The setting is modest to say the least.
It’s rented industrial warehouse space southwest of Kissimmee, just below US-17 off a lonely stretch of S. Poinciana Boulevard. Right next to an auto repair shop, but not close to much else.
But step inside the door at 5271 BTC Place and you see one of the best high school basketball teams in America being built on a shiny new wood court.
Central Pointe Christian Academy’s national team, a fourth-year program, showcased no less than 10 major college prospects Tuesday night when the White Tigers overpowered Orlando’s West Oaks Academy 85-68. The rematch of the 2020 league championship game secured CPCA’s status as the best team in the Sunshine Independent Athletic Association.
With the win, CPCA improved to 26-5 overall and finished 12-0 in regular season play within the SIAA — a college-style conglomeration of recruited teams playing outside the Florida High School Athletic Association. The SIAA is regarded as one of the most talent-laden leagues in America and the White Tigers have quickly climbed to the top of the conference as they gear up for a postseason tournament that tips off next Thursday.
After surprising the SIAA by winning last season’s tournament in its second year as a member, Central Pointe has taken the program to another level despite returning only one key player, four-star prospect Ramses “RJ” Melendez.
“We weren’t really that good when we started this season because of so many new guys,” Melendez said Tuesday night. “We believed in our coaches, and the new guys got better and better individually. We got better as a team.
“We got a hell of a bond that nobody can break right now.”
Melendez, a 6-foot-7 swingman from Puerto Rico, committed to Illinois on Monday night. He is stuffing the stat sheet with per-game averages of 25 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.2 steals and is rated as a national top 100 player by ESPN and 247Sports. He holds more than 20 scholarship offers.
But during Tuesday’s victory, Melendez played less than half the game. He had several sensational dunks and scored 11 of his 16 points in the first quarter to give CPCA a big lead. He also contributed four rebounds, three steals and two assists. But Melendez shared playing time as CPCA utilized 11 guys in a game where it led by 21 in the first half.
Kedrick Green Jr., a 6-foot guard who moved from Georgia to play his senior season at CPCA, scored a game-high 25 points. He scored 23 when the White Tigers won a wild 101-97 game at West Oaks in November.
Central Pointe’s deep corps of big men — five players 6-9 or taller — made a huge difference against a Flame team playing without superstar Matthew Bewley, a 6-9 sophomore power forward who was out with an ankle injury. Bewley, rated among the top three prospects in the Class of 2023, is expected back on the court alongside his twin brother, Ryan, for the SIAA tournament.
CPCA jumped out to an early lead with Davie Hermes, a 6-10, 228-pound senior from Sweden, scoring on three hook shots down low. He quickly got into foul trouble in an up and down game but was capably spelled by 6-10 junior Jeremy Foumena, a Canadian import averaging 14 points and 8.2 rebounds, and 6-10 senior Luka Tekavcic, a skilled ballhandler from Slovenia.
Hermes finished with 10 points, right on his average. Nolan Wells, a 6-7 senior who played alongside Green at Core4 Academy of Georgia last season, averages 15.1 points but contributed off the bench against West Oaks.
“We’ve been blessed. We were able to recruit good players to our program,” said CPCA head coach Richie Dalmau, a former Puerto Rican pro player and national team assistant coach. “My main goal is how many student-athletes we can get into college. If we do that, the wins and everything else will fall into place.”
Three players from the White Tigers’ 2020 SIAA title team signed with major colleges. Luis Rolon and Victor Rosa now play for Florida Gulf Coast and Jonathan Aybar is a starter for UNF. Rolon also started games as a freshman and Rosa gets playing time off the bench. A fourth DI player signed off the 2020-21 CPCA post-grad roster is Oskar Palmquist, a Swedish player who is a freshman for Rutgers. Three others signed with junior colleges.
Central Pointe initially built its lineups around players from Puerto Rico — many of them coming to Kissimmee following the devastation Hurricane Maria brought to the island in 2017. Now, the White Tigers national team is a globetrotter squad with four players from Puerto Rico surrounded by players from multiple countries, including France, Senegal and the U.S.
“Our coaches tell us, ‘We are preparing you every day in practice for college basketball because we know you are going to get that opportunity’,” Melendez said. “They say, ‘We’re preparing pros in here’.”
CPCA, a K-12 school, dates to 1998 but its basketball boom put it on the map. Dalmau, a soft-spoken mentor, also serves as athletic director for a program that includes a nationally-ranked girls basketball team, a baseball team with several Major League Baseball draft prospects and a growing girls volleyball program.
He said the surge in sports success helped enrollment rise from about 400 students when he came aboard to 1,000 this year.
CPCA runs 12 basketball teams out of its new Central Pointe Training Center, the warehouse that wins. That includes three post-graduate teams, three varsity squads, two JV units, two for middle schoolers and two girls teams.
Morales turned down offers to coach pro teams in Panama to stay in a leadership role with the CFCA staff. They are working to upgrade the facility and plan to acquire more space next door for a weight room.
Central Pointe’s elite boys team, led by Melendez, lost five out-of-state games — all close. Those included a 64-57 setback against national No. 2 AZ Compass Prep of Arizona, a team that is 20-1 with its only loss coming in overtime at No. 1 Montverde Academy. CPCA also lost 67-52 at third-ranked IMG Academy of Bradenton.
“It was difficult early in the season because it takes time to learn the offense we run, the passing game,” Dalmau said. “Players come here wanting to dribble the ball 100 times. We really want ball movement.”
The White Tigers have now moved to No. 32 in the FAB 50 national rankings and hope to climb higher.
Central Pointe concludes its regular season with three or four games this weekend as a co-host with SourceHoops for a Winter Showdown exposure event at the Game Point Event Center in Orlando. The tournament for eighth grade through varsity teams drew more than 30 teams from Puerto Rico because competition there is mostly halted due to COVID-19, Dalmau said.
The SIAA playoffs tip off next week. And the final challenge will be at The Grind Session World Championship in Phoenix, Ariz., March 1-6. That is a platform for the growing legion of teams that play outside traditional state associations.
“We’re looking to win the state championship (SIAA) and the national championship at the Grind Session,” Melendez said. “Our coaches have prepared us for this type of moment.”
This story was first published at OrlandoSentinel.com. Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.
