Tohopekaliga, Gateway, St. Cloud, City of Life all win district girls basketball titles
Four county squads will continue their girls basketball seasons Wednesday when the regional playoffs begin.
They all won district championships, and the automatic spot in the brackets that come with them. Pairings will be announced Sunday, check back at AroundOsceola.com.
Here's the rundown:
DISTRICT 7A-6: TOHOPEKALIGA 38, HARMONY 32. The Tigers win the school's first district basketball championship, girls or boys, in THS' sixth year, but had to survive a Longhorns' fourth-quarter comeback at Harmony High.
Tohopekaliga (17-3), in the midst of its best season ever, got balanced scoring from four veteran players, and enough defense from all five positions to keep Harmony (9-10) at bay. When the game ended, Coach Jennifer Farrell, the only one the program's had, got emotional holding the trophy with her players.
"When you struggle like we did for our first seasons, you never believe you're going to get to this point until you're here," she said. "Our game plan from the get-go was get the ball and push because we can outrun almost anyone we play."
And run the Tigers did to an early lead. It was 14-6 after one quarter after Kenya Allen and Angela Alvarado hit three-pointers and Alvarado got a lay-up off a steal in the final minute. They turned up the defense for the next two quarters, and THS held a 29-16 lead.
But Harmony, the defending champ, would not go away quietly, chipping away at the lead with buckets from Jaymelee Montanez, who had 10 of her 16 points and many of her 13 rebounds in the quarter. She hit a three-pointer and free throw on back-to-back possessions to cut the lead to 35-30 with three minutes left, But Toho's next two possessions lasted nearly a minute, and Alvarado and Mckenna Day, who lead all Tigers with 12 points, cashed in at the free throw line to ice away the title.
"Yeah, they made it hard on me in the fourth (quarter)," Farrell said. "We tried to run some clock, then we got a couple stops and rebounds to settle ourselves down.
Day, a four-year player, acknowledged the pressure of the situation may have gotten to the team for a bit.
"It was definitely a patience game," she said. "We knew it was time to reward Coach Farrell for everything she's put in. At the start of the year everybody on the team wrote down their goals. Winning a district championship was one of mine."
Alvardo and Saana Charles, who added seven rebounds, added nine points, and Kenya Allen had eight points and five steals.
Emerson Aslan scored nine points and added eight rebounds for Harmony, which was 4-for-15 at the free throw line.
DISTRICT 6A-7: ST. CLOUD 53, KATHLEEN 40. After letting a district title slip through some injured hands last year, the Bulldogs led wire-to-wire against the Red Devils and will likely host a first-round regional game.
St. Cloud (20-6) quickly turned a 24-21 halftime lead into a 35-25 double-digit advantage by the midpoint of the third quarter with an 11-4 run, and played solid-enough defense and ball-control offense the rest of the way to prevent Kathleen (18-8) from mounting a threat, despite 23 points from fleet-footed 6-1 center Amaya Shaw.
Senior Emily Lockey scored six of those points right out of halftime to push the lead, but said after the game the halftime talk was about getting back on defense. Lockey and fellow senior Danigzy Mantilla each scored 16, the latter in foul trouble from the second quarter on.
"We'd only lost one time here, we weren't going to lose this one," Lockey said. "I just think about what to do in that moment to keep up momentum to try to win."
Coach Chad Ansbaugh said his halftime speech was not about what wasn't getting done, but talking in general terms of what needed to be done.
"I sensed they were a little bit fragile, so I just told them to go finish it," he said. "We hit some hurdles about a month ago, and if we play this game then, maybe we don't win."
DISTRICT 5A-7: GATEWAY 37, LAKE WALES 25.
The Panthers (18-6), trying to return to the state tournament for a second straight year, wasn't it's sharpest on offense, but locked down on defense after the Highlanders (16-10) opened the game by hitting three three-pointers.
"Then we settled down and hit some shots," GHS Coach Justin Marino said. "Once we got the lead we played well and stuck to the defensive game plan, then we just killed the clock after they got some easy baskets after we missed shots."
The Panthers spread the scoring around -- Alyssa Marino led with 10 but Karli Cole and Malayna Stevenson added 9and Evana Rivera scored 6.
Gateway will likely be seeded third in Region 5A-2, guaranteeing a home game in Wednesday's regional quarterfinal, meaning a return triip to Lakeland will likely come on the road.
DISTRICT 2A-8: CITY OF LIFE 50, LAKELAND VICTORY CHR. 41.
The Warriors (14-6), the 2018 Class 2A state champs, got 16 points each from Talia St. Hilaire (10 rebounds, four assists, three steals) and Faith Wener (10 rebounds, two blocks). Abi Squires added nine points as City of Life became Osceola County's four district champion Friday down in Lakeland.
