City of Palms Day 4 - Monverde Academy, Paul VI make the finals

Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) had to come from behind once again to remain undefeated as it outscored Providence (Jacksonville, Fla.) 22-12 in the fourth quarter to win 58-51 in the semifinals of the City of Palms Tournament in Fort Myers, Fla. on Saturday.

Montverde Academy (9-0) advances to take on Paul VI (Fairfax, Va.), a 57-52 winner over Whitney Young (Chicago, Ill.) in the other semifinal matchup, in Sunday's championship game, which is scheduled for Monday at 8:45 p.m.

Providence was able to shut down Montverde Academy's top scorer Ben Simmons, holding him to nine points in the contest. However Jalyn Patterson picked up the slack with 15 points while Justin Bibbs had 13 points and Ahmaad Rorie had 12. Providence had four players in double figures, but they were the only players who scored. David Sharpe led the way with 18 points.

Paul VI got a balanced scoring effort to offset the efforts of Whitney Young's Jahlil Okafor and Paul White. Okafor had a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds while White scored 15. However the rest of the team scored just 16 points.

Meanwhile Paul VI had three players in double figures, led by Joshua Reaves with 14, Quadree Smith with 13 and Curtis Jones with 12.

In other games, Wheeler (Marietta, Ga.) defeated St. Vincent-St. Mary (Akron, Ohio) 74-67, Lincoln (Brooklyn, N.Y.) topped Neumann-Goretti (Philadelphia, Pa.) 60-55, Oak Ridge (Orlando, Fla.) edged Yates (Houston, Texas) 87-84, St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.) knocked off Denver East (Denver, Colo.) 75-65, Milton (Milton, Ga.) beat Greenforest (Decatur, Ga.) 71-33, and Norland (Miami, Fla.) topped Bishop Verot (Fort Myers, Fla.) 67-30.