Girls basketball regional semifinals: Cardinal Mooney advance to regional title game
SARASOTA - For nearly three quarters on Tuesday night, the visiting Tampa Catholic Crusaders gave top-seed Cardinal Mooney all it could handle.
Then, like gracious hosts, the Cougars gave back.
The result was a 27-9 run the rest of the game and a 60-42 victory in a Class 3A-Region 3 semifinal that lifted the Cougars (19-5) into Friday night’s title game.
Marlon Williams’ team will stay home and host Tampa Prep, a 40-38 winner over Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate in another Tuesday night regional semifinal game.
The Crusaders, the fourth seed and 14-10 coming into the game, took advantage of what Williams thought might have been “jitters” on his team. With a minute left in the third quarter, the game was tied 33-all.
Then, in rapid fashion, Mooney’s Sy’monique Simon scored on a drive into the paint, Olivia Davis connected on one of her 8 3-pointers in the game, and Simon followed with two free throws. Combined with three Crusaders turnovers, the Cougars led 40-33 after three.
They would outscore Tampa Catholic 20-9 in the fourth. Davis was good on three treys, giving her a game-high 31 points. Simon was next with 12, the only two Cougars to finish in double figures.
“Sometimes, it’s jitters,” the first-year Cougar coach said. “We’re young, so jitters play a big part. It was a big game for us, but we seemed to get it going in that third quarter.”
And the key to that was Davis, the Cougars’ lone senior. After seemingly every basket, the team’s leading scorer displayed some sort of emotion. “She is the motor for us,” Williams said. “She is the only senior, so we rely on her for that.”
Last year’s Cougar team reached the title game, only to lose the championship to Westminster Academy. Williams said the aim of this year’s team has been to return to Lakeland.
“That’s one of our goals,” he said. “It’s in the air. So we’re trying very hard to get there.”
Class 5A-Region 3
Port Charlotte 47, Parrish Community 46, OT
PORT CHARLOTTE − Trailing by a point with 3.9 seconds left in overtime and having possession under the far basket, all the Port Charlotte High girls basketball team wanted to do was get the ball in the hands of Hailey Cohen at midcourt.
“If we get the ball to Hailey at halfcourt with 3.9, she can get to the rim,” Pirates coach Mike Progl said. “She’s so fast with the ball, I knew she could get to the rim.”
Bryanna Griffiths’ inbounds pass was even better. Griffiths hit Cohen beyond midcourt and Cohen dropped in a layup and was fouled with one second remaining.
Port Charlotte needed only the basket to record a 47-46 victory in overtime over visiting Parrish Community High in the Class 5A-Region 3 semifinals Tuesday night at Bill Specht Court at Tony Cicchella Memorial Gymnasium.
“They were supposed to let the ball get in and be in front of them and make them have to dribble up the court,” Bulls coach Kristy Hebert said. “We got tied up with one of their girls and they got the pass down low.”
Cohen was supposed to be on the opposite block of where Griffiths was passing the ball in. When she cut to take the pass, Cohen found herself wide open.
“He (Progl) wanted me to get a shot, but I was able to go all the way,” Cohen said. “It was such a good pass. People are thanking me, but I was like, ‘Thank Bry.’ That pass was insane.”
Cohen missed the ensuing free throw, which turned out to be a blessing for the Pirates.
“I’m glad she missed that free throw. Because if she would have made it, they would have time to set something up,” Progl said.
Two free throws by Mary Portwood with 3.9 seconds left gave third-seeded Parrish Community (12-12) a 46-45 lead.
“That was two clutch free throws their girl hit with 3.9 seconds left,” Progl said of Portwood.
“Very clutch. Obviously, she did a great job in a pressure situation, making that,” Hebert said. “I felt we shouldn’t have been in that situation.”
The Bulls led by 15 points (30-15) with 2 minutes, 47 seconds left in the third quarter.
At the time, the second-seeded Pirates (18-11) had six field goals, all layup.
“We’ve come back from more than that,” Cohen said. “It’s always something. We’re a second-half team. We just go into the locker room and coach tells us what we are doing wrong and what we need to do right. And we’re able to just fix it.”
“We made it way harder than it needed to be,” Progl said. “We weren’t hitting our shots in the first half. We were 0-for-12 on threes. That was the difference.”
Nayeliz Figuera Verges broke the outside shooting drought with a 3-pointer that seemed to ignite Port Charlotte.
It started a 7-0 run to end the third quarter and pull the home team within 30-22.
Aryianna Lockey-Progl hit a three and Griffiths made two from beyond the arc in the final 3:55 of regulation to pull the Pirates even at 37-all.
“Credit to their player 42,” Hebert said of Griffiths. “They weren’t hitting shots all night. She got the hot hand, even when we went man-to-man on her. Offensively, we went flat.”
“Once one dropped, another one dropped,” Progl said. “Once you see them go in, your mentality changes, and everything started dropping.”
There were six lead changes and a tie in the frantic four-minute overtime session before the heroics of Griffiths and Cohen.
“The girl didn’t go all the way back,” Progl said. “I was like ‘We got this. We got this. We got this.’ ”
The victory earned Port Charlotte a trip to top-seeded Clearwater High, which knocked off St. Petersburg High, 80-26.
“It’s gonna be a tough game,” Progl said. “And I know if we start off like we did tonight, it’s going to be a long night.”
Class 6A-Region 3
Charlotte 55, Armwood 33
TOP PLAYERS: C, D’Yanis Jimenez 24 points, 8 steals, Adriana Iorfida 11 points, Kam Ellis 9 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS
Class 7A-Region 3
Winter Haven 63, Riverview 39
Plant 72, Venice 47
Class 6A-Region 3
Charlotte 55, Armwood 33
Class 5A-Region 3
Port Charlotte 47, Parrish Community 46, OT
Class 4A-Region 3
Booker 69, Gibbs 40
Class 3A-Region 3
Cardinal Mooney 60, Tampa Catholic 42
REGIONAL FINALS
7 p.m. Friday
6A-3
Bloomingdale (2) at Charlotte (1)
5A-3
Port Charlotte (2) at Clearwater (1)
4A-3
Academy at the Holy Names (2) at Booker (1)
3A-3
Tampa Prep (3) at Cardinal Mooney (1)
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Charlotte, Sarasota counties girls basketball teams reach title games
