Road to Lakeland: District 5-6A Tournament Preview

We have reached the finale of the boys basketball season with district tournaments beginning this week Feb 6-10 at various sites around the area.

The top two teams from each district move on to the playoffs so its all about survive and advance now.

Can Providence, Creekside, Ribault, Parker or anybody else make it to Lakeland and bring home an elusive state title?

The Road to Lakeland starts this week with winning the district tournament and clinching home court.

Here is a run down of area district tournaments and a preview of each district.

 

District 5-6A

Seeding

1 Ponte Vedra (5-3)

2. Palatka (5-3)

3. Clay (4-4)

4. Menendez (3-5)

5. Matanzas (3-5)

 

District Tournament at Palatka (Feb 6-10)

Monday: No. 5 Matanzas at No. 4 Menendez, 6

Wednesday: No. 2 Palatka vs No. 3 Clay, 6

Wednesday: No. 1 Ponte Vedra vs Menendez/Matanzas winner, 7:30

Friday: Championship game, 7

 

Top Players

Clay: Colin Wilson (Sr.), Jaylan Jenkins (Sr.)

Matanzas: Greg Layne (13.8 p.p.g.), Greg Harrison (10.5 p.p.g.), Christian Harrison (8.8 p.p.g.), Devin Matthews (8.7 p.p.g.)

Menendez: Demario Douglas (11.9 p.p.g), Kenny Logan (9.8 p.p.g., 6.7 r.p.g.), Chris Dixon (7.8 r.p.g.)

Ponte Vedra: JD Pirris (17.0 p.p.g, 5.8 r.p.g.), Eston Hensley (12.6 p.p.g., 5.7 r.p.g.), Jack Shannon (9.5 p.p.g.), Will Mons (7.3 p.p.g.)

 

Outlook

One of the more intriguing districts in the area to say the least, literally on any given night anyone could be beat in this district. Ponte Vedra (14-10) won a tiebreaker over Palatka (16-8)to claim the top seed. One thing is for sure don’t count out Clay (10-11), Menendez (8-11) or Matanzas (11-12) either as only two games separated first from fifth place.  Palatka is one of the hottest teams winning 9 of their last 11 over the last month and having home court advantage is a huge factor.

 

Prediction

Champion: Palatka

Runner-up: Ponte Vedra

 

About the author

The #1 Youth & Prep Sports Website in Jacksonville and Northeast Florida. Providing in-depth coverage of Youth, Middle School, and High School Sports in Duval and surrounding counties. Stories, Highlights, Photos, Scores, & More! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Like us on Facebook, and join our Facebook group (Duval Sports Game Time) to post your sports scores, pics and updates directly to our website! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story Author: Corey Davis is a lead writer and contributor with DuvalSports.com. A 20 year sportswriter who has worked in print, radio and television, Corey combines hard facts with insightful stats to make for compelling stories for the sports community.