February 9, 2024
Leesburg Boys Basketball Team Punch Ticket To District Championship Game
By Kyle Coppola
Leesburg Boys Basketball Team Punch Ticket To District Championship Game
The Leesburg Boys Basketball team took care of business on Thursday evening with a convincing 81-37 win against Citrus. Leesburg never even gave Citrus a chance to get settled into the game. Almost instantly, you could tell that Leesburg was the better team, and they showed that in the first quarter by putting up 27 points. Citrus could only manage 9 points, and with an 18-point lead, Leesburg began to pile up the points.
(Leesburg #1 Jermarien Williams has been one of the best players in Lake County this season. He is averaging 8 points and 8 rebounds per game.)
By halftime, Leesburg was leading 48-21. Citrus showed signs of life in the second quarter, keeping it manageable, but Leesburg’s Jermarian Willimans and Angelo Moton were too strong for Citrus.
In the third quarter, Leesburg led 66-28, and you could tell that any hope or flame that Citrus held onto during the game was quickly extinguished. Leesburg would go on to win 81-37, with Citrus adding a few garbage time points to at least get within 40 points.
(The District Championship game on Saturday evening will be packed and should provide some intense action. The Leesburg and Vanguard Rivalry has been one of the best in recent years.)
Defensively, Leesburg played a great game. They continue to show why they are the #1 seed. Head Coach of the Yellow Jackets, Sean Campbell, got to celebrate win #201 of his career on this particular night. Campbell just celebrated his 200th victory of his career with the girls’ varsity team, who will also play for a District Championship tonight at Leesburg High.
(Leesburg #3 Angelo Moton is averaging a team high 14 points per game and 6 rebounds.)
It’s been an amazing season at Leesburg High School, with both the girls and boys teams looking to make deep runs in the FHSAA postseason tournament after earning the #1 seeds in their respective districts.
Now, Leesburg will get ready to face #2 seed Vanguard in the final on Saturday evening at 7 pm. Vanguard should present some challenges for Leesburg, but the Yellow Jackets will come into the game as a heavy favorite.
Best of luck to the Yellow Jacket teams!
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
