Riviera Prep Tops First Baptist in Class 2A State Semifinal, Advances to Championship Game

A bad shooting night and missed free throws early on proved to come back to bite the Lions against a Riviera Prep team you simply cannot make mistakes against.

First Baptist's season ended at the hands of the Bulldogs, who came away with a 58-50 win at the RP Funding Center Thursday afternoon to advance to Saturday's Class 2A state title game against Santa Fe Catholic.

Despite FBA getting within two scores late, it never felt like Riviera Prep was in serious trouble. The Bulldogs opened the game on 14-1 run, before a small 5-0 Lions run trimmed the lead to 14-6. The game would stay between 8 and 15 points for much of the contest, before FBA made it 55-50 with minimal time remaining.

FBA's athleticism and quickness was often neutralized by Riviera Prep's length, which was on display after Andrew Azunque drove past his defender but got blocked from behind. Ben Cassano seemed to have a free look at a breakaway basket before being rejected by Mason Fuentes.

Riviera Prep carried a 28-17 lead into halftime, capitalizing off of turnovers and taking solid shots. For the game, the Bulldogs shot 48.8 percent from the field, and outscored FBA 17-6 off of turnovers. The Lions went 16 of 48 from the field, with the backcourt of Andrew Loveall and Mikah Taylor combining to go 3 of 18.

Deep threes were taken by both sides, many of which came from the G-League stripe. Neither team shot it particularly well from distance, with Riviera Prep making 4 of 16 attempts and FBA making 4 of 19.

A somewhat busy whistle in the second half kept the Lions in the game in the third and fourth quarters, once having a 21-4 advantage at the charity stripe before it balanced out at 24-18. The two teams combined for 41 total fouls.

For First Baptist, Jayden Petit led the way with a game-high 21 points before fouling out late in the fourth. Darin Donalds added 9 off the bench, while Andrew Azunque and Taylor each had 7. FBA won the rebounding battle 33-26, including 14 offensive rebounds. Petit, Donalds, and Azunque each had 8 boards.

The Lions conclude what's been a historic season with a 28-3 record.

Follow Sports Reporter Alex Martin on X: @NP_AlexMartin. For the best sports coverage in Southwest Florida, follow @newspresssports and @ndnprepzone on Instagram.