High school girls basketball: Canterbury clinches state spot; Fort Myers nets region final berth
CLASS 3A
Canterbury 49, Bradenton Christian 47
With the fate of her team riding on whether or not to pull the trigger on a potential go-ahead jumper, Canterbury freshman guard Katie Ambrose didn’t hesitate.
After her teammate Ashlyn Powers outworked a Bradenton Christian defender to grab an offensive rebound off a missed shot by Ambrose with the Cougars trailing by a point, Ambrose confidently fired again. Her jumper with 8.2 seconds remaining gave Canterbury the lead for good as the Cougars advanced to the 3A final four with a 49-47 victory on Tuesday night.
On a night in which jump shots just were not falling, Ambrose’s confidence never wavered.
“I know that mid-range is my spot so I just had to let it fly,” Ambrose said.
Having to combat Bradenton Christian’s duo up front consisting of 6-foot-2 Emma Swaagman and 6-foot-4 Jordyn Byrd proved to be a challenge that a much smaller Canterbury lineup had to navigate. Even after running out to an early 9-3 lead, the Cougars had a scare when forward Tyra Brown went down midway through the first quarter after a collision. Without one of their most skilled and bigger players for a stretch, the Panthers took advantage as they held Canterbury to just 19 first-half points with Bradenton Christian leading by seven at the half.
Two buckets from Cougar senior Hannah Galbreath drew Canterbury to within 26-23 to start the third quarter, but the shooting woes continued into the fourth quarter for the Cougars as Bradenton Christian pushed its lead out to 39-28 with 6:15 to go in the game. From there, the defensive intensity kicked up for Canterbury.
A Galbreath jumper with 2:16 to go brought Canterbury to within 44-42 and Brown’s running bank shot in the lane tied the score a minute later. All the while holding Bradenton Christian at bay, Galbreath, who finished with 17 points for the game, gave the Cougars the lead off a set play out of a timeout to bring Canterbury all the way back to lead 46-44 with 45 seconds to go.
Bradenton Christian’s Faith Jackson was fouled with 28.9 seconds to go and after hitting her first free throw, her miss on the second attempt was grabbed by Swaagman and her put-back attempt bounced off the rim but right to Bailey Sikkema, who banked in a lay-up to put the Panthers back up 47-46 with 23 seconds remaining.
After Ambrose gave the Cougars the lead back, the Panthers turned it over on the in-bound attempt with 8.2 remaining and Ambrose went to the free throw line for a pair with seven seconds remaining. After missing the first, she converted the second and Bradenton Christian could not even get a shot attempt off before the buzzer.
Canterbury will play in the 3A state semifinals Monday night against Florida A&M High at 6 p.m.
“I’ll wake up tomorrow thinking that going to the Final Four was a dream,” Galbreath said. “We really wanted to make everyone believe, our shirts say make them believe. We’re better than we look and we’re going to strive for success. We’re going to make every second count, we have 32 minutes to play and we’re going to play every single minute before the clock runs out and we win.”
CLASS 7A
Fort Myers 52, Barron Collier 29
The Cougars were determined not to let Fort Myers’ 6-foot-4 forward Chaniya Clark beat them.
She didn’t. But the rest of the Green Wave did.
Fort Myers reeled off a 20-2 run in the first half to take full control and keep hope alive for a fourth straight state championship. Barron Collier kept Clark, affectionately known as Shaq, out of the post, but that opened up the floor for other Fort Myers players.
Janay Outten, Tatum Hayes and Riley Ludlam combined for 26 points in the first half. Clark had just two as Fort Myers (16-9) led 30-13 at halftime. Outten scored a game-high 17, while Ludlam added 10.
“We just tried to get (the Cougars) with our guard play,” Fort Myers senior Tatum Hayes said. “We knew we had a lot of mismatches with our guards, and that got us going.”
Clark finished with eight points (she averages 17.9) but was a force on defense. She clogged the lane, disrupted the Cougars’ offense and finished with at least 10 blocks.
The Green Wave head to the regional finals for the sixth straight season and will play host to Charlotte, a 53-47 winner of Clearwater, on Friday. While they are three-time defending state champs, the Wave have won four straight regional titles.
Barron Collier (20-7) was led by 11 points from junior Jada McCray. Halie Egan, one of two contributing seniors who will graduate, added nine points.
“The first four or five minutes we had opportunities,” Cougars coach Mike Hamburg said. “I don’t know if we were ready for the stage. (Fort Myers) is more experienced. We just fell apart.”
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Regionals
Thursday, Feb. 14
Quarterfinals
8A
Sarasota 56, Gulf Coast 44
7A
Fort Myers 68, Naples 22
Barron Collier 55, Lehigh 51
Clearwater 54, Cape Coral 44
6A
Bradenton Southeast 72, Mariner 28
St. Petersburg-Lakewood 84, Lely 41
5A
Brooks DeBartolo 58, Bishop Verot 39
Tampa Catholic 72, St. John Neumann 70
Semifinals
3A
Bradenton Christian 52, First Baptist 40
Canterbury 56, Bradenton-St. Stephen’s 24
Tuesday
Semifinals
7A
Fort Myers 52, Barron Collier 29
Finals
3A
Canterbury 49, Bradenton Christian 47
Friday
Finals
7A
Charlotte at Fort Myers, 7 p.m.
State semifinals
Monday, Feb. 25
3A
At RP Funding Center, Lakeland
Tallahassee-Florida A&M vs. Canterbury, 6 p.m.