In 2025, the Newberry Panthers won their first district title in 21 years on their way to a 24-1 record.

Newberry liked that so much, they did it again on Saturday night at Barry Gymnasium.

Senior Juwan Scippio played through a knee injury for a team-high 16 points, and four Newberry players scored in double figures, as the host Panthers pulled away from Bradford for a 60-49 win in the Class 3A-District 3 championship game.

For the first time in school history, the Newberry boys basketball team won back-to-back district titles, and it was only their fourth district championship in program history.  

“If you look up at the banner in the gym, you will see a couple of things missing (regional championships and Final Fours),” Newberry coach Patrick Green said. “It’s usually about a decade between district titles, so that was our goal this year to be the first to go back-to-back.”

The game started quickly for Newberry (19-3), as they led 15-7 after the opening period with junior Colton Sembower scoring six points and Scippio also scoring six points on two three-pointers. The Panthers extended their lead to as much as 11 at 20-9 midway through the second quarter.

But Bradford (17-5) went on a 14-6 run to close out the period to cut the deficit to 26-23 at halftime.

“In football and basketball, there is a little bit of history (between Newberry and Bradford) and they are definitely a rival,” Green said. “So you had to expect that they would want to come out and beat us tonight.”

The third quarter saw multiple lead changes, with Newberry ending on top, 36-35.

The final period saw more lead changes early on, and Newberry still only led by a point at 50-49 with three minutes left. But then Bradford went cold and Newberry senior Henry Mathias went 7-for-8 from the free throw line and Scippio 3-for-4 from the charity stripe as the Panthers pulled away.

Sembower scored 13 points for Newberry, Mathias added 12 and senior Kai Washington chipped in 11 points, including seven in the final period.

Junior Maliki Cobarris was the only player in double figures for the Tornadoes with 16 points.  

Scippio continues to contribute to Newberry despite a knee injury, which caused him to miss the last few games of the regular season.

“He (Scippio) won’t tell his coach if he’s 100 percent, so your guess is as good as mine,” Green said. “He’s probably in the 90’s and that’s good enough, so we rolled him out there tonight to see what he can do.”

Boys District Championships
Saturday, Feb. 7

(Teams in bold in Mainstreet coverage area) 

Rural Class-District 5

1 Hilliard 71, 3 Branford 46

Rural Class-District 6

Trenton 48, 2 Union County (Lake Butler) 431

Rural Class-District 7

2 Williston 70, 1 Wildwood 64

Class 1A-District 4

1 Meadowbrook Academy (Ocala) 63, 3 Countryside Christian 45

Class 2A-District 2

1 P.K. Yonge 46, 3 Trinity Catholic (Ocala) 32

Class 4A-District 5

2 North Marion (Citra) 46, 2 Eastside 38

Class 5A-District 2

3 Leon (Tallahassee) 58, 4 Gainesville 50

Class 6A-District 3

1 Tocoi Creek (St. Augustine) 58, 2 Buchholz 38

Girls District Championships
Saturday, Feb. 7

Class 6A-District 3 at Tocoi Creek (St. Augustine)

1 Tocoi Creek (St. Augustine) 69, 2 Buchholz 34