Center Eno Inyang, who led St. Cloud to a regional semifinal and 15-7 record, headlines the Osceola News Gazette’s All-County Girls Basketball Team as our “Player of the Year” for the 2020-21 season.
Inyang put together a dominant season for the Lady Bulldogs, nearly averaging a double-double on the season with 20.3 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Among other areas, she led the team in points, rebounds, field goal percentage and free throws made. Inyang scored 25 or more points five times, including 39 against Seffner Christian and 35 against Lake Howell in a regional quarterfinal.
“The truth of the matter is her stats are truly misleading,” St. Cloud Head Coach Chad Ansbaugh said. “If our offensive philosophy would have been to pound the ball into her on every possession, she could have averaged 30 or 35 a game. We played a tough schedule this year, playing eight games against teams that made the FHSAA Final Four in their division and two games against Montverde Academy – a nationally ranked team. In all those games, I believed Eno was the best player on the court.”
A Clemson signee, Inyang was a starter all four years for the Lady Bulldogs and finished her career with 2,247 points – second most in school history.
“It’s difficult and not really fair for me to try to project college basketball success, especially jumping from high school to Power 5 conference,” Ansbaugh added. “What I do know is Clemson is getting a terrific teammate and an outstanding person. Eno has always put team first and I honestly believe she has not begun to touch her potential in basketball.”
Joining Inyang on the News-Gazette All-County team from St. Cloud is senior Angie Rodriguez and Moriah Sanchez. Rodriguez, a senior guard, averaged 8.1 points and 6 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game; while Sanchez averaged 7.5 points and 3.5 assists running the point for the Lady Bulldogs.
City of Life Christian Academy placed two on the team after going 14-7 on the team and advancing to an FHSAA Class 2A Final Four appearance. Camila De pool-Maisonet, only a freshman, led her team in scoring (14.3) and assists (4.3) this season. Senior Shanell Heredia averaged 8.9 points and led City in rebounding with 7.3 per game.
Two young players from Gateway earned spots on the All-County team. Sophomore guard Vanessa Diaz averaged 21.6 points per game; while freshman Malayna Stephenson scored 11.5 per game. Diaz was deadly from outside, shooting 40 percent from outside the three-point line – making 102 of 254 attempts on the season.
Diaz and Stephenson led the Lady Panthers to a final record of 18-7, a second place finish in districts and a regional appearance. Gateway had just one senior on the team and will return its top five scorers next season.
Osceola’s Mya Lomax earned a spot on the News-Gazette All-County Team by averaging 18.2 points per game. The junior accounted for more than 40 percent of the Kowboys offense and had two, 30-plus points a game by dropping 33 against Davenport Ridge and 32 against Poinciana.
Ivanis Pimental, of Poinciana, led her team in both scoring (13.4) and rebounding (5.3) while splitting time between point and shooting guard. She had a season high 26 points against Lake Howell in the Lady Eagles season finale and scored 19 points in games against Liberty and St. Cloud.
Rounding out the 10-member All-County team was Harmony’s Carlee Fitzgerald. She averaged 11.4 points per game as the Longhorns were limited to 12 games this year due to the COVID-19 crisis.
