Jupiter boys basketball locks in state berth with district title win

JUPITER — There will be no snubbing Jupiter boys basketball this year.

After missing the state tournament each of the last six seasons, Jupiter (24-3) left nothing up to chance this year with a district championship victory over Centennial, returning the favor against the team that knocked them out last year in the district semifinals.

Junior point guard Brandon Collum had 16 points, leading the Warriors to a 71-65 win on Saturday night.

The win caps off a district run that also featured a a 65-57 win over Treasure Coast in the semifinals.

Zachary Bombardier's nine-point first half buoyed the Warriors' early offense, which exploded into a 14-point run. Zach Fleming out an exclamation point on the second quarter explosion, taking an inbound pass with 0.5 seconds on the clock to hit a clean triple ahead of the buzzer that left the gymnasium going wild.

Though Centennial would claw themselves back into contention, narrowing the deficit to a single possession twice, the Warriors stayed composed.

Jupiter senior Blake Nicholas made two crucial third-quarter triples that accounted for nearly half his 14-point contribution, and then Brandon Collum shook off an injury to take over.

The win guarantees a spot in the regional bracket, a sorely-sought-after result after several years of back-to-bracket heartbeat on selection day.

Last season, a 20-5 season fell short of an at-large playoff birth, and the season before that, a 23-3 season ended in a tight district championship loss to Fort Pierce Central.

2023 was yet another 20-plus win season that failed to bear fruit.

For the 2nd straight year, a very difficult Selection Day. Once again we would have received an at large bid in all 27 other regions.

Our kids found a way to RESPOND to this last year leading to a 20-5 (ranked 78 in FL) season and will now have to do it again. #TheBrotherhoodhttps://t.co/MyJwQogVlw

— Jupiter Warriors Basketball (@1tribebball) February 8, 2025

The Warriors program has together a winning season in all but one of the last eight seasons, and yet it has been a full eight years since the last time that Jupiter was invited to the regional dance, which they turned into a regional semifinals berth before losing to Wellington (who ultimately lost to Osceola in the state championship) during the 2018-2019 season.

That was when boys basketball was in the midst of a three-year span that featured nine different classifications within the Florida High School Athletic Association.

Saturday's win marks one of the most important in recent program history and will propel the Warriors into a state playoff spot.

They will await their first-round matchup in this year's selection show.

Alex Peterman is a high school sports reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jupiter boys hoops avoids state snub by winning district championship