By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

With perhaps a little too much drama for its coach’s liking, Heritage Christian edged Grace Christian, 55-54, Saturday to claim the Florida Christian Conference boys basketball championship at Clearwater Christian College.

Junior Josh Newman hit the second of two free throws with four seconds to play for the winning point. He was 6-of-8 from the line.

“I thought I was going to hit the first one. I thought I was going to make them both,” Newman said.

Teammate Maynard Rowe, who led Heritage with 27 points Saturday, said he was confident Newman would knock down the game-winner.

“I knew he would do it,” Rowe said. “He’s a good free throw shooter,”

Newman’s free throw held up after the Eagles caused a Grace turnover on the ensuing possession to clinch the championship, the school’s fourth and the first under Head Coach Jimmy Estrella.

“Every game we play against Grace is like that, almost always one or two points,” Estrella, the team’s leader for the past decade, said. “It was definitely like a cardiovascular test.”

The Eagles, 26-4, fought from behind much of the game, down by seven at the half and trailing by as many as 11 in the second half.

But, Heritage switched from its usual 3-2 zone to a man-to-man defense in the second half and Estrella said that made the difference.

“We live by the 3-2, because I want to force teams to shoot from outside. But, I talked to the Eastland coach Thursday after he lost to Grace and he said he used man-to-man,” Estrella said. “We were able to come back, and then from there it was one or two points the rest of the way.”

Newman and Preston Bass each scored 10 as the team had to play much of the way with a short bench.

“One starter couldn’t make the trip, then we ran into foul trouble,” Estrella said. “I had a ninth-grader (Jose Ortiz) and a seventh-grader (Dallas Beaver) on the bench who had almost no varsity experience. It was tough.”

Also playing roles during the Eagles’ championship run were Kadeem Tyrell, Sean Greaves, Zack Reedy and Harold Hosty.

Rowe ended his varsity career at Heritage as the school’s all-time scoring leader with  2,260 points, only 124 from from the county record.

Heritage last won the conference championship in 2000.