Going into the Hernando Leopards Christmas tournament, which had a bracket for women’s and boys’ varsity basketball, unlike the Nature Coast tournament from last week had sixteen teams consisting of only boys’ varsity basketball. There were two teams that had undefeated streaks going into the tournament: The Nature Coast Sharks boys’ team and the Weeki Wachee Lady Hornets team. Both teams managed to make their ways to their respective bracket’s championship games, with NCT continuing their torrid streak of 60+ point games.
However, after the event concluded, only one streak remained in the county.
In the women’s bracket, following the NCT-Hernando 3rd place game that saw NCT senior Kayla Langley make her 1,000th career point, the undefeated Weeki Wachee Hornets took on the Armwood Hawks, but couldn’t extend their winning streak, falling to Armwood 42-37. Weeki Wachee was playing without Hannah Storie, who was injured and unable to play in the championship game. A last-second rally by Weeki Wachee was extinguished when Armwood drained two layups by Jah’Nah Riley and Tia Doston and two free throws by All-Tournament selection Tavy Habib to seal the upset victory. This game was back-and-forth throughout, as neither team could establish a definitive advantage, which was further evidenced by both teams missing layups left and right. Combined, there was at least 40 missed layups by both teams.
On the boys’ side, Nature Coast needed a minor miracle to extend their winning streak against dangerous powerhouse Northeast, 58-56, seeing their 60+ point streak end at 12 games.
The Sharks’ (15-0) win was in no small part to senior star Robert McAfee, who sunk two free throws with 1.6 seconds remaining in regulation, and a last-second heave by Jermaine Phillips was short, giving NCT their second consecutive championship win this season, after their win over Alonso last week in their own tournament. McAfee finished with a game-high 29 points and was two rebounds shy of a double-double, but proved again why his play this season has given the Sharks confidence that they could make a deep playoff run come February.
The boys’ game, however, did come with some little officiating gaffes, which included: travelling violations, official warnings to both coaches by the end of the first half, and fouls that may or may not have transpired. An example to prove this would be what happened in the fourth quarter, as Northeast guard Ezekiel Hunter and center Andrew Robles were called for phantom fouls that resulted in their fifth fouls of the game, which led to their ejections. However, the visiting team’s bookkeeper was (correctly, by this reporter’s spreadsheet) only accounting for four fouls on each player, and the officials, per FHSAA rules, must go with the home book’s records. That aside, NCT had yet another game where fouls and turnovers combined were phenomenal, ending with a combined 25 turnovers and 48 fouls.
FINAL RESULTS FROM BOTH BRACKETS, INCLUDING ALL-TOURNAMENT SELECTIONS:
Women’s
8th place- Central (Jasmine James)
7th place- Chamberlain (Zena Johnson)
6th place- East Lake (Summer Quigley)
5th place- Bloomingdale (Erin Leigh)
4th place- Hernando (Nakayla Roberts)
3rd place- NCT (Kayla Langley; scored 1,000 career point vs. Hernando- sincere congratulations to her on this amazing accomplishment)
Runner-up: Weeki Wachee (Seytia Hill)
Champion: Armwood (Taviyanna Habib)
Men’s
8th place- Academy at the Lakes (Anthony Quintana)
7th place- Cambridge (Luke Sullivan)
6th place- Bloomingdale (Brandon MacLaughlin)
5th place- Steinbrenner (Anthony Sardegna)
4th place- Hernando (A.J. Williams)
3rd place- East Bay (Antonio Hunt)
Runner-up: Northeast (Alonso Franklin)
Champion: NCT (Robert McAfee)