Playoff Pairings: Seabreeze, Flagler Palm Coast hit the road for boys basketball regionals; top seed Mainland will host Ocala Forest

FPC will face Atlantic Coast for the third time this season on Feb. 14. Seabreeze will travel to Auburndale.

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With 14 seconds left in triple overtime and Seabreeze down by 1 point, Sandcrabs coach Ray Gaines didn’t bother calling time out. Christian Simmons already knew what he had to do.

“I’ve told him all year, I need you to be the dude,” Gaines said. “And that’s what he did.”

The dude abides.

Simmons drove the lane, hitting a layup with eight seconds left, and Seabreeze held on to defeat Orlando Jones 70-69 in three overtimes in a District 7-5A semifinal on Thursday, Feb. 5, at the Seabreeze gym.

Two days later, the Sandcrabs defeated Pine Ridge 58-54 to win the district championship and  earn a trip to the regional playoffs. Seabreeze, seeded seventh, will travel to No. 2 seed Auburndale (19-8) for a Region 2-5A quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14.

The Sandcrabs improved to 21-8 with the win against Pine Ridge. It has been 20 years since the last time Seabreeze had won 20 games in a season.

“It’s been a long time since Seabreeze has won any kind of championship,” Gaines said.


FPC'S SANDERS SINKS CREEKSIDE

On the same night that Simmons came through in the clutch for the Sandcrabs, Siah Sanders did the same for Flagler Palm Coast in a District 1-7A semifinal at St. Johns Creekside.

With FPC down by one with less than 10 seconds left, the Bulldogs’ senior center calmly sanked two free throws. FPC forced Creekside into taking a deep 3-pointer as time ran out, and the Bulldogs beat the team that had ended their season the past two years, 62-61. 

FPC fell to Atlantic Coast 40-36 two nights later in the district final. But the Bulldogs (17-10) have done enough to earn a spot in the playoffs.

FPC, seeded seventh, will travel to Atlantic Coast (20-6) again in the Region 1-7A quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Feb. 14.

Mainland, the top seed in Region 1-6A, will host Ocala Forest in a quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Feb. 14. The Bucs (22-3) lost to Lake Howell (22-5) 73-61 in the District 4-6A championship game on Feb. 7. But the loss didn’t affect the Bucs’ seeding when the playoffs were announced on Monday, Feb. 9. Mainland could again face Lake Howell, the region’s No. 2 seed, in the regional final on Feb. 28.

Jeremiah Outler scored 26 points for Seabreeze in the triple-overtime victory. Brown added 22 points before fouling out. Simmons, who is averaging 7.4 points, scored eight against Jones, including the biggest bucket of the game.

“He went left and drove to the lane,” Gaines said. “They tried to take a charge, but he jump stopped and finished off the backboard. We’ve been able to see that in him. I was happy for him that he took the shot.”

The Sandcrabs overcame a 33-point performance by Pine Ridge four-star recruit Henry Robinson Jr. to win the district title.

They say it’s hard to beat any team three times in a season. FPC hopes that’s the case on Saturday. Atlantic Coast also defeated the Bulldogs in the third game of the season, 45-40.

“That was a. back-and-forth game,” FPC coach Greg Shirley said.

It has been seven years and four coaches ago since the Bulldogs last made the playoffs.

 

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