Dwyer basketball on to districts after ending regular season with revenge on Lake Worth

PALM BEACH GARDENS — With milliseconds on the clock, Dwyer High administrators stood at midcourt, asking fans in the stands to remain in their seats.

Sophomore Jadon Quince and senior Amari Nealy had just put together the game-winning play for a 48-47 defeat of Lake Worth, and Panther supporters were eager to pounce on the hardwood to celebrate another successful regular season.

The reigning 6A state champions hadn't taken down the Trojans since January 2021, and Lake Worth (13-9) was the only squad to deny Dwyer on its 29-1 run to Lakeland last fall.

"It was very important for us," Nealy said. "We been talking about this game ever since the beginning of the year. I feel like we all been ready for this game since Day 1, and we worked hard in the gym every day to get better and better."

On Tuesday, the Panthers, now 19-3, reclaimed the rivalry — and without the scorer who has led the stat book for the better half of the year.

Here are three takeaways from how "D-Block" denied the Trojans once and for all.

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Bench steps up without Jaelen Nelson on the floor for Panthers

Lake Worth senior Hedrens Barthelus' hand slapped the backboard, just a hair too late to block Nealy's shot that sealed revenge. While Nealy entered the season as Dwyer's only returning starter, and served as his team's scoring leader against the Trojans with 12 points, he wasn't too eager to take credit for the win.

Nealy said, "It felt really good to get the win, especially after making the game-winning layup knowing that I lost to them last year and it felt good to be the one to end the game."

He gave the nonstarters some well-deserved flowers.

"Man, the bench really stepped up tonight," Nealy said. "Tamari [Reed] had great 3s and free throws that put us back in the game. Jadon’s defense was amazing tonight, which is not anything new. He does this in practice every day and is really a threat on the defensive side.

"Everybody else played their parts and helped us come out with the win when the starters were tired and, actually, tonight’s game helped me build a lot of trust into the bench."

Without Quince's leap at midcourt to deny Lake Worth the possession it needed to win at the buzzer, or the third-quarter 3-pointer to make Dwyer's first lead of the game from Reed, Nealy knew he couldn't have nailed the coffin.

"I just came in and played my role," Quince said. "Coach [Fred] Ross always says, 'Go and play hard,' and I went in and got it done."

Nealy's other high-scoring half, Jaelen Nelson, dropped only a 3 before an injury to the senior's right leg forced him out of the game by the second period.

"Jaelen's injury was very crucial to us, but it only made us play harder," Nealy said. "Hope he gets better."

Quince doubled down, thankful that Nelson "still supported the team from the bench."

Dwyer overcomes near-fatal foul trouble

Up 31-24 at halftime, the Lake Worth team looked comfortable in the driver's seat. Dwyer, on the other hand, was the backseat driver giving the Trojans directions to the win.

Fourteen of those 31 points for Lake Worth were from the free-throw line, 10 from Barthelus, who led the game with 15 points. Across all four periods, the Panthers totaled 26 fouls: eight in the first period, nine in the second period, five in the third period and four in the fourth period.

Granted Lake Worth amassed 16 fouls of its own, six coming in the second quarter, but only 13 shot opportunities resulted for Dwyer. The Trojans got 37 and capitalized with 22 successful free throws.

"When it came to foul trouble, the bench were telling the players in the game that we had to step up for the players that fouled out," Quince said. "The team responded to the adversity by playing more aggressive defense to get the win."

And aggressive defense there was in the second half, as Dwyer limited Lake Worth to just eight points each in the third and fourth quarters.

Regular season a wrap, on to districts for county powerhouses

Lake Worth has a chance to bounce back from Dwyer and end the regular season with wins against Park Vista and Blanche Ely on Thursday and Friday. Meanwhile, for Dwyer, all eyes are on district tournaments.

Both Dwyer and Lake Worth will meet to-be-determined opponents on Feb. 8 in the district semifinals.

The Florida High School Athletic Association has yet to officially release tournament brackets. However, being No. 1 in district standings gives the Trojans and the Panthers an automatic bye week for the first round.

For the moment, the Panthers, ranked 24th in Florida and No. 4 in 6A, are relishing the win over Lake Worth but proceeding with caution.

On Jan. 16, Palm Beach Lakes put up a 40-37 win to snap Dwyer's 11-game winning streak. The same week, Jupiter stained the Panthers' longstanding undefeated home record with a 49-48 loss.

"Those losses to Lakes and Jupiter is just something we learned from. We overlooked those two teams and thought we had easy wins and just ended up not playing as good as we are," Nealy said. "But, it made us realize that we have to play hard all the time no matter what happens, which led over to this game making us fight hard to come back knowing that we are down."

"Every game is a eight-on-three. We have to fight refs and we have to play the players, so it’s definitely something we have to get used to moving forward if we want to win states."

Emilee Smarr is a sports reporter for The Palm Beach Post. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Dwyer basketball wraps regular season with revenge on Lake Worth