Windermere Prep senior Brandon Bass Jr. scored 26 points in the Lakers’ 61-52 win against Cardinal Mooney to become the sixth Orlando area player to surpass 2,500 career points (grades 9-12).
He has 2,523 for the Lakers (22-6) going into a Saturday region semifinal game at Villages Charter (21-7). That doesn’t count 28 points he scored in limited minutes as an eighth grader.
The FSU signee joins these former high school and college standouts:
Darius Washington, Edgewater, 2,961.
Austin Rivers, Winter Park, 2,956.
Nick Calathes, Lake Howell, 2,760.
Jah Nze, Hagerty, 2,667.
Antonio Blakeney, Oak Ridge and Mooney, 2,586.
“This is a truly elite group of players,” Lakers coach Brian Hoff said. “(Bass) is as talented a scorer as I’ve ever coached, and that comes from the work he puts in when no one is watching.”
Windermere Prep’s Brandon Bass Jr. (1) is in select company as a 2,500-point scorer. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
Testing the best
West Orange traveled to South Florida on Tuesday to play baseball juggernaut Stoneman Douglas of Parkland and nearly pulled off a huge upset.
The Warriors (3-1) scored five runs in the fourth inning to take a 5-2 lead, but the perennial power Eagles (4-0) rallied with two runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to escape with a 6-5 victory.
Joey Beechner, a senior second baseman, blasted a grand slam in West Orange’s big inning.
Douglas finished No. 1 in the Prep Baseball Report (PBR) national rankings last season after winning a record fifth consecutive FHSAA state championship.
“I’ve been trying to get them on the schedule for a long time,” West Orange coach Michael Scutero said. “We definitely had a chance to win it.”
The Warriors make a second long road trip Friday for another Class 7A matchup against Venice. The Indians were 3-0 going into a Wednesday game and ranked No. 2 behind Douglas among FHSAA state championship contenders by PBR.
“This is a test week for our team,” Scutero said.
Baseball
Area teams in the PBR Florida Top 25 ranking list are No. 9 The First Academy (2-0), No. 12 Winter Park (3-0 through Tuesday), No. 19 Bishop Moore (3-0 through Tuesday) and No. 22 Winter Springs (3-1).
TFA plays at Winter Park on Thursday night.
Four pitchers combined for a 7-1 one-hitter win by TFA against The Master’s Academy. Ryon Smith had 5 of those K’s in two innings. Kinon Bastain and Aiden Williams homered for the Royals.
Harper Costello struck out 5 in two scoreless innings of relief to get the win for Winter Springs in a 5-1 conquest of Lake Brantley.
St. Cloud (4-0) pitchers Rafaell Martinez (7 strikeouts, 4 innings) and Kam Reinke (8 Ks, 3 scoreless innings) combined to beat Osceola 3-1.
Max Sakala had 9 strikeouts in 4⅔ innings pitched for Orangewood Christian (3-0) in a 4-1 win vs. Lyman.
Geneva School (4-0) senior Trenton Johnson went 7-for-8 in the Knights first three games. He’s now at .667 (8-for-12) with five doubles and 10 RBI.
Umatilla opened 4-0 with senior Dominick Mathe hitting .462 (6-for-13) with 7 RBI.
South Lake’s Zander Siokis fanned 8 in four no-hit innings pitched in an 8-0 win vs. Belleview.
Alton Hughes went 3 for 4 with a home run, double, 5 RBI and 3 runs scored for DeLand (3-2) in a 13-11 win over Seabreeze.
Horizon and Lake Highland Prep are off to 4-0 starts.
Bishop Moore’s Aaliyah Figueroa, brings the ball down court against Gateway in a regular season win. Both teams are top seeds in their region brackets. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel)
Girls basketball
The No. 1 and 2 seeds are all still alive in the 10 region tourneys that have Orlando area teams.
