Jaden Smith came up with a huge steal with 6.3 second left as the Harmony Longhorns defeated St.Cloud, 49-46, to win the Class 7A, District 6 Championship on Friday night.

With the game tied 46-46, Harmony had possession with less than a minute to go and appeared content to run down the clock and take a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer. But 12.3 seconds remaining, the Bulldogs were called for a reach-in foul that sent Mason Fontaine to the free throw line. Fontaine knocked down both shots and Harmony led by two.

Still, the Bulldogs have a chance go for a tie or a win with a three-pointer, but the Harmony defense would not allow it. The Longhorns pressured St. Cloud into calling two quick timeouts.

After the second timeout, Smith would tip an errant pass and come up with a clean steal. He was quickly fouled after the steal, and confidently made his first free throw attempt. But his second shot rattled off the rim and was tipped out of bounds by the Longhorns – giving St. Cloud one more opportunity to tie the game with 3.8 seconds remaining.

Harmony again pressured the ball and Diomar Ortiz’s off-balanced three-pointer from just inside the half court line bounced harmlessly off the backboard – touching off a jubilant Longhorns celebration.

“We knew how potent the St. Cloud offense was going into the game,” Harmony coach Duke Leonardo said. “We told our kids we needed to keep the score in the 30s or 40s and if we did that, I liked our chances. Fortunately it played out that way.”

In the early going, St. Cloud looked to be the better team. Alex Springs scored nine first-quarter points and St. Cloud shot 7 of 11 from the field to take a 19-12 lead. Although the Harmony defense stiffened in the second period, the Longhorns could manage just three field goals as St. Cloud stretched the lead to nine at half, 29-20.

Things would quickly change in the third. Ivan Ramos hit two of Harmony’s four three pointers in the period to cut the gap. Still, St. Cloud’s Josiah Cotto hit two three-pointers of his own as St. Cloud managed to maintain the lead heading into the final stanza, 38-34.

The final period would belong to Sylus Cory, Smith and their Longhorn teammates. Cory, who finished with a game-high 17 points, hit the first of his two, three-pointers in the period to give Harmony a 40-38 lead at the 4:32 mark. It was Harmony’s first lead since the opening minutes of the game.

Ramos chipped in five big points in the period, but Springs scored six for the Bulldogs – with his final basket forging a 40-40 tie with less than a minute to go—setting up the heroics of Fontaine and Smith.

After the game, Cory deflected praise to his teammates, despite leading his team in scoring. “The real credit goes to our defense. We’re a decent three-point shooting team but we win with defense. We spend the majority of our time at practice on it. I can’t say enough about guys like Ivan (Ramos) and Jaden (Smith). They really locked down their two best offensive players.”

St. Cloud was led offensively by Springs, who scored 15, Julian Fox had 11 and Cotto chipped in nine. “I thought we played a pretty good game tonight, we had some shots we normally make not fall and Harmony just nailed some big threes – especially in the second half,” St. Cloud coach Tommy Billiteri said. “We made too many mistakes tonight and that includes in our coaching.”

As district champs, Harmony automatically qualifies for next week’s tough Region 2 Tournament that includes fellow district champions Windermere (District 5), Centennial (District 7), and Wellington (District 8). Highly state-ranked Olympia and Oak Ridge, who played in the same district as Windermere, are expected to claim two of the four at-large spots in the regional playoffs – leaving St. Cloud (23-4) in a computer fight with Jupiter, Palm Beach Central, and Ft. Pierce Central for the other two spots.

“Not knowing until Sunday where this was our last game made my post-game talk one of the hardest I have ever had to give,” Billiteri said. “This team has accomplished so much this year so it is tough to think we are not going to move on. I just told them how proud I was of them but added that it was not an end of the season speech. I hope there’s more basketball to play for this team.” In other prep action Friday night, Bishop Moore upset Liberty (45-41) to win the 4A, District 7 boys basketball championship.

In soccer, the season came to an end for all of the Osceola County teams as Celebration (14-4-1) dropped a 3-1 decision to Lake Nona in the Class 7A, Region 2 Semifinals; Gateway (17-3-0) dropped a 2-1 decision to River Ridge in the Class 5A, Region 2 Semifinals; and the Harmony
(13-6-1) team lost in the 7A, Region 2 semifinals to Jupiter, 7-1.