WESLEY CHAPEL – Springstead’s girls basketball team found itself in uncharted territory Tuesday night, making its first-ever appearance in the Sweet 16.
But the opponent was far from unfamiliar, even if the game was in an unusual location. The Lady Eagles faced Sunlake for the fourth time this season, a team they had split with in the regular season before losing to the Lady Seahawks in the district final, 62-54.
However, the Class 7A, Region 2 semifinal wasn’t anywhere near as competitive as those previous meetings would indicate. Springstead struggled badly with its offensive execution and saw its season come to a close with a 71-53 defeat.
“They didn’t do anything I asked them to do. They didn’t want to run the offense. They didn’t run the press break. They did what they wanted to do,” Springstead head coach Jay McNerney said. “Basically, I had three seniors that didn’t come ready to play. So, I benched them the rest of the game.
“You should be ready to play. And they came out, they played timid, they missed layup. They weren’t ready to play, and that’s why we lost. We didn’t actually show up until the fourth quarter.”
This contest was played at Wiregrass Ranch because of renovations being done to Sunlake’s gym. The neutral site created an abnormally subdued atmosphere and a smaller crowd than would be expected this deep into the postseason.
After a low-scoring first quarter saw Sunlake (17-8) finish with a 10-7 lead, it all unraveled for the Lady Eagles (12-10) in the second. It took nearly half the period for Springstead to score, on a pair of Reagan Huden free throws with 4:12 to play in the half.
The Lady Eagles didn’t record their first field goal of the period until the 1:52 mark, on a layup by Courtney Reiser. By that point, the Lady ‘Hawks had mounted an 18-3 run in the quarter to build a 28-10 advantage.
A 3-pointer by Kasia Ramirez with 41 seconds remaining before the intermission pushed the margin to 20, 32-12, and the lead hovered around there the rest of the way. Springstead did score 24 points in the fourth quarter, but never mounted a serious rally.
Ramirez paced Sunlake with 16 points, while Mary Moran had 11 points, nine rebounds and six steals. Elizabeth Moran and Genesis Gonzalez both chipped in 10 points and seven boards.
Huden scored 21 points for the Lady Eagles, to go along with seven rebounds and four steals. Yhanni Batts added 11 points and 13 rebounds, and Alexa Vilca hauled in 10 boards.
“I’m really proud of the team, I’m proud we made it this far. It just sucks that we didn’t show up tonight,” McNerney said. “We made it this far, this is a team we can beat, and we just didn’t even show up ready to play.
“We made a lot of progress. We’ve gone from perennial doormats to district runners-up twice – we’d like to win a district still – to state tournament two years in a row. That’s a big deal. You don’t get to play in a lot of state tournaments.”
Weeki Wachee found itself in a near identical position in their 6A-2 semifinal on Tuesday night at Crystal River. The Lady Hornets had faced the Lady Pirates three times prior, including the district final, absorbing a trio of losses. Still, Weeki Wachee had given Crystal River all it could handle in the district championship game before falling, 48-43, and pushed the Lady Pirates to the limit again though ultimately suffered a 51-48 defeat.
“We couldn’t get an inside basket in the first half. We had opportunities, but couldn’t drop them in,” Weeki Wachee head coach Mike Munro said. “The kids kept their chin up. We kept chipping away.
“We dominated the boards and we dominated posting up. Seytia (Hill) was tremendous posting up and drawing fouls. … We rebounded, we gave them one shot, and that was it.”
The Lady Pirates (21-1) led 26-19 at halftime and by as much as nine early in the third quarter, only to see the Lady Hornets (21-9) come charging back and build their own five-point advantage with 2:30 to play in the fourth. Then Crystal River finished the game on a 9-1 run, going back in front on a Shawnee Murphy layup with 43 seconds left.
Hill had 19 points, and Shayleese Vazquez scored 16 and Taylor Miller added 10 to lead the Lady Hornets, who advanced to regionals for the first time in their history.
“If you go back two years, we lost 50 straight games,” said Munro, completing his second year with the team. “We’re a year ahead of what I thought we would be. We got that experience this year and next year I think we’ll be ready to make our presence felt.”
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.