Harmony, Poinciana Top Seeds in this Week’s Orange Belt Conference Hoops Tourney

Osceola has dominated the county boys’ basketball scene of late – winning every Orange Belt Conference championship since 2017. But the Kowboys’ string of six straight titles (no champion was determined during the 2021-22 Covid season) may be in jeopardy this year as two other teams will be seeded higher than them when the OBC Tournament is held this week (Jan. 22-26).

Based on state rankings as of last Monday, Harmony (15-3) and Poinciana (11-4) will be the tops seeds and host sites for Monday’s quarterfinal games. In the top half of the bracket, #1 seed Harmony will host Celebration in a 7 p.m. game. That game will be preceded by Gateway vs. St. Cloud at 5:30 p.m.

The bottom half of the bracket, will feature Monday night quarterfinal games at Poinciana High, with #6 Tohopekaliga playing #3 Osceola at 5:30 p.m. and #2 Poinciana playing #7 Liberty at 7 p.m. The top seeds will also be the host site for semifinal and consolation games on Wednesday. Celebration will host the third place and championship games on Friday.

Harmony has more than earned the top seed.

They are currently ranked 20^th in the state in 7A and have won four in a row and 10 of their last 11. Senior Vlad Torrado (16.3 ppg) leads a balanced Longhorn attack that includes five players averaging seven or more points per game. The team, which has won five of six games against county opposition last year, is coming off an impressive road win last Friday against Port St. Lucie (16-4), the 15^th ranked team in Class 5A.

But it’s their pressing defense that coach Duke Leonardo hopes will give his team the edge. “Whether it’s in a tournament or round robin, we traditionally haven’t had a lot of luck in OBC’s, so it’s always a definite goal of ours to try and win it.” Leonardo said. “We’re playing pretty good basketball right now, but it’s always tough to win three times in one week. If we can continue to play our lock-down defense, stay out of foul trouble and trust our offense, I like our chances.”

Although just 7-9 on the season, the defending champion Kowboys should not be overlooked.

All nine of Osceola losses have come to teams ranked in the top 20 of their division in the state. . Those losses have included tough setbacks to Edgewater (#2, 6A), Rockledge (#3, 5A), Oak Ridge (#3, 7A) and Lake Highland Prep (#6, 4A). The nine opponents who have beaten Osceola have a combined won-lost record of 135-31.

“We have an extremely young team that has played an incredibly tough schedule—putting our squad to the test this year. Our feeling was it would be the best way to prepare the team not only for the post-season this year, but next year too. Right now we are starting two juniors and three sophomores,” Osceola Coach Steve Mason said. “We are the not the same team we were at the beginning of the season. Still that is not to suggest the tournament is going to be easy, Harmony has a tremendous team and several others are also capable of winning this thing.”

After two years of somewhat mediocre results, Poinciana coach Craig Walls has the Eagles playing some outstanding basketball this year. Their 11-4 record includes a championship in the Kowboys Invitational, where they defeated three solid teams. Poinciana is led offensively by junior Jordan Isaac (19.1 ppg) and senior Devin Williams (10.1 ppg); while senior Steven Bennett (3 assists per game) runs the point.

Fourth-seeded St. Cloud (13-5) split its season series with top-seeded Harmony and could be a headed towards a rubber-match with the Longhorns if they get past Gateway (8-9) in the quarterfinals.

The Bulldogs lost a tough one-point decision to Timber Creek on Friday, staging a valiant comeback after trailing by 16 at the half. Behind the stellar play of underclassmen Alex Springs (17.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg), Josiah Cotto (6.1 ppg, 4.1 apg) and Malaki Baker (5.8 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 2.2 bpg), St. Cloud is enjoying its best season in more than two decades.

Despite beating Harmony earlier, first-year head coach Tommy Billiteri says his team is not looking ahead to a potential rubber-game rematch with the Longhorns. “Gateway is a really solid, well-coached team that gave us all we wanted last week (a 51-45 St. Cloud win), so there’s no way we are taking them for granted,” Billiteri said. “Our goal all year has been one game at a time, so 100 percent of our attention is currently on the Panthers and Monday night. Once that game is over, we will worry about the next team on the schedule.”

St. Cloud has endured at least 18 consecutive losing seasons heading into this year, but with 13 wins going into OBC’s they have almost guaranteed that streak will come to an end. “We wanted to change the culture and reputation of St. Cloud basketball and we have started to do that – one game at a time,” Billiteri said. “A strong showing at OBC’s would just be another step in the right direction.”

Gateway will enter the tournament with an 8-9 mark; while Tohopekaliga (5-10), Liberty (4-12) and Celebration (3-14) have all struggled this season.

Orange Belt Conference

Boys Basketball Championship Schedule

Monday, Jan. 22