Kathleen tops Plant City a 4th time to advance

LAKELAND — After the first quarter, things were looking grim for Kathleen's boys basketball team.

The feeling was short-lived.

Kathleen erased a 14-point early deficit to take down Plant City 66-63 in the Class 6A, Region 2 semifinals on Tuesday night at Willie Speed Gymnasium.

The victory, Kathleen's fourth over Plant City this year, sets up a rubber match against rival Bartow on Friday at Kathleen for the right to represent Polk County in the FHSAA boys basketball state finals next week.

"We know each other," Kathleen head coach Andrae Shaw said. "We know each other real well. We'll throw the ball up and see what happens."

First the Red Devils (14-4) had to get by the Raiders (17-7) one more time.

This was the third meeting between the teams in less than a month with those games, all Kathleen wins, being decided by a total of five points. Kathleen also won an early season matchup 48-36 on Dec. 11.

After eight minutes on Tuesday, it looked like Plant City was poised to reverse its recent fortunes against the Class 6A, District 7 champions.

The Raiders jumped out to an 18-4 lead and looked to be in control.

Senior point guard Marcellus Thomas wasn't having any of that as he scored eight of the Red Devils' 22 second-quarter points to pull his team to within 29-26 at halftime.

Kathleen eventually took the lead that it wouldn't relinquish with 6:09 left in the third quarter on a basket by Idris King.

The Red Devils built a lead as high as eight a few times down the stretch, but Plant City answered each time to keep within reach.

A frantic finish to the fourth quarter saw Kathleen clinging to a 64-63 lead with :50 seconds left.

The lead was just 65-63 with 27 seconds left when Thomas stepped in front of a forced pass for a steal and called timeout. A quick foul by Plant City sent Jimmie Huff to the line for two shots, but Huff, the hero of the district championship game, hit just one of two free throws. On the second miss, Thomas again stepped up with an offensive rebound.

Kathleen ran the clock down to 1.7 seconds and Plant City was unable to get another shot off as the Red Devils and their fans celebrated another close call.

"I thought we were going to come out a little bit more focused," Shaw said. "At the same time we came out slow, but we've been in enough of these games to know how to adjust to them. Once we got rolling, I felt we were going to be fine. I knew it was going to be a dog fight. We played them four times and it's been close every time."

Thomas finished with a game-high 23 points for the Red Devils, who also got 13 from Huff.

The win sets up a third meeting with Bartow on Friday. 

Kathleen won the first game 61-56 at Bartow on Jan. 6, while the Yellow Jackets got a measure or revenge with a narrow 69-68 victory at Kathleen on Jan. 22.