It was a season of firsts for the Lennard boys basketball team.
The first district championship. The first playoff victory. The first trip to the Final Four.
And unfortunately, on the biggest stage any Lennard sports program has played on, the Longhorns suffered one of its worst losses.
Lake Minneola running clocked Lennard for a 74-42 victory in the Class 6A state semifinals. The Hawks will play Miami Norland for the 6A title on Saturday live on BHSN Channel 47 or HD 1147 or live stream on bhsn.com.
Lake Minneola converted 25 Lennard turnovers into 31 points. They stole the ball 18 times. From tipoff to the final buzzer, the Hawks defense smothered Lennard.
“That’s not our typical game,” Longhorns coach Danny Gaddis said. “We just happened to have the worst game in life in the state Final Four.”
In the first quarter, Lake Minneola went on an 11-0 run to build an 18-4 lead. Lennard was finally able to respond with a 4-0 run, capped off by Dionate Johnson’s (11 points) three pointer. But then the Hawks closed out the quarter with six-straight points for a 24-8 lead.
Lake Minneola’s Anthony Brown exploded in the second quarter with 15 of his game-high 27 points. Lennard, on the other hand, found points hard to come by, especially with its leading scorers, Caelen Watts and Gary Hector (10 points) in foul trouble.
The Hawks expanded their lead in the lead, including a span where they scored six points in 28 seconds.
The running clock started with 3:17 remaining in the third.
Overall, the Longhorns shot 41%, while Lake Minneola countered with 60%. Add that to the foul trouble, and it just wasn’t Lennard’s night.
“It was a recipe for what you saw tonight,” Gaddis said.