Top-seeded P.K. Yonge boys basketball clinched its fourth straight Class 2A- District 2 tournament championship Saturday night by beating the Ocala Trinity Catholic Celtics 46-32 to secure a spot in the regional tournament.<\/p>\n
The Blue Wave (12-13) entered the home game having won five of their last six averaging 64 points per game. They reached this final after a 71-60 semifinal victory against Oak Hall. Three seed Trinity Catholic (14-12) advanced following a 42-38 win against Saint Francis Catholic Academy in their semifinal matchup Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With a regional berth also on the line at Hoskins Gymnasium, it was a physical battle between two teams coming off gritty late-season stretches.<\/p>\n
P.K. Yonge opened the game by attacking the paint through 6-foot-7 junior forward Eugene Hall, who utilized his height advantage to score. Outside of Hall\u2019s production, both teams struggled early, trading turnovers and battling for offensive rebounds. The first quarter ended with P.K. Yonge leading 12-4.<\/p>\n
The Celtics utilized a full-court press for the majority of the game, forcing the Blue Wave to earn every basket.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A pair of freshmen provided a lift for the Blue Wave, led by Jayden Harriott, who hit two 3-pointers in the first half. Off the bench, forward Tray\u2019Sean Jones provided energy in the paint, converting multiple three-point plays to keep the Blue Wave ahead despite turnovers. P.K. Yonge held a\u00a0 22-20 lead at halftime. <\/p>\n
Harriott took over in the second half by hitting clutch shots to extend the Blue Wave\u2019s lead. Trinity Catholic struggled to capitalize on Blue Wave turnovers and could not keep pace with Harriott\u2019s scoring in the third quarter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is to get better each game,\u201d Jones said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Celtics couldn\u2019t cut the deficit back down to single figures after Collin Meyer hit a late 3-pointer, as the Blue Wave would close out their 14-point victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried to keep them out of the paint and match their intensity,\u201d P.K. Yonge coach Willie Powers III said. \u201cWe came out with a different level and toughness in the second half.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Blue Wave now shift their focus to the regional quarterfinals, looking to avenge last season\u2019s 80-48 opening-round loss to Oviedo The Master\u2019s Academy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than anything, we got to get our mental right, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve been focused on the right things coming into the games,\u201d Powers III said.<\/p>\n
P.K. Yonge will learn today its next opponent for the regional tournament opener with that game scheduled for Saturday at 7 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2026 FHSAA Boys Basketball District Tournaments 2A District 2<\/a><\/p>\n Category: Basketball<\/a>, High School Sports<\/a>, PK Yonge High School<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top-seeded P.K. Yonge boys basketball clinched its fourth straight Class 2A- District 2 tournament championship Saturday night by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,79279,78849,1931,79280,79281,79282],"class_list":{"0":"post-590878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-district-championship","10":"tag-fhsaa-boys-basketball","11":"tag-high-school-basketball","12":"tag-p-k-yonge-basketball","13":"tag-p-k-yonge-blue-wave-basketball","14":"tag-trinity-catholic-celtics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116036123436438579","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590878","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=590878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}