The Ponte Vedra boys basketball team is headed to the state championship game after surviving a wild, triple overtime game against Leesburg in the final four.
Maddox Palmer was one of four Sharks to reach double figures in scoring as Ponte Vedra outlasted Leesburg 54-47 on Wednesday at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. Palmer had 18 points, followed by David Sanchez Barrera (13), Trace Westercamp and Ryan Speace (10 apiece).
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The Sharks will face Blanche Ely on Friday at 7 p.m. for the championship. No team from St. Johns County has won a title since the Nease boys in 2002.
Ponte Vedra led most of the game, including a 10-point cushion early in the third quarter. But Leesburg erased that by the fourth and pushed the game into OT. Both were scoreless in the first extra period and managed just three points in the second. The Sharks pulled away in the third extra frame, outscoring Leesburg 8-1 to reach the third state title game in program history. Leesburg was just 1 for 11 from the field in the OT periods.
Sanchez Barrera hit a driving layup with 10 seconds to play in regulation to tie things at 43-all and Speace drilled an open look 3-pointer on a dish from Sanchez Barrera with 20 seconds to play in the second OT to knot things at 46-all, the only offense of the quarter for the Sharks.
