FHSSA Boys 4A Basketball State Semifinals: Andrew Jackson outlasts The Villages

Tigers will face Gibbs in Saturday’s Boys Class 4A state basketball championship

Gary Adornato | Feb 29, 2024

LAKELAND, FLORIDA – Thursday’s FHSAA Boys 4A state semifinal game between Andrew Jackson (Jacksonville) and The Villages (Orlando) was a tense back-and-forth battle that came down to the final minute before Jackson prevailed, 47-43.

The Tigers now advance to face Gibbs, which won its own triple overtime thriller with North Broward Prep, 58-55, earlier on Thursday. The 4A boys final will take place on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

Gibbs outlasts North Broward in 3 overtimes: Live score updates from the 2024 FHSAA Class 4A boys basketball state semifinals (2/29/2024)

Jackson built a 46-41 lead with 37-seconds to play on a pair of free throws by Octavius Lawson and the lead stretched to six when Ronald Durham added another free throw with 28 seconds to go. The Villages pulled back within four on a Ben Koubek field goal, but could get no closer.

TayVion Lawson scored a game-high 15 points and added 9 rebounds to lead Andrew Jackson. Albert Laguerre added 14 points for the Tigers.

Jared Thompson had a 11 points and 5 rebounds for The Villages, while teammate Chris Washington added 9 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Published Feb 29, 2024

GARY ADORNATO

Gary Adornato began covering high school sports with the Baltimore Sun in 1982, while still a mass communications major at Towson University, and in 2003 became one of the first journalists to cover high school sports online while operating MIAASports.com, the official website of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. Later, Adornato pioneered market-wide coverage of high school sports with DigitalSports.com, introducing video highlights and player interviews while assembling an award-winning editorial staff. In 2010, he launched VarsitySportsNetwork.com which became the premier source of high school media coverage in the state of Maryland. In 2022, he sold VSN to The Baltimore Banner and joined SBLive Sports as the company's East Coast Managing Editor.