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Off-Court Issues Mount As 'Cats End Devils' Season

Chris Hoffman/Highlands Today

Avon Park’s Ricky Taylor drives to the basket during the second quarter of the Red Devil’s opening round game against Hardee during the Class 4A-District 10 tournament on Tuesday.

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By Christopher  Hoffman | Highlands Today

Published: February 7, 2008

PALMETTO — Sitting in the parking lot of Avon Park High School when they were supposed to be warming up for a first-round playoff game wasn't the best of starts for the Avon Park boys basketball team on Tuesday night.

"We were waiting for the bus at 3:45 p.m. and we didn't leave until 5:30 p.m. — which is crazy," said AP head coach Luther Clemons about a bus mishap that almost cost the Red Devils the game before they took a shot.

No. 5 seed Avon Park finally arrived at Palmetto High School around 7 p.m. and rushed into the gym visibly agitated as a group, with only a handful of minutes to warm up before tip-off.

But the evening, which was filled with off-court issues for AP, didn't get better as the Red Devils fell to the No. 4 seeded Hardee Wildcats 59-36 in the Class 4A-District 10 tournament on Tuesday.

"I'm not making any excuses for the bus leading to us losing the game," Clemons said. "We had an off night and [Hardee] was the better team."

Avon Park's season ended with no answer for Hardee's size advantage and the 'Cats exploited that weakness to the fullest.

Hardee had their way with the Red Devils, as the twin towers of 6-foot-7 Arnold Lewis and 6-foot-7 Mark St. Fort banged the boards, blocked shots and scored at will.

St. Fort — who finished with 19 points — used his 7-foot wingspan to block seven AP shots while showing improved ball-handling skills to feed his cousin Lewis, who finished with a game-high 26 points and 12 rebounds for the 'Cats.

Hardee now moves on to face the top seed DeSoto on Friday.
"We've been playing together for years," Lewis said. "We look for each other and know what the other is going to do on the court."

Hardee's post presence led to a 30-14 advantage at the half and the 'Cats by as much as 28 in the second half, using an intense press that kept the Red Devil scorers from being effective when driving to the basket.

Avon Park missed center Cleveland Nobles' size against the Hardee big men — he was ruled academically ineligible with two games left in the season and for the playoffs.

"I think [AP] really missed Cleveland tonight," said Hardee head coach Vance Dickey. "They run their offense through the high post, and he's a big part of that."

Clemons didn't comment about whether Nobles would've made a difference in the post for the Red Devils against the bigger 'Cats.

"This team has played two games without [Cleveland]," the AP head coach said. "I'm not going to use that as an excuse."

Another player missing was guard Ricky Taylor, who played in the first half but came out of the locker room after halftime with his gym bag and sat in the stands. Neither Taylor nor Clemons commented on why Taylor didn't suit up for the second half.

Junior point guard Virgil Cooper tried to pull his team together and did a good job of distributing the ball to the outside shooters and finding the open man, but the 'Cats were quick to the ball and AP was too slow to pull the trigger, which forced the Devils into too many bad shots.

"We're still a young team and we showed just how young tonight," Cooper said. "We made poor decisions and forced the action that played right into Hardee's hands.

"[Hardee's] big men clogged up the middle which made us take outside shots which weren't falling for us."

Cooper finished with 10 points, while freshman Alonzo Robinson scored a team-high 11 points and Avierre Conner chipped in with five points for the Red Devils.

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