By: J. Daniel Pearson
When it came right down to it, the Plant Panthers had no answer for Osceola’s pressure defense and clutch free throw shooting as the Kowboys stayed alive in the FHSAA Class 7A Playoffs with a dramatic 75-66 come-from-behind win over Plant on Monday night.
The win, Osceola’s seventh in a row, pushed them to 25-3 on the season and advances them to the Region 3 Championship Game against Sarasota (27-2), a big 81-66 winner over Plant City in the other Region 3 semifinal. Osceola, the team’s top seed in the region, will host Sarasota on Thursday night at 7 p.m. with a trip to the 7A Final Four on the line.
It was a rugged game that saw Osceola trailing by seven early in the fourth quarter.
But the Kowboys kept chipping away at the lead. They forged ahead, 66-62 on Helio Quinlan’s fifth three-pointer of the game. Osceola got in position to take the lead on the spirited play of Mason. With the Kowboys trailing by two, Mason had a three-play sequence of a three-pointer, a steal and an assist that led to a layup, and a steal where he hit a layup of his own.
With the Kowboys up by four, Plant was forced to foul down the stretch. Luke McCrimon hit seven of nine free throws in the period and Jordan Isaac made all six of his attempts as Osceola went 14 of 17 in the fourth quarter from the charity stripe to insure the win.
Although Coach Mason sited both Mason (21 points) and McCrimon (20 points) for their play, it was Quinlan that received heavy accolades from the veteran coach. The junior finished with 17 points, to go with a couple of blocked shots and some huge rebounds. “Forget the things you see on the stat sheet,” Mason said of his junior forward. “He does so much more for us. He took a couple of charges tonight and he just plays so hard all time. He altered a lot of shots in this game and we don’t win tonight without those efforts.”
The game appeared to be headed for a rout in the early going.
Quinlan buried three quick three-pointers, Osceola’s defense forced four turnovers, and both Mason and McCrimon hit early shots as the Kowboys built a 13-0 lead before Plant could even get on a second field goal attempt. Blake Williams hit a couple of threes late in the period for Plant, but Osceola still led 22-13 after one.
“We got off to a fast start but then it seemed like we either left our foot off the gas or maybe got a little complacent,” Mason said. “They went from a man defense to a zone and frankly we were not very patient in attacking it. We settled for shooting a lot of threes and a few awkward shots out of frustration and they took advantage of it.”
Plant out-scored Osceola, 19-5 in the second and took a 32-28 lead into the locker room at the half.
It was more of the same in the third period, as Osceola hit just seven of 19 field goal attempts. Mason would score eight in the period for the Kowboys, however, but they still trailed by four at the end of the period, 44-40.
Williams would hit another three and Cooper Zysk added a stick-back off a rebound at the beginning of the fourth as Plant extended the lead to seven, 37-30 and forced a quick timeout from Osceola. “We were talking adjustments, but you could sense our guys were not down,” Mason said. “Someone said they were not going to let the season end tonight and they went out and dominated the rest of the game.”
Osceola outscored Plant 19-6 in the final minutes to secure the win. Plant (21-8) was led in scoring by Brayden Galuski (16) and Jonah Daniel (15).
The Kowboys last reached a regional final in 2022, where they lost to Lake Worth 75-57. They last won a regional championship game in 2019 against Oak Ridge and would go on to win the win a state championship, beating South Miami and Wellington at the Final Four.
