The American Heritage Patriots battled, but ultimately fell short to the Chaminade-Madonna Lions in overtime, 84-78.
In a game filled with star power, junior Zaire Wade finished with 32 points, including 19 in the second half. For the Lions, senior and Georgia commit Toumani Camara finished with a game-high 40 points.
Both schools were participating in the I Have A Dream MLK Challenge, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. The 12-team field was being hosted by Somerset Academy in Pembroke Pines.
Wade brought American Heritage all the way back, hitting a 3-pointer from the top of the key with under a minute to go. On the ensuing possession, a Lion’s turnover on the in-bound gave Wade an easy bucket underneath the rim to give American Heritage a 74-72 lead.
With the Lions down two, sophomore guard Thaddius Franklin drove baseline before being fouled by Dahveon Morris. After knocking down two clutch free throws, the game went to overtime. Franklin, who used his size to power into the lane, finished with 14 points.
In the extra period, the Lions would take control thanks to the play of Camara. The 6-foot-7 wing finished with 28 of his 40 points in the second half and overtime. Camara helped the Lions jump out to an 8-2 run to finish off a resilient Patriot squad.
For American Heritage, it was a matchup problem with the much smaller Andrew Volmar on Camara for most of the night. After four quarters of play, Camara’s size and athleticism seemed to wear on head coach Fred Battle’s team.
“He (Camara) is a great player, shout out to him,” said Wade. “Guy is a Georgia commit so coming into the game we knew who he was and knew what we had to do to stop him. Obviously our goal was to win and we came up short with that.”
“From an individual performance I think all our guys played really well. Today I had to carry the scoring load a little bit more, but that is fine,” Wade said.
While the regulation comeback was complete in the fourth quarter, American Heritage broke out the rally in the third. Heritage went on an 11-2 run thanks to an opening 3-pointer by Wade in the corner. The Patriots rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit to score 24 points in the quarter. Chaminade-Madonna would hold a slim five point advantage after three by a score of 57-52.
With Camara inside, senior Masai Olowokere did his best with pull up jumpers in the paint. Olowokere finished with 15 points on the night. With the tough size assignment of Camara, junior Andrew Volmar was efficient offensively with 18 points.
“I can’t be mad at my kids, they played hard,” said head coach Fred Battle. “We were down 15 points and kept fighting to take it to overtime. I am proud of them because they fought. It is about fighting right now and going through these moments.”
“When we get into the district tournament, these games might come easier and show themselves to win those games. I want to win every game but that is impossible, so I think we can grow off this game.”
Michael Costeines is a contributor for Mars Reel based in South Florida Â
