{"id":180400,"date":"2026-03-06T06:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/180400\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T06:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:49:10","slug":"underdog-cfca-led-no-1-sagemont-prep-in-1a-basketball-semifinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/180400\/","title":{"rendered":"Underdog CFCA led No. 1 Sagemont Prep in 1A basketball semifinal"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE \u2014 Central Florida Christian Academy stood toe-to-toe and bucket-for-bucket with No. 1 ranked Sagemont Prep for the first six minutes of a Thursday afternoon Class 1A boys basketball<\/a> semifinal game at the University of North Florida.<\/p>\n

CFCA, seeded fourth in the small-school final four, made difficult baskets early to take the lead against a Sagemont team stacked with college prospects. A 3-point shot by CFCA senior Sean Storr tied the score at 8-8.<\/p>\n

Another trey, by Eagles point guard Joshua Hernandez, gave CFCA a 12-11 lead. Two scores in traffic by CFCA senior Alexander Dipaolo made it 19-16 in favor of the underdogs.<\/p>\n

But a 14-1 run by Sagemont, ignited by a 3-point shot by LSU signee Kevin Thomas, turned the tide and put the Broward County academy power in control of a game that was intense and physical from start to finish. Sagemont (23-6), which was nationally-ranked early this season, won 76-60 and will play Saturday for its fourth consecutive FHSAA state title.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it was going to be tough,\u201d said Eagles coach Albert Settles, who took on the CFCA program last season following an uncharacteristic 6-19 season in 2023-24. \u201cThat was a man\u2019s game. Our guys don\u2019t quit. Sagemont is really physical and they hit big-time shots that really got them going.\u201d<\/p>\n

CFCA finished 23-7 after reaching the final four for the first time since its 2019 state championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe laid the foundation last year. It really means a lot that the four seniors who have been here trusted and believed in me \u2014 especially being a first time (head) coach. We\u2019ll be back here, I know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

CFCA senior Alexander Dipaolo led his team with 16 points. Hernandez, a junior, had 10 points and a game-high 10 assists. Trevor Miller, also a junior, scored 11 points and Storr finished with 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew we belonged here,\u201d Dipaolo said. \u201cWe worked hard for this. We played for each other all season. At the end of the day, basketball is a game of runs and (Sagemont) had the bigger runs.\u201d<\/p>\n

OCP, CFCA open bids for basketball state championships in Jacksonville<\/a><\/p>\n

The Eagles played the entire season without their leading scorer from last season, senior Julian DeClou. He suffered a preseason ACL injury.<\/p>\n

Thomas, a 6-7 senior shooting guard, scored a game-high 27 points for Sagemont, which is 23-6 against a challenging schedule. He was 5-for-11 on 3-point shots. David Nealy, a 6-3 senior, added 24 points and was 5-of-9 on treys in the win. Obinna Ekufu, a 6-6 senior, added 9 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots in the win.<\/p>\n

Sagemont made 11 3s and CFCA hit 8.<\/p>\n

Sagemont will play for its seventh state championship on Saturday at 5. The opponent will be the winner of Thursday night\u2019s semifinal that matches hometown Impact Academy (27-4) of Jacksonville, the second seed, against Victory Christian (24-6) of Lakeland.<\/p>\n

Orlando Christian Prep wins to reach FHSAA 1A girls basketball final<\/a><\/p>\n

Varsity content editor Buddy Collings can be contacted by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE \u2014 Central Florida Christian Academy stood toe-to-toe and bucket-for-bucket with No. 1 ranked Sagemont Prep for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3745,139,141,140,76046,76642,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-180400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-high-school-sports","9":"tag-orlando","10":"tag-orlando-headlines","11":"tag-orlando-news","12":"tag-social-sports","13":"tag-social-varsity-sports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}