Another sour ending

The Sebring Blue Streaks tried backing off and waiting - and that ended rather infamously.

On Friday, they tried the hack-and-hope - and that ended in similarly agonizing fashion.

Three days after a bizarre road loss, Sebring had another fourth quarter to forget, losing to Osceola 64-62 in the Blue Streaks gym.

"It's hard to accept losses like this one right here, because the kids fight so hard and it's a great game," Sebring coach Princeton Harris said. "They just couldn't quite get over the top of the hill, and we've just got to keep fighting to get over the top of the hill. And we will."

That said, it was a largely imperfect week for the Blue Streaks, who lost in overtime to Haines City on Tuesday.

But, of course, there's more to that story.

In a video now posted on YouTube - the clip, entitled, "If you only had one shot...stalling then game winning shot," has been viewed by more than 32,000 people as of Saturday morning - Haines City won the tip in overtime and promptly stood near midcourt for 2 1/2 minutes, stalling. The stunt was almost comical, as Sebring hovered near the 3-point line, confused, and the Hornets point guard just stood with the ball at his side, waiting.

With the clock winding down, the Haines City player drove the lane and missed, but another Hornet grabbed the ball and, while falling away, threw up a miracle shot at the buzzer.

It went in.

Game over.

Haines City 67, Sebring 65.

"It's going to be hard to forget about it," Harris said, "and I definitely took a lot of time to learn from it."

The first lesson: Pressure the ball in the final period.

Sebring, which trailed by as many as 13 in the second half of Friday night's game against Osceola, cut that deficit significantly and was down by only five, 61-56, with 47 seconds left. But a series of missed 3-pointers and blown defensive assignments blew the game open. The Blue Streaks also missed 10 free throws in the second half, many of which came in the decisive final two minutes.

When Clarke made a layup at the final buzzer, with no defenders around, it impacted the game only on the stat sheet.

"We're going to be OK," Harris said. "We didn't close, we didn't finish like we're supposed to, and we missed some shots that could have changed the game totally."

Sebring had four players score in double figures, led by freshman Marcus Dewberry's 14 points.

Forwards Tevin Toney (10 points, 10 rebounds) and Joe Young (12 points, 10 rebounds) emphasized their size advantage inside, muscling their way back from a halftime deficit.

But they also fumbled the ball away on fast breaks and clumsily knocked away entry passes.

It was a problem particularly vexing for Harris, who said that he and his coaches worked with the forwards in practice on Thursday.

"Coach LaVaar Scott was passing the ball to them, hard, almost like throwing a baseball pitch to them," Harris said, "and nobody drops them. And then we get in the game and we drop bounce passes.

"As a coach, I really don't know what to do with that right now. What do you do?"

The easy answer is to rely on the Blue Streaks' dynamic guard play. But when the shooters are streaky - as they were Friday - small deficits can quickly become insurmountable.

Osceola, a former 6-A school that Harris said he was familiar with "only after a phone call", put together an 11-2 run in the second quarter to create some separation before halftime. The Kowboys led 30-26 at the break, a margin that could easily have been widened were it not for Clarke's athletic play at the buzzer, when he tracked down an Osceola player and challenged a layup that clanked off the rim.

Osceola came out hot to start the second half, building a 15-6 run that gave the Kowboys their largest lead of the game, 45-32, midway through the third quarter.

But the Blue Streaks, behind resurgent post play, mounted a comeback, drawing within 61-56 with 47 seconds left.

Then they couldn't make a shot.

Jewel Campbell missed two free throws. Dewberry couldn't hit a 3-pointer, nor could Clarke. And with 30 seconds left, and with Sebring forced to foul, Osceola hit two free throws to seal the win.

"You're not going to win a close game when you're playing like that," Harris said.