9A State Final: Osceola captures its second title in three years

<p>LAKELAND - Osceola, Oak Ridge, Osceola. </p> <p>That is the order of the last three state champions in Class 9A. It certainly seems like a theme is building.</p> <p>Osceola won on Saturday night over Wellington 50-43 to take home its second title in three years (last one coming in 2017). The Wolverines were in their second straight state final after losing to Oak Ridge the prior.</p> <p>The Kowboys earned an incredible performance from 2019 UF football signee Diwun Black, who carried the way with 35 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field which included 10-of-10 shooting from the free throw line. He also racked up 10 rebounds.</p> <p>Black was fouled with 43 seconds left as Osceola led 46-43 and he sunk both free throws. That was the icing on the cake and the chants in the RP Funding Center of "Kowboys" were loud and frequent.</p> <p>For the 6'4" broad-shouldered senior athlete, Black was asked if he has talked to UF basketball coach Mike White about possibly playing basketball in college and he replied "no."</p> <p>He transferred down from Mississippi this season and was deemed ineligible for football due to grades. He told me he went to school and did his work and got his grades up and was cleared for basketball activities in January. Black estimated that he played about 15 games with Osceola.</p> <p>"It feels amazing. It feels like I'm the man on the court," Black said. "I carried my team to a victory and it felt so good."</p> <p>He says he knew when watching them play during the season that he would help the dynamic out of the team a lot.</p> <p>It is rather impressive how quickly he was able to gel with the 2019 trio of Josh Marte (Bethune Cookman signee), Isaiah Palermo and Jaduhkiss Soto. It is even more remarkable for the Kowboys considering UF signee Omar Payne left for Montverde prior to the season and his presence was crucial inside the past few seasons.</p> <p>"This is my first ever championship in any sport, so winning one in basketball with my new teammates is awesome," Black said.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">9A State Final:<br /> <br /> Diwun Black is the top game scorers with 23 points. Osceola leads Wellington 35-32 with 3:16 left in the 3Q.<a href="https://twitter.com/WellyHSBBall?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WellyHSBBall</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/diwunblack?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@diwunblack</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/coachn8srt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@coachn8srt</a> <a href="https://t.co/6oxZGeox5g">pic.twitter.com/6oxZGeox5g</a></p> — ᴊᴀᴋᴇ ᴘᴇʀᴘᴇʀ (@JakePerper) <a href="https://twitter.com/JakePerper/status/1104545575494696961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2019</a></blockquote> <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p> <p>As a team, Osceola shot just 33 percent from the field with Palermo, Marte and Soto combining for seven points on 2-of-20 shooting from the field. The players were clearly happy to have Black on their side in this one and it showed down the stretch with his dominant one-on-one play.</p> <p>Even though the trio didn't have a good offensive showing, they continued to battle and the ball movement was impressive as the Kowboys only turning the ball over nine times. The continuity of this unit was on full display.</p> <p>On the flip side, Wellington shot 30.6 percent as a team with 2019 guard Linton Brown doing the bulk of the work with 19 points on 4-of-12 shooting and 10-of-10 shooting from the free throw line. He also had eight rebounds. Brown was attacking at will in the game and in the semifinal win the night prior over Evans.</p> <p>At West Oaks during the fall, Brown transferred back to Wellington shortly thereafter and coach Matthew Colin was happy to have his senior leader on his side again.</p> <p>"The thing is when he (Brown) got back, his skills kind of degressed and he was out of shape," Colin said. I got on him about and I said look 'we need to turn you into a player that I always thought you could become.' I thought he could become the player of the year in our area and put himself in the all-state category. We just went to work. I've known Linton since the 6th grade. I've proud of him."</p> <p>Pacing Brown with some good offensive moments were 2021 guard Chris Walker (9 points), 2020 guard Jagger Ruiz (8 points) and 2020 guard Trey Perry (7 points).</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Final Score (9A State Final):<br /> <br /> Osceola 50<br /> Wellington 43<br /> <br /> The Cowboys win their 3rd ever state title and 1st since 2017.<br /> <br /> ????leaders <a href="https://twitter.com/coachn8srt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@coachn8srt</a> <br /> Diwun Black 35<a href="https://twitter.com/WellyHSBBall?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WellyHSBBall</a> <br /> Linton Brown 19 <a href="https://t.co/e76XZoqxPD">pic.twitter.com/e76XZoqxPD</a></p> — ᴊᴀᴋᴇ ᴘᴇʀᴘᴇʀ (@JakePerper) <a href="https://twitter.com/JakePerper/status/1104554207825281025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2019</a></blockquote> <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>