At certain points Tuesday night, Jerome Clyburn looked more like a pinata than a basketball player as time and again he drove fearlessly into the gritted teeth of Mandarin's bruising defense only to wind up in a crumpled heap at the feet of 6-foot-9 P.J. Gaynor.
Mandarin's P.J. Gaynor realizes the end is near as Jerome Clyburn steps
to foul line late in the fourth period of Orange Park's regional semifinal win.
But at the end of 32 minutes of play in Tuesday night's Region I semifinal at Orange Park, it was Clyburn who proved to be the big man, hitting seven of 10 free throws and connecting on two clutch three-pointers from opposite corners in the fourth period to put his Raiders into the Region 1 Championship Final at 7 p.m. Saturday in The Dome.
The senior point guard scored 13 of his team-high 21 points in the final eight minutes as the Raiders moved one step away from the state's 6A Final Four tournament with a 57-52 victory over their old District 1 nemesis.
Unlike Thursday night, when he somehow just knew to dish the ball off to teammate Tony Baker for a crucial regulation-tying three-pointer, this time Clyburn knew the game was on him, and he was ready to lay his body on the line for his teammates.
"Yeah, there's going to be a lot of bumps and bruises," Clyburn said. "Every time we play them it's like a dogfight. They've got a wonderful team, and we have a great team, and it's going to be a great game no matter what ... They bring out the best in us and we bring out the best in them."
Fellow senior starter David Marlar (18 points) complemented Clyburn's fourth-period kamikaze mission with six points of his own, including a clutch four-for-four free throw performance in the final eight minutes. Baker had eight points, followed by Sammy Mojica, 4, Tyler Robbins, 3, Clarence Tillman, 2, and Derell Bonner, 1.
Gaynor paced the Mustangs with 25 points, while Akeem Washington put in 16.
Every point was big as the Mustangs' defense kept the game the way they like it: low scoring. In going 22-8 this season, Mandarin has averaged just 53. 6 points a game while limiting opponents to 49.6. And tied at 48 with 1:29 left to play, the visitors had seemingly succeeded in keeping the pace of the game in their comfort zone.
But Orange Park (27-2) came out of a time out and Clyburn hit his second-straight three pointer to make it 51-48 and force Mandarin into a time out with 48.2 seconds left. The Mustangs came out fouling and the Raiders were up to the challenge as Marlar, Baker and Clyburn each hit two foul shots in the final seconds to seal the victory.
On Saturday, the Raiders will host the winner of Tuesday night's other Region 1 semifinal between Winter Park (28-1) and Winter Haven (25-3).
Here are the recent blog postings with the most comments.