P.K. Yonge and Oak Hall\u2019s boys basketball teams faced off for the third time this season Thursday night, this time with a spot in the Class 2A-District 2 Championship game on the line.<\/p>\n
The top-seeded Blue Wave secured that spot in a 71-60 victory against the four-seeded Eagles (13-11).<\/p>\n
When the two programs met in the regular season, P.K. Yonge (11-13) won both times, 61-43 on Nov. 18 and 79-41 on Dec. 22.\u00a0<\/p>\n
P.K. Yonge coach Willie Powers III said it\u2019s hard to beat a team three times and the Blue Wave couldn\u2019t fall into the trap of underestimating their opponent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the same team we\u2019ve played the first two games,\u201d Powers III said. \u201cThey\u2019ve improved, they\u2019ve gotten better, every game they\u2019ve been in has either been a dog fight or they\u2019ve won it so we knew this was going to be a totally different game than the first two.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was deadlocked for most of the first quarter until sophomore Willie Spain hopped off the bench and knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers with less than two minutes remaining to put the Blue Wave up six.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019ve got to score with what time I have in the game, so I do my best,\u201d Spain said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The matchup carried familiarity, as Spain and Collin Meyer once played on the same travel team as did Oak Hall\u2019s Correy Brooks Jr. and Max Whitmer. Spain said facing his former teammates was fun and gave them a chance to share a few laughs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot actually, bragging rights,\u201d Spain said. \u201cI know we\u2019re going to go home and text about it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
P.K. Yonge took a 30-23 lead into halftime and continued to control the glass in the second half. Its length, height and physicality were starting to overpower the Eagles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Blue Wave\u2019s leader, junior guard Decedric Sowell, impacted both sides of the court, pressuring the opposing guards and slashing to the basket with ease. However, foul trouble kept the team\u2019s catalyst off the floor for stretches. Emotionally, Sowell was disheartened, but he still managed to find buckets to lead the Blue Wave to the championship game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was letting my emotions get to me,\u201d Sowell said. \u201cBut it\u2019s basketball, you just have to get to the next play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sowell acknowledged the officials\u2019 calls aren\u2019t always right, but admitted he needs to continue to persevere emotionally to lead this team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m confident in my team, I love my team,\u201d he said. \u201cI like when people go in. I trust all of my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Wave carried a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter. Although the Eagles found late momentum, it was not enough to launch a comeback.<\/p>\n
A dagger 3 by Meyer with two minutes to go made the rest of the game simple for the Blue Wave: run out the clock and advance. P.K. Yonge will host Ocala Trinity Catholic (14-11) at 6 p.m. Saturday in the title game. Three seed Trinity Catholic upset two seed Saint Francis Catholic Academy (13-8) in the other semifinal, 42-38<\/p>\n
2026 FHSAA Boys Basketball District Tournaments 2A District 2<\/a><\/p>\n Category: High School Sports<\/a>, Oak Hall High School<\/a>, PK Yonge High School<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"P.K. Yonge and Oak Hall\u2019s boys basketball teams faced off for the third time this season Thursday night,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,78848,78849,78850,78851,78852,78853,78854],"class_list":{"0":"post-586392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-class-2a-district-2-semifinals","10":"tag-fhsaa-boys-basketball","11":"tag-hoskins-gymnasium","12":"tag-oak-hall","13":"tag-p-k-yonge","14":"tag-the-blue-wave","15":"tag-willie-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116024145912378161","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}