Paul, who is headed to the University of Missouri.

"He's very unselfish and he plays both ends of the floor."

Behind Paul in the scoring were, Bradley Tumer and T.J. Lawrence with 16 each. All three Red Devils are perimeter players.

Bartow was led by Jeremiah Samarrippas and Richard Murvin with 15 points each. Between them, they had five 3-pointers.

"I'm disappointed," said Bartow coach Terrence McGriff. "But I'm proud of my kids. We got a lot better than we did were last year and we'll get a lot better next year because we're going to work as hard in the offseason as we did in the last one. And we don't lose very many of our players."

McGriff admitted playing Kathleen four times in a season wasn't ideal.

"We were 10-3 in December, then we lost four in a row. After that we won nine out of 13, and all four losses were to Kathleen. My hat is off to them. "I just wish the (playoff) format were set up so we were meeting in the finals like we used to.

"But what are you gonna do?"

An overflow crowd watched the game and there were a couple of young scalpers offering tickets outside the gym.

Last modified: February 20. 2008 6:04AM