The Cypress Bay Lightning faced off against the Coral Springs Colts Tuesday night in the 8A Regional Semifinals at Coral Springs High School. The Lightning (15-7) traveled to Coral Springs to take on the Colts following an 80-46 rout of the visiting Taravella Trojans in the quarterfinals. The Colts (18-7) were riding a three-game winning streak heading into the matchup, including their own win against Taravella and a win over the Piper Bengals in the quarterfinals. The two district champions played Tuesday for a chance to advance to the regional finals, against the winner of Wellington and Santaluces.

All eyes were on the stars for both teams, Jordan Davis of the Lightning and Myron Dewar of the Colts, and neither player disappointed. Davis carried most of the workload for the Lightning on offense, pouring in a game-high 40 points, doing work at both the free throw and three-point line. On the other hand, Dewar put up 37 points for his team and came down with 14 rebounds. The 6’3” senior led his team to victory in the fourth with a monster 15-point quarter, 2 of which came late in the fourth when Dewar came down with a rebound and drove the length of the floor to put his team up 3 with just 14 seconds on the clock.

“Myron’s just incredible, he makes me look good as a coach. In tight games like this I’m thinking of strategies and stuff to do down the stretch, and when it all comes down to it, I’m like, Myron’s gonna bail me out,” Coral Springs head coach Devin Barta said. “He did that tonight coming up with big rebounds, big defensive plays and obviously big baskets. He’s a pleasure to have, I’ve been fortunate to coach him the last three years, and we’re gonna try to ride this as far as he can take us.”

The Lightning went to their knockdown three-point marksman in senior Jake Londos in the final seconds of the game, but the Colts anticipated a play for Londos and were able to double team him and force him to put up a wild shot that came up short. With the miss, the Colts advanced to the Regional Semifinals and hung on for a tight 75-72 victory in front of their home crowd.

“Jake [Londos] is an incredible shooter and talent and we knew he could really light up the three ball so we made a conscious effort to stay with him the entire time, and credit to my guys they did a terrific job staying with him. A lot of credit to Cypress Bay, Jordan Davis was incredible and we really had to pull one out tonight to get this win,” Barta said.

Dewar and Davis both got things going early for their teams, Dewar scoring the first six for his team leading to a quick timeout by the Lightning. Dewar had his way in the paint during the first as he did the whole night and scored a game-high 10 points in the first quarter. Jared Gill was the Colts only other source of offense in the quarter, the guard knocked down two threes. Despite being denied the ball for much of the first quarter, Davis still managed to put up 6 in the quarter, and his team trailed 22-15 after one.

Davis led the charge in the second quarter for Cypress Bay with 14 of his team’s 18 points, on his way to a game-high 20 points at half. Despite Davis’ offensive showcase in the quarter, the Lightning still trailed by 5 at half. Dewar was limited to just 5 points in the quarter for the Colts, but Jonado Fils filled the gap, having his way with the Cypress Bay big men in the paint, on his way to a 10-point showing.  At halftime the Colts, led by Dewar with 15, were ahead of the Lightning 38-33.

In the third quarter the Lightning were able to make their run and take a 59-53 lead heading into the fourth. Early in the quarter Davis pulled up on a fast break for a cold-blooded three, his third of the contest, to take the lead for Cypress Bay. But the Lightning did not stop there, the barrage of three-pointers continued when Jake Londos was finally able to get a shot off, a four-point play at that. As if the Cypress Bay student section, the Lightning Lunatics, (who all traveled 30 minutes for the game) wasn’t already a factor in the game, the three from Londos really got them into it. Voted one of the best student sections in Florida, the Lunatics made their Lightning feel like they were playing a home game with the support in the crowd.

Later in the quarter the Lightning opened up a 10-point lead on the Colts when Davis dropped in yet another three-pointer, but moments later Davis fell to the ground in pain clutching his leg as the entire gym held their breath. Luckily the injury was not serious as Davis was just experiencing leg cramps that kept him sidelined for the remainder of the fourth, the Colts fought back in his absence and trailed 59-53 heading into the final quarter.

Davis returned to the game for the fourth quarter but his eight points in the quarter on his way to a game-high 40 was not enough for the Lightning to hang on to their lead. Dewar started off the fourth quarter with his third three ball of the contest to cut the deficit to just three. The Lightning were unable to put points on the board for the majority of the fourth and their inability to score coupled with Dewar’s 15-point quarter was the recipe for a Colts late push for victory. Late in the fourth Davis went down once again in the fourth quarter and plays later, fouled out; Cypress Bay had to finish the game without their go-to option. Freshman Tyler Krivitzkin, who handled the ball for the majority of the contest, led the charge the rest of the way but the effort came up short.

Cypress Bay had to draw up a play down three with less than 20 seconds on the clock without their best player, and the Colts were able to key in on one of the nation’s top three-point threats, Jake Londos. He was unable to get a clear look at the basket and the Colts hung on for the win.

“Two years ago we got there [Regional Finals] in my first year here and a lot of them were sophomores, we were a little bit happy to be there, we feel like we have a little unfinished business. We’re gonna play an excellent opponent but we feel like we have some magic and we’re gonna ride it all the way,” Barta said.

The Coral Springs Colts celebrated in front of their bench and brought out a cake for the star of the game, Myron Dewar, who led his team to the Regional Finals with a win on his birthday, not to mention a 37-point showing. Both teams played admirably but the Colts came out on top and will face off against Wellington in the Regional Finals.