Advertisement

Region girls basketball: AATL continues postseason roll

 
Published Feb. 14, 2015

LAND O'LAKES — Academy at the Lakes joined an elite group Friday night by qualifying for its fourth straight girls basketball Final Four in Lakeland with a 70-47 victory over Winter Park Geneva.

The Wildcats had outscored their region opponents by an average of 45 points coming into the Region 2 final.

Geneva brought in a 35-point average win margin but found the Wildcat combination of quick passes in transition and the inside presence of Imani Thomas too much to handle.

"Imani was a monster inside tonight," Wildcats coach Karim Nohra said. "We wanted to feed her a lot."

And they did. Thomas racked up 20 points in the first half, en route to a game-high 32. Thomas also yanked down eight rebounds, three steals and two assists. In the first quarter, the Knights got a steal but Luz Santiago stole it right back and fed Thomas for an easy basket. No sooner had Geneva touched the ball then Audra Leipold stole it back, missed the basket but Santiago was there to clean it up to make it 14-5 on the way to a 23-13 first quarter.

"We missed 13 layups tonight," Nohra said. "If we don't miss those layups this game isn't as close as it was."

In the second, Lauren Wells dribbled into the defense and set a screen for Leipold, who hit a 3-pointer to put the Wildcats up by 20. The Knights got within 12 in the third quarter but more inside work from Thomas helped keep pace and, despite racking up 20 fouls and two technicals, the Wildcats cruised.

"It (getting into foul trouble) hurts, you can't be as aggressive as you want to be," Nohra said.

The Wildcats hardly let it affect them as they went on a 6-0 run right out of their second technical to go up 66-42, then Thomas had two great shots off in-bound passes to end the scoring.

4A: TC ousted

FORT MYERS — Fort Myers Dunbar wasn't concerned with 6-foot-1 Tampa Catholic forward Alise Davis getting touches in the paint. Each time the sophomore got the ball she was swarmed by at least two Tigers.

It made for a frustrating night for Davis and her teammates. Dunbar (23-4) also forced 25 turnovers and pushed the tempo to a fever pitch to knock off Tampa Catholic 66-42 Friday and earn a trip to the Class 4A semifinal next week in Lakeland.

TC (22-8) won back-to-back Class 3A state titles in 2010 and 2011, but haven't advanced past the region finals since moving up to 4A.

"We knew (Dunbar was) good. We knew that this was going to be the game," Crusaders coach Matthew Rocha said. "Since June, we've been telling them this is the game we've got to get to or else its fail. I was proud of the way we played, but it was turnovers that ultimately killed us."

Sophomore guard Mia Blocker led the Crusaders with 16 points, but they got no closer than 17 points in the second half.

Adam Regan, Special to the Times