City of Palms: Lane's shot lifts St. Patrick past Milton

FORT MYERS, Fla. – It's been 21 years since a championship game at the State Farm City of Palms Classic was decided on a buzzer-beater.

St. Patrick (Elizabeth, N.J.) head coach Kevin Boyle has been bringing his team to Fort Myers for nearly as long, but has never been able to capture the prestigious title despite five trips to the final and 10 tournament appearances.

That changed in a split-second Wednesday night as unheralded senior guard Jarrel Lane buried a 3-pointer from the right wing as time expired to lift the storied Garden State program past defending Georgia AAAAA state champion Milton (Ga.), 69-67.

"It was a big shot and my teammates depended on me," Lane said in the midst of a wild post-game celebration that included a salute from Dick Vitale. "I made the shot. We've got a great team and we pulled it out. It was a great battle."

While Lane provided the last-second drama, it was tournament MVP Michael Gilchrist who continually answered a valiant comeback attempt by Milton.

"Man, I can't put it into words," Gilchrist said. "I'm a senior and a leader now, so I just stepped up. I have no words."

No words are necessary when the stat sheet tells the story – 25 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots to give the Celtics another trophy to go along with five state titles since 1998.

Milton trailed by 13 at the mid-point of the third quarter, but Eagle veterans Julian Royal (20 points, seven rebounds), Shannon Scott (17 points, four assists) and Dai-Jon Parker (eight points, four rebounds) fought back to take the lead twice late in the fourth quarter. The last looked like it might hold up as Scott hit a pair of free throws with 10 seconds remaining to give them a 67-66 advantage.

"You have to give them credit because they could have easily got blown because they were down 13 and it looked like it was over," Boyle said. "That team, they've got a lot of heart. They scrap, scrap, scrap. They should be proud of themselves."

Following Scott's trip to the line, Milton elected to foul since St. Patrick was not yet in the bonus. Lane inbounded the ball with 5.3 seconds remaining and got it right back. Finding himself wide open, the 6-foot senior launched a three from the right wing.

"I didn't want to call a timeout because I knew they wanted to foul," Boyle said. "They forgot about the inbounder."

Lane's dagger was the only shot he attempted in 24 minutes and erased the memories of failed trips to the finals in 1994, 1996, 1997, 2002 and most recently in 2008 against Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.).

"I thought two of the times we had a chance to win and three of the times we were probably underdogs in the final," Boyle said. "We were under pressure to get it done because we are too good of a program not to win. We’ve been fortunate enough to win the Beach Ball, Torrey Pines last year and this one, so we're starting to get it together at Christmas time."

According to tournament vice president Donnie Wilkie, the last time the City of Palms Classic championship game was decided by a late bucket was 1989 when Randolph Childress of Flint Hill (Oakton, Va.) beat Norman Marbury and Lincoln (Brooklyn, N.Y.).

Third-place: No. 24 Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) 84, No. 22 Winter Park (Fla.) 66

Big runs to open the game and second half propelled Mater Dei to a mild upset of tournament darling Austin Rivers and Winter Park for third place.

With just one senior and two freshmen in the Monarch rotation, the Southern California powerhouse wasn't among the favorites to be playing in one of ESPNU's two nationally-televised games Wednesday night.

"I'm shocked. I really am," Mater Dei head coach Gary McKnight said. "I thought we struggled early in the year, being a young team. This tournament helped us develop and get better. These are really, really good teams in this tournament."

Junior Katin Reinhardt and freshman Shaqquan Aaron traded buckets to spearhead a 12-4 run to start the game for Mater Dei. Reinhardt finished with a team-high 28 points and will likely land on the All-Tournament team after posting 16.7 points per game at the event.

"We didn't play that well last night and we were disappointed with losing," Reinhardt said. "At Mater Dei we don't take losing. We wanted to win this bad. We know now we can play with anybody in the country."

Winter Park guards Rivers and Florida Atlantic signee Brett Comer kept their team in it by combining for 28 points in the first 16 minutes. The rest of the Orlando-area team could muster just five points, however, and the Wildcats trailed by four at the break.

Mater Dei blew things open with a 15-4 run in the opening minutes of the second half and a 31-18 advantage in the third quarter. Six-foot-seven junior Xavier Johnson, who scored 26 points and grabbed 12 boards, was the catalyst this time around.

Rivers matched Reinhardt's total with 28 points and leaves Fort Myers as the third all-time leading scorer in City of Palms Classic history with 358 points in 14 contests (25.5 per game).

Other Wednesday scores
Fifth-place game: Dwyer (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) 86, Christ School (Arden, N.C.) 77
Signature Series: Academy of the New Church (Bryn Athyn, Pa.) 56, Urspring, Germany 43
Signature Series: St. Mark's (Southborough, Mass.) 81, Westchester Country Day (High Point, N.C.) 36
Consolation: Orlando Christian Prep (Orlando, Fla.) 64, Dr. Krop (Miami, Fla.) 56
Consolation: Riverside Academy (Reserve, La.) 66, Melrose (Memphis, Tenn.) 56
Consolation: Whitney Young (Chicago, Ill.) 55, Norfolk Christian (Norfolk, Va.) 54

All-Tournament Team
MVP: Michael Gilchrist, St. Patrick
Austin Rivers, Winter Park
Derrick Gordon, St. Patrick
James McAdoo, Norfolk Christian
Xavier Johnson, Mater Dei
Jacoby Brissett, Dwyer
Shabazz Muhammad, Bishop Gorman
Julian Royal, Milton
Shannon Scott, Milton
Katin Reinhardt, Mater Dei
Adonis Thomas, Melrose
Marshall Plumlee, Christ School
Rakeem Christmas, Academy of the New Church

Wednesday's statistical leaders

Points
33 – Victor Adams, Dwyer
30 – Adonis Thomas, Melrose
28 – Katin Reinhardt, Mater Dei
28 – Austin Rivers, Winter Park
26 – James McAdoo, Norfolk Christian
26 – Adonis Burbage, Orlando Christian Prep
26 – Xavier Johnson, Mater Dei
25 – Michael Gilchrist, St. Patrick
23 – Nikolas Stauskas, St. Mark's
20 – Angel Rodriguez, Dr. Krop
20 – Justin Dotson, Christ School
20 – Derrick Gordon, St. Patrick
20 – Julian Royal, Milton

Rebounds
13 – Ricardo Gathers, Riverside Academy
12 – Xavier Johnson, Mater Dei
12 – Michael Gilchrist, St. Patrick
9 – James McAdoo, Norfolk Christian
9 – Joell James, Dwyer
9 – Rakeem Christmas, Academy of the New Church
9 – Dakari Johnson, St. Patrick
8 – Nikolas Stauskas, St. Mark's
8 – Courtnye Wynn, Norfolk Christian
8 – Samuel Thompson, Whitney Young
8 – Angel Rodriguez, Dr. Krop
8 – Savon Lloyd-Goodman, Academy of the New Church

Assists
9 – Angel Rodriguez, Dr. Krop
6 – Dontrell Silver, Norfolk Christian
5 – Nikolas Stauskas, St. Mark's
5 – Lucas Martin-Julien, Riverside Academy