Wildcats struggle in hoops tourney

The East Pasco under-15 basketball team finished 22nd at a tournament last week after winning just one of five games.

By STEVE LEE

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 2, 2000

WESLