Barons overcome sloppy play to set up final with Jaguars

St. Petersburg Catholic emerged from Thursday's turnover-plagued semifinal against Tampa Catholic with a 52-29 victory.

By BRYAN BURNS
Published February 2, 2007

TAMPA - St. Petersburg Catholic emerged from Thursday's turnover-plagued semifinal against Tampa Catholic with a 52-29 victory.

SPC (21-5), which went on a 15-1 run over the final 4:30 of the first half to go into halftime ahead 30-9, turned the ball over 31 times and committed 25 fouls.

"I was discouraged that we were turning the ball over unforced," SPC coach Nick Vandewalle said. "It wasn't the defensive pressure that made us turn it over, it was us being sloppy, which is not characteristic of our team."

SPC's Sasha Chaplin recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Sophie Carrington also had 10 points for the Barons. Tampa Catholic had 39 turnovers and 22 fouls itself.

SPC faces Academy, a 50-28 winner over Clearwater Central Catholic, on Saturday for the district title. Academy's Gianna Messina, who led the Jaguars with 25 points and nine rebounds, recorded her 2,000th career point in the victory, becoming just the fifth player in Hillsborough County history to do so.

SPC and Academy have met three times this season, with SPC winning the last two regular-season matchups. SPC has defeated AHN the past two seasons for the district crown.

[Last modified February 2, 2007, 00:07:44]