TAMPA - Facing top seed Bayshore Christian in the Class A, District 7 semifinals called for desperate measures, especially for fifth-seeded Keswick Christian.
The Crusaders (11-16), used to playing zone defense all season, felt a little strange playing man-to-man for the first time this week in the tournament at Tampa Baptist, but it was the only way they could imagine stopping the much bigger Faith Warriors (23-3). It was worth a try.
It didn't work. Bayshore Christian was far too dominant, especially when it came to rebounding and layups, to be slowed by the Crusaders. The Faith Warriors defeated Keswick 66-49 to advance to today's district championship.
"We have an uptempo style, and we wanted to get into an offensive flow to get things going," Bayshore Christian coach Dean Keagy said.
Junior guard Wayne Seward had a standout performance for the Faith Warriors, finishing the night with 26 points. Senior Philip Brooks contributed 14.
Keswick Christian senior guard Ben Norris (13 points) and senior William Werly (10) led the Crusaders.
"We were expecting one of those nights," Werly said. "(Man-to-man defense) worked the first round of the tournament, but yeah, it felt kind of strange."
In tonight's final at 7, Bayshore Christian will face Cambridge (14-9), which defeated Calvary Christian 53-43 in the earlier semifinal.
Despite a strong start in the first quarter, the Lancers surged to outscore Calvary (18-9) in the second and third quarters and the Warriors couldn't recover.
5A-7: Chiefs, Cowboys win
TAMPA - Chamberlain coach Doug Aplin had planned on using a diamond-and-one defense to slow Wharton in the 5A-7 semifinals. Aplin had the Chiefs work on the new defense throughout the week in preparation for the Wildcats, ranked No. 8 in 5A.
As it turns out, the strategy wasn't necessary.
Chamberlain instead relied on in-your-face, man-to-man defense to stymie Wharton. The visiting Chiefs then withstood a comeback and upset the top-seeded Wildcats 52-48.
"There's no doubt that defense won us the game tonight," Aplin said. "I could not have envisioned us playing better defense than we did out there."
The Chiefs routinely worked through screens and switched to the ball. The Wildcats had five points in the second quarter, were shut out until 5:30 into the fourth and often looked disjointed in their half-court sets.
"We tried to make sure (Wharton) didn't get many stand-still looks at the basket," Aplin said. "We wanted to make them shoot off of movement."
When Wharton got shots off, second-chance points were scarce. Chamberlain outrebounded Wharton 26-16.
"These kids have come a long way since being 5-9 early in the season," Aplin said. "I couldn't be more proud of them."
James Devlin hit four 3-pointers to lead three Chiefs in double digits with 16 points. Chamberlain's Jet Steele scored 14 and Doug Metcalf added 10. Metcalf scored all of his 10 in the first half to direct Chamberlain to a 27-23 halftime lead. A Devlin layup gave the Chiefs their biggest lead at 48-38 with 2:20 to play. Wharton stormed back, scoring three consecutive baskets off turnovers to trim the margin to 50-46 with 58 seconds left, but the Wildcats got no closer.
Antonio Russell scored 21 and Josh Sims 12 to lead the Cowboys past Sickles 49-40 in the other semifinal. Chamberlain meets Gaither tonight at Wharton for the title.
- BRANDON WRIGHT
3A-9: Robinson rolls
ST PETERSBURG - Robinson rode an early lead to a 65-50 victory over Clearwater Central Catholic and St. Petersburg Catholic made good use of its home court against Jesuit, winning 46-40.
The Knights proved that speed kills, using an active defense to pester the stronger Clearwater team into costly mistakes. Robinson trailed 7-5 early in the first quarter when it went on an 11-0 run and was ahead 26-15 going into the second quarter.
"We came out focused and played really good defense," Robinson coach Steve Smith Jr. said. "That is the key to our success."
CCC's Chip Brinkman hit two of his game-high five three-pointers to end the run but his long-range shooting success was an anomaly for the Marauders. Brinkman repeatedly connected from behind the arc on his way to a game-high 19 points but his team never followed suit. CCC shot and missed seven straight 3-pointers in the fourth and was 1 of 10 in the second half as Robinson pulled away.
St. Petersburg Catholic (23-2) had to find offense in unfamiliar places to get past Jesuit.
"Offensively, we had some guys tonight step up that haven't been scoring a lot of points for us," St. Petersburg coach Mike Moran said. "They did a real nice job taking Aaron Holmes and Travis Karto away."
The Tigers held Karto and Holmes, who usually account for nearly 40 points a game, to just 10.
- JEREMY WRITT
2A-11: Tampa Prep falls
ST. PETERSBURG - Northside Christian dominated from the start, leading 18-8 at the end of the first quarter, and sailed to a 54-43 victory over Tampa Prep. The Mustangs never let Tampa Prep get within five points, leading 30-20 at halftime.
The Mustangs upped the lead to as many as 17 in the third quarter. Northside will play Admiral Farragut, which defeated Indian Rocks Christian 49-39.
