City of Life one game away from Final Four

  • NEWS-GAZETTE PHOTO/J. DANIEL PEARSON Head Coach Dewrie Buggs talks to his City of Life team during a timeout of last Tuesday’s 70-30 Regional Semifinal win over Trinity Christian.
    NEWS-GAZETTE PHOTO/J. DANIEL PEARSON Head Coach Dewrie Buggs talks to his City of Life team during a timeout of last Tuesday’s 70-30 Regional Semifinal win over Trinity Christian.

Using its speed and quickness, City of Life Christian Academy (COLCA) routed Trinity Christian, 70-30, in a Class 2A, Regional 3 semifinal game on Tuesday night. The win sent the Lady Warriors, 26-0, into a regional final game Friday night against top-seeded Florida Prep (21-7).

Although Trinity started five seniors and had a decided height advantage of COLCA, they were no match for the Lady Warriors, who got a teamhigh 18 points from seventh grader Jayshlynn Vega and 13 from Camilla DePool.

City raced out to a 24-16 lead after one quarter, then limited Trinity to just 14 points for the remainder of the game in cruising to the 40-point win.

“We basically followed the script that we have been using all year. Pressure defense and creating turnovers,” Warriors Head Coach Dewrie Buggs said. “About the only thing that really bothered me was the fact that we failed to convert a lot of those turnovers into points. In the next round, the ability to convert turnovers into points is going to become increasingly important.”

Although COLCA had its share of turnovers in the game, they did more than enough offensively to control the game. Four players finished in double figures, including Sophia Chevres (12) and Janelisse Marty 11.

City of Life has won its last 13 games by double digits, but the Warriors went into Friday night’s game with Florida Prep as underdogs.

“Florida Prep is a big, physical team and certainly deserving of being the top seed in the region,” Buggs noted. “I believe we have more speed and quickness and hopefully we will be able to neutralize that size advantage.”