Barons play their brand of basketball, grinding out a 40-38 win over Gulliver Prep.
By BOB PUTNAM, Times Staff Writer
Published February 23, 2006
LAKELAND - Something about St. Petersburg Catholic is so different from other teams.
The Barons win not by playing classic, film-library basketball, but by playing ugly, by grinding their opponents, then gleefully vacuuming up the pieces.
On Wednesday, St. Petersburg Catholic didn't always look nice, and sure enough, it won, rallying to beat Miami Gulliver Prep 40-38 in the Class 3A semifinals at the Lakeland Center.
The Barons (28-2) face Florida High on Friday at 3:30. This is the second time SPC has been in the championship game. The Barons lost in their 2000 appearance.
"We've played in a couple of games like this before," SPC coach Nick Vandewalle said. "We're used to games being a little physical, being a little ugly."
It took awhile, but that style disrupted the Raiders' top player, De'sha Mosley.
The senior point guard had her special moments during the game. Her 21 points lead all players and she tied with two others for most assists (five) and steals (five) in the game.
In the first half, she scored 10 and helped Gulliver Prep (25-5) take a 16-4 lead.
"We knew (Mosley) was a good player," Vandewalle said. "We knew that stopping her was the key. She started hot, and our girls started paying more attention to her."
Did they ever. For the rest of the half, Mosley was swimming alone against the tide, hoping against hope that one of her teammates would at least wave a life preserver at her. None of them did.
Thanks to its stifling defense, SPC outscored the Raiders 18-0 the rest of the half to go ahead 22-16.
"It seemed like (the Barons) were always around me," Mosley said. "They were triple-teaming me. It was hard."
With most of SPC's other post players in foul trouble, Sasha Chaplin stepped up. The sophomore transfer from Admiral Farragut scored a team-high 14 and led all players with 17 rebounds.
"I knew I was going to have to give it my all," Chaplin said. "It's the state semifinals and I would be crying if we were going home."
The Barons never relinquished their lead in the second half but had to hold on tight at the end to win. Key 3-pointers by Kate Carl and Shannon McElhaney helped SPC hold off Gulliver Prep rallies. The game ended on a steal by McElhaney.
"This one was tense," McElhaney said. "We had to pull it out with defense. Hopefully, we can do it again on Friday."
5A: Largo runs out of rallies vs. Barron Collier
LAKELAND - Largo got to the state tournament by showing an uncanny ability to rally from big deficits.
This time, the Packers fell behind late and couldn't do much about it.
A tight game got away as Largo's first ever Class 5A semifinal appearance came up short in a 60-50 loss to Naples Barron Collier.
During a back-and-forth first half in which neither team held more than a three-point lead, the Cougars were able to do just enough to pull out a 28-27 lead.
Barron Collier (30-2) kept it going in the second half by executing its half-court offense to perfection. Three Cougars scored in double figures - Kasey Will (16 points), Kelsey Assarian (13) and Erin Zampell (11).
Alexis Henry had 23 points, including four 3-pointers, to lead Largo, which finished 26-2.
