LAKELAND-Like a prized fighter after a title bout fight, senior J’michael Plummer walked into the press conference with plenty of swag with a pair of boxing gloves dangling around his neck, drawing several puzzles faces.
The gloves symbolized its time to play and time to knock out their opponent.
That’s just what Creekside did in a 78-59 win over Winter Haven in the Class 8A state-semifinals Friday afternoon at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.
For 27 minutes, Creekside and Winter Haven traded jabs and uppercuts back and forth, before the Knights finished the Blue Devils off with a flurry of body blows before finally knocking them out.
“The gloves symbolize knocking teams out, it’s time to turn it up and we know with big runs we can knock them out,” Plummer said.
Winter Haven led 11-3 early on thanks to the play of Keyshawn Bryant, who finished with 25 points.
Both teams played sloppy early on perhaps due to the nerves of playing in their biggest game of the career with numerous turnovers in the opening minutes.
It was a Bobby Kasparzak assist to DJ Dumas, who laid it up, that got the Knights finally going.
Or perhaps it was the sight of seeing senior Caleb Townsend enter the game finally for the first time since breaking his foot in the first game of the season.
“Early on I was nervous at first, but I have been preparing for this for three years and it was amazing getting back in,” Townsend said. “Our team was rolling and I thank you and appreciate it.”
“Going into the game there was a lot of emotion in the game, but seeing my little brother (Caleb) back out there quickly turned that emotion into a impact,” Plummer said. “As you saw with the defense and easy transition baskets and we were able to come back.”
Whatever it was it worked as the Knights clawed their way back in it as Dumas on the assist from Kasparzak laid it up and Townsend, who just entered the game, scored on a put back cutting the lead to 11-8.
Dumas drove through the lane and was called for charge and was taken down hard on the play, perhaps a little to hard as Dumas fell to the ground and things got a big testy as Townsend was called for a technical foul on the play.
Bryant brought the crowd to its feet with a thundering dunk seconds into the second quarter giving the Blue Devils a 15-10 lead; however Mekhi Parker stole a pass and Dumas laid it up cutting the lead to 15-14.
That’s when the Knights turned up the defense and the pressure which led to a 14-6 run and their first lead of the game at 19-17 thanks to Noah Lippy, who scored 10 of his first 12 points in the second quarter.
“This was our first time being here and we did what we had to do, playing with in our game,” Lippy said. “J (Plummer) got two quick ones and other people stepped up and I had some assists and blocks as well,.”
Both teams went into the locker room feeling confident tied at 29 all, despite numerous turnovers and trading uppercuts and jabs through out the game.
Creekside came out of the locker room on fire with a 11-0 run as Lippy stole a pass and went coast-to-coast, seconds later Plummer stole a pass and laid it up and Kasparzak stole a pass and laid it up for a 38-29 lead forcing Winter Haven to call a quick timeout.
From there it only got worse for the Blue Devils, playing 20 miles from home, as the Knights kept up the pressure and began the body blows. Lippy blocked a shot and grabbed a rebound, Kasparzak scored on a lay up for a 44-31 lead.
However, Winter Haven wouldn’t go away and responded with their own blows cutting the lead 49-37 late in the third; before Dumas tomahawk dunk and Lippy steal and lay up stretched it out to 53-39 late in the third.
Again the Blue Devils (23-9) fought back off the ropes with a 13-1 run cutting the lead to 54-52 with a little over six minutes remaining in the game thanks to a full court and half court trap.
As the Knights put up four fingers symbolizing the fourth quarter was beginning they turned it on and went for the final knockout punch.
“The gloves came back on and it was time to take our runs and close this thing out,” Plummer said, “There is a reason we made it this far.”
With the lead dwindled down to two points, the Knights needed an answer quickly and responded with one of their own closing the game out with a 21-7 run breaking the full court trap finally.
Townsend started the run with a left handed hook shot, Michael Phillips added a put back and Plummer stole another pass and laid it up for a 63-54 with four minutes left.
Dumas found Kasparzak for a lay up, Kasparzak followed with a reverse lay up and Lippy followed with a reverse lay up of his own extending the lead to 69-57 with 2:10 left in the game.
“He (Kasparzak) is a hard nosed type of guy, we always put him on the other teams best player and he’s a lot undersized but he’s as tough as they come. These guys including him have been playing together since middle school,” Creekside coach Will Mayer said. “Winter Haven took 6 charges all year, Bobby (Kasparzak) took 21 by himself.”
Kasparzak found Dumas on a layup, Dumas stole a pass and laid it up and followed with a thundering dunk and exclamation point as the Knights led 75-57. Lippy closed it out with a dunk before the buzzer for the 78-59 win.
Lippy led the Knights with 27 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals and was 4 of 6 from three point range, Dumas chipped in 13 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steals, Plummer finished with 11 points, 3 steals and 4 rebounds. Townsend chipped in 9 points and 3 rebounds and Kasparzak added 8 points and 5 rebounds.
Creekside (27-4) advances to the Class 8A state title game tomorrow at 4:30 at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland and will play Ely (22-8), a 73-58 winner over St. Petersburg.
The Knights watched three plus quarters of the Ely game before heading back to the hotel and having dinner and preparing for Ely.
To win their first state title the Knights will have to stop Joshua Scott and Anthony Byrd, who scored 26 and 22 points respectively in the win over St. Pete.
“We don’t back down from nobody and we don’t go down without a fight,, but we play with discipline and it shows on the court,” Mayer said. “I tell the team all the time if we can get 4-5 stops in a row we will win.”
