Preview: Boys District High School Basketball Finals

A few local boy’s high school basketball teams will be on the hunt for a district finals win tonight.

Ocala Vanguard (20-6) will travel to Gainesville high (22-4) for a District 4-6A match-up; Santa Fe will host Eastside in a District 6-5A match-up, PK Yonge (21-4) will welcome St. Francis (22-4) for a District 3-3A match-up, and Bradford (11-14) will take on Interlachen (9-16) in a District 4-4A match-up.

This will be the third meeting of the season for Vanguard and Gainesville High with each team claiming a win over the other.  In their first game Gainesville High took the victory with a score of 67-58. In their second meeting it was Vanguard who brought home a win with a score of 70-57. Gainesville High coach Kelly Beckham says in their last meeting with the Knights the team did not dictate the game the way they should have.

This will be the fourth meeting of the season for Santa Fe and Eastside. In the first three face-offs Santa Fe took home two wins while Eastside was only able to snag one. Santa Fe coach Elliot Harris says the team needs to improve mostly on free throws and lay-ups for the district finals game against Eastside.

PK Yonge will host St. Francis for their third meeting of the season; the Blue Wave has won both meetings with St. Francis this year and in both cases beat the Wolves by 23 points or more.

Interlachen defeated Bradford in both of their match ups in 64-57 and 60-59 victories.

District finals games are set for 7 P.M.

Other teams will be competing in the semi-finals tonight in hopes of playing in the district finals tomorrow. Union County (23-8) faces Newberry (15-10) and Hawthorne (19-5) takes on Fort White (8-16) in District 6-1A. Hawthorne Head Coach Greg Bowie feels confident about the game against Fort White.

The semi finals in District 7-1A finds Bell taking on Branford and Dixie County facing off against Trenton.