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No. 1 Montverde, No. 10 Wheeler advance to City of Palms final

Trinity's Christian Thieneman is guarded by top-ranked player Ben Simmons during the City of Palms Classic. Fort Myers News-Press photo.

Trinity’s Christian Thieneman is guarded by top-ranked player Ben Simmons during the City of Palms Classic. Fort Myers News-Press photo.


The difference in the rankings between No. 1 Montverde (Fla.) Academy and No. 41 Trinity (Louisville) may not seem that great. Both teams came into Monday’s City of Palms semifinal with unbeaten records, but on the floor, the difference is clear.

The Eagles have the No. 1 player in the country in 6-9 power forward Ben Simmons, who has signed with LSU, and guarding him was Christian Thieneman, generously listed as 6-5 and headed to Marshall.

Montverde came away with a 52-42 win, but for 20 minutes, Thieneman more than held his own, outscoring Simmons 14-5. Simmons would eventually score 16, but Trinity and Thieneman kept it close. The last time the Eagles were held to 52 or less came in a 50-47 win in the 2012 National High School Invitational against Montrose Christian (Rockville, Md.).

“We had a bad stretch for three minutes in the third quarter and we just didn’t gather together and overcome that,” said Thieneman, who finished with 15 points and did a good job of defending Simmons. “I just got low and rode him out of the paint. He ties his shoes the same way I tie mine, so I wasn’t worried about anything.”

Despite the drama, Montverde’s win sets up a tournament final between two unbeaten teams.  Tuesday, the No. 1 Eagles (9-0) will face No. 10 Wheeler (Marietta, Ga.) in the championship with the No. 1 player in the 2015 class (Simmons) going against the No. 2 player in Wheeler’s Jaylen Brown.

The Wildcats (8-0) advanced with a 76-70 defeat of No. 2 Wesleyan Christian (High Point, N.C.). Brown had 28 points while Wesleyan Christian (11-1) was led by Michael Buckland’s 17 points.

“We had the game won, but we missed our chances and we have to learn from it and bounce back,” said Wesleyan Christian’s Harry Giles III, who had 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Wesleyan will play Trinity on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.  in the third-place final, followed by the championship between Wheeler and Montverde at 8:45 p.m.

 

 

 

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