Here are the pairings for Friday’s semifinals. The FHSAA lists games at 7 p.m.unless noted otherwise:
7A Region 1
No. 4 Timber Creek (16-9) at No. 1 Ocoee (22-5)
No. 3 Creekside (16-9) at No. 2 Colonial (21-5)
7A Region 2
No. 4 Jupiter (19-6) at No. 1 Centennial (21-6), 6 p.m.
No. 3 Oak Ridge (20-6) at No. 2 Treasure Coast (24-4)
6A Region 1
No. 4 Lake Howell (23-5) at No. 1 Tocoi Creek (22-6)
No. 6 Bartram Trail (14-9) at No. 2 Niceville (22-7), 6 p.m.
6A Region 2
No. 4 Edgewater (18-7) at No. 1 Bloomingdale (24-2)
No. 6 Lakeland (18-7) at No. 2 Bayside (20-8)
5A Region 2
No. 5 Leesburg (12-9) at No. 1 Gateway (24-3)
No. 3 Springstead (23-5) at No. 2 New Smyrna Beach (18-8)
4A Region 2
No. 4 North Marion (13-10) at No. 1 Bishop Moore (22-4)
No. 3 Titusville (19-6) at No. 2 Eustis (20-5)
3A Region 2
No. 4 Cardinal Mooney (16-13) at No. 1 Lake Highland Prep (22-6)
No. 3 Windermere Prep (15-10) at No. 2 Trinity Catholic (15-10)
2A Region 1
No. 4 Bishop Snyder (16-11) at No. 1 Providence (20-5)
No. 3 TFA (11-17) at No. 2 San Jose Prep (18-9)
2A Region 2
No. 4 West Shore (16-6) at No. 1 Holy Trinity (17-12).
No. 3 Foundation (20-6) at No. 2 John Carroll (23-3)
1A Region 2
No. 4 CFCA (17-11) at No. 1 OCP (18-7)
No. 3 Altamonte Christian (20-7) at No. 2 North Tampa Christian (19-8), 4:30.
Softball
Defending 3A state champ Montverde Academy, ranked No. 7 nationally by MaxPreps, defeated No. 19 Calvary Christian of Clearwater 4-0 on Tuesday. Senior pitcher Nevaeh Williams, an Ole Miss signee struck out 13.
Wrestling
Freedom’s state No. 1 girls team goes to Osceola High in Kissimmee for Friday’s Region 2 girls meet.
Harmony outscored Viera by a thin 230.5 points to 228 margin over Viera in the District 6 girls tournament.
Boys district tournaments are this week, including Thursday’s 2A District 8 meet at Lyman and Saturday’s 3A-9 meet at Harmony.
Track & field
Montverde Academy’s Will Moss, winner of the 2A boys cross country title in November, opened his junior track season with a career-best 4:19.66 time for 1,600 meters.
East Ridge junior Axel Sallault, the Sentinel cross country runner of the year, opened with a 4:24.71 win.
Horizon’s boys and Timber Creek girls won team titles by thin margins at Winter Haven’s Harry Woodell Invitational season opener.
Boys lacrosse
Lake Brantley (3-0) and Lake Mary (1-1) went to double-overtime before the Patriots pulled out an 8-7 win on Monday. Tyler Murchek, Lukas Lawrence and Adam Booher each had 2 goals in the win and Jim Galante had 3 assists. Brantley goalkeeper Jacob Lester had 9 saves.
TFA (3-0) has outscored opponents 37-6 going into a Thursday home game vs. Lake Brantley.
Girls lacrosse
St. Cloud (3-0) has scored 49 goals, 15 apiece by Mallory Thomas and Kyrstynn Osborne.
TFA’s girls are 4-0 and seventh grader Lilly Rumble has scored 14 goals.
Golf
The high school golf season ended in November, but Winter Park junior Lawson Hovey hit a highlight recently. He shot 8-under-par 27 in a casual round with teammates to tie the course record at the nine-hole Winter Park Golf Course. He carded seven birdies and an eagle.
Oak Ridge, Winter Park, LHP cruise Saturday | FHSAA Basketball Playoffs
Varsity content editor Buddy Collings can be contacted by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.