Thanks to their third straight district title, the St. Cloud will host East River Thursday at 7 p.m. in a Region 6A-2 girls basketball quarterfinal.
On Friday, sophomore Emily Lockey poured in 18 of her game-high 29 points in the second quarter as the Bulldogs (18-8) dismantled East Ridge, 71-33.
With a win tonight, St. Cloud would move on to the regional semifinals Tuesday.
Also Thursday, Gateway (20-7) will travel to Lake Weir in a Region 5A-2 quarterfinal. The Panthers fell to Lake Wales, 51-40, in Friday’s District 5A-7 final. That district makes up four of the region’s eight teams.
The Bulldogs started four sophomores Friday and took control early, grabbing a 17-12 lead despite missing some early shots.
“Not sure why, but the starting five seems to have trouble getting it together early in games. We moved the ball well, made the right passes and missed some east shots underneath,” Coach Chad Ansbaugh said. Lockey and her teammates
Lockey and her teammates would make sure the game would never be in question with a red-hot second quarter. Leading by seven, Savannah Kroener turned a steal into a fast-break layup, foul and subsequent threepointer as St. Cloud took a 24-14 lead midway through the second quarter and never looked back.
Lockey made seven field goals in the second quarter, including a pair of threes, as the Bulldogs pulled ahead at the half, 41-20.
“Emily was feeling it,” Ansbaugh said. “But a lot of credit needs to go to our point guard (Danigzy Mantilla). She was driving the lane and forced defenders to collapse on her and then dished it out for Emily to get some good looks.” Mantilla would then take
Mantilla would then take over offensively in the third quarter. She made three quick buckets; she’d finish the game with 16 points.
Five Bulldogs combined to sink nine three-pointers.
Although St. Cloud graduated three of its top four scorers from a season ago, including current Clemson player Eno Inyang (20.3 ppg), the efforts of his 2021-22 team has been a pleasant surprise to Ansbaugh.
“We graduated a lot of talented players last year and with so many young kids on the team, I felt if everything fell right, we could probably be a 12 or 13-win team. But these young ladies deserve a lot of credit. Many of them came up through our youth program and understand our culture and what is expected of them. We may not always have the most talent on the floor, but we will work hard and give maximum effort.”
As far as regionals, Ansbaugh said his team will be challenged. “It’s a tough region, with a lot of good teams,” the veteran coach said of East River (18-1) and state powers Wekiva and Winter Haven.
