The Villages High School girls and boys basketball teams both came away from the 2021 Buffalo Team Camp with a runner-up finish and advancements.
The three-day basketball tournament concluded recently within gymnasiums throughout The Villages Charter School Campus, with the Buffalo girls team placing second in their group.
Just two days after rallying from a double-digit deficit to overcome the Panthers by a point in round-robin pool play, VHS fell 55-39 to Eustis in the event’s title game.
The Buffalo boys team won their single-elimination tournament opener, 65-58 over Hagerty (Oviedo), before losing 52-41 to Winter Garden in the second round.
“I’m very proud of our girls,” VHS girls head coach Marquez Porter Jr. said. “I’ve been proud of their fight, but I think I’m most proud about the attitude we’ve had as a team. They don’t give up when facing adversity. They never stop fighting no matter what the score is – winning or losing — they make us proud.”
After completing two days of pool play with a 2-2 record, the VHS boys team was seeded ninth in the large-varsity tournament.
The Buffalo boys’ team faced Hagerty in the tournament opener, and they needed a comeback effort to advance to the next round.
VHS fell behind by as many as ten points in the second half before rallying to grab their first lead since the first period on a Jacory Jackson 3-pointer with 5:34 remaining. With 16 points, Jackson led four Buffalo players in double figures.
In the second round, a comparable comeback wasn’t in the cards for VHS, as the Buffalo battled offensively throughout their clash against Winter Garden.
The Vikings went on an 11-0 run early in the second half to beat VHS, shooting 56 percent from the field (19-of-34) and making 5-of-8 attempts from beyond the arc.
“I think we just lost our mental edge there for a bit,” said Buffalo boys head coach Colt McDowell. “We argued about some things — good stuff to argue about and figure out — just not at the right time. We just can’t do some of the things we did against a quality team like (Winter Garden) and expect to win, even in the month of June.”
The Buffalo girls’ team was seeded first in the recent single-elimination competition after concluding pool play with a flawless 4-0 record.
Springstead (Spring Hill) was dispatched quickly in the semifinals, with VHS sweeping to a 55-10 victory despite Buffalo’s starting lineup sitting on the bench for the second half.
The Villages faced Eustis again in the event’s final game, and the two teams traded blows early on, resulting in six lead changes in the first half.
The Panthers, on the other hand, proved too much to handle down the line, running away with the game late on the virtue of an 8-1 fourth-quarter surge.
“Whatever the results have been, we’ve just continued to get better this summer,” said Porter. “They’ve chose to continue trusting the process and committing themselves to what we’re doing, and we’re going to continue improving because of it.”
