Sure, the official high school basketball season is a little more than four months away. But a win is a win, and the Lakeland High School Cavaliers won the Heritage Summer League championship on July 23 at Heritage High School.

Trailing most of the game to undefeated Oscar Smith High School, the Cavs inched closer as the second half wound down. They took a lead in the final minutes, but the Tigers did not let it last for long.

With just over two seconds remaining in regulation, the score was tied, 51-51, and Lakeland rising senior Qurante Budd got a steal and broke away for a layup but could not sink the shot.

A two-minute overtime session expired with no score, leading to a sudden-death overtime period during which Budd redeemed himself. Not long into the period, he fired up a three-pointer that hit nothing but net, giving the Cavaliers a 54-51 win.

As he launched the three, “I had that feeling — it was money,” he said, noting he was also thinking about the missed layup. “I missed two in a row. I had to make up for it.”

Lakeland head coach Clint Wright was sitting in the stands, giving assistant coach Rodney Jones an opportunity to lead the Cavs (8-1). But Wright had plenty of observations as he made player evaluations.

He said that against Oscar Smith (7-1), a perennial power in the area, you want to keep the game close.

“I thought that the midpoint of the game, we started to execute, run the offense the way it was designed,” he said. “I thought that we defended Oscar Smith fairly well.”

He was a little surprised by his team’s energy, since it had just eliminated King’s Fork High School 52-39 in the semifinal shortly before the championship game.

“But it goes to show when you work hard, things come fairly easy,” he said. “And going into a double-overtime is not a bad place to be against a team of an Oscar Smith caliber.”

Wright has taken his team through three stages of training following the 2014-15 season. First, he had his players get right back in the gym two weeks after the season. Then they started a successful Amateur Athletic Union campaign and continued with team camps. The third stage was participating in the summer league.

Returners like Deonta Knight, Daquan Boyette, Kayonta Brown and Budd, all rising seniors, performed well during the league, as Wright expected.

But a fifth rising senior really stood out to Wright — Jamonte Ricks.

“I’m very excited about his progress,” the coach said.

He called Ricks “a very versatile player, has the capacity to play in the low post and then also to defend on the perimeter. Those guys aren’t as prominent at this level. Typically you’re either a small guard or a big low-post player, and he’s a ‘tweener’ that can basically do it on both ends and then defend any type.”

Wright highlighted what Kayonta Brown has shown he will bring to the lineup this winter.

“I think his defensive presence, his ability to alter shots, is definitely going to be a plus with us this year,” Wright said. “He’ll give us seamlessly what Irvin Ashburn did on last year, but with a little bit more of an offensive punch. Definitely Kayonta can easily go a double-double throughout next year. He’s simply just that talented.”