Young's 15 Points Lifts Sebring Over Avon Park

After playing basketball at Avon Park for three years, Javier Medina transferred to arch-rival Sebring over the summer.

It didn't take the diminutive point guard long to make his presence felt and earn the respect of his teammates, as he scored nine points, dished out seven assists and hit several clutch free throws to lead the Blue Streaks to a 58-49 win over the Red Devils on Tuesday afternoon.

"This feels great," the Sebring senior said. "This was a big game with a lot of pressure, but we stuck with it and came out with the win.

"We fell behind early because of the big crowd and some early nerves, but we talked things over, made some adjustments and played hard the rest of the way."

The physical, Class 4A-District 10 victory, which was played in the afternoon in front of a standing-room-only gym full of Avon Park students, improved Sebring to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in district play.

"I'm proud of the kids, because they showed a lot of poise by coming back against a good team in front of a real tough crowd," said Blue Streak coach Princeton Harris. "They fought back and then finished real strong in a very important district game.

"District games are what matters most, and we were pretty emotional to start with, but we settled down, executed our offense and made big plays down the stretch."

For Avon Park (0-3, 0-1), which was led by Cleveland Nobles' 20 points and 17 rebounds, it was a case of letting a 13-point lead and the game slip through their fingers because of turnovers and missed free throws.

"We don't know how to play with the lead," said Red Devil first-year coach Luther Clemons. "We get ahead, and then we don't know how to relax and play under control. We want to keep going and going and that works against us.

"We played hard and with good effort, but we had too many turnovers and missed some big free throws down the stretch, and that cost us the game."

Avon Park jumped out to a quick lead as the 6-foot-7 Nobles dominated the paint and scored 11 of his game-high 20 points and Red Devils opened up a 16-5 advantage.

That's when Medina made his mark with back-to-back steals and lay-ups and 6-7 sophomore Joe Young scored five of his team-high 15 points to bring the Blue Streaks within 18-17 at the end of the first quarter.

Avon Park's full-court pressure forced Sebring into numerous turnovers and the Red Devils extended their lead as Virgil Cooper scored four of his 12 points.

The Blue Streaks settled down, broke the full-court press for a couple of easy baskets and J.C Howard's 3-pointer and guard Chris Grubb's rebound-basket at the buzzer gave Sebring a 30-26 lead at the half.

The lead see-sawed in the third period, but Nobles scored on back-to-back putbacks and forward Marvin Williams hit a pair of jumpers as the Red Devils took a 39-36 lead into the final eight minutes.
Young may only be a sophomore, but the Blue Streak leaper played with a vengeance down the stretch and scored six points, hauling down numerous rebounds in a crowd in the physical contest.

Medina buried a 3-pointer to put Sebring up 42-40 with under five minutes remaining.

A basket by Young and a free throw by Sam Robinson, who finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, gave the Blue Streaks a 45-44 lead with 2:52 remaining. A technical foul was called on Cooper for disputing a foul and Robinson converted both free throws to extend the lead.

Avon Park closed within a point, but Robinson scored in the paint and Medina nailed a pair of free throws for some breathing room. The Red Devils missed a pair of 3-point shots and Streaks ran the clock until they were fouled.

Medina calmly knocked down his attempts from the charity stripe and Robinson scored at the buzzer to seal the win.

"It's always sweet to beat Avon Park," said Robinson. "It doesn't matter if it's on the football field or in the gym, it's still sweet."