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By STEVE LEE
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 14, 2001
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Genesis Preparatory School's girls and boys basketball teams won their respective divisions of the Suncoast Christian Conference tournaments Saturday.
The Genesis girls won their third consecutive conference title by defeating West Hernando 62-31. Meanwhile, the boys team beat host Elfers Christian 87-58 to claim its second consecutive championship.
In the boys semifinal, Michael Jeffers scored 27 points in the Panthers' 69-31 win against Grace Christian. The sophomore shooting guard then netted 27 again in the final. Jeffers connected on 15 three-point shots in those contests.
"We couldn't shut him down," Elfers coach Jimmy Townsend said.
"He just stays in the gym constantly," Genesis coach Marc Beal said. "He likes shooting the threes.
"I told him last week in practice, "There's more to the game than just hitting threes,' but he proved me wrong."
Elfers reached the final by defeating Pinellas Park 59-58 on Ryan Nichols' two free throws in the closing seconds.
Nichols then scored 25 points against Genesis. Elfers teammate Nathan Terrell added 22 in the final.
Erin Abbey had the hot hand for the Genesis girls, scoring 13 points in the title game and 10 in a 48-31 win over Pinellas Park in the semifinals.
Genesis' Krissy Hudson had 13 points against West Hernando and teammate Katie Sarabia scored 10 against Pinellas Park.
Elfers' Amber Steward scored 13 in a 38-35 loss to West Hernando.
Genesis hosts two all-star games Friday with the girls tipping off at 5 p.m. and the boys at 6 p.m.
Admission is $2 for adults with no charge for students.
Genesis is located at 7710 Osteen Road in New Port Richey. For information, call (727) 846-8407.
GYMNASTICS FINALISTS: Two girls from the Suncoast Gymnastics Academy qualified for the finals of the Tampa Bay Invitational, held March 2-4 at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg.
Twelve-year-olds Samantha Slusak and Kierstin Sabo, who compete at Level 9, made the finals on uneven bars and floor exercises.
Slusak finished fourth in both events while Sabo placed fifth on bars and sixth in floor exercises.
"That was our goal going into the meet," coach Arnold Gwinn said. "They've been competing strong for the whole season."
Slusak qualified for the finals in those events by placing third on bars (with 9.125 points to tie Sabo), fourth in floor exercises (9.175) and sixth all-around.
"She swings extremely strong and she has exceptional form," Gwinn said of Slusak.
Also in the preliminaries, Sabo was third on bars, first in floor exercises (9.275) and third all-around.
"Her strong suit is normally floor," Gwinn said of Sabo, "but (in the final) she ended up taking a few extra steps on the floor and it cost her."
Two Level 8 gymnasts from the New Port Richey-based academy also competed.
April Brown, 14, placed sixth on the balance beam and eighth all-around.
Alicia Archibald, 11, finished seventh on the beam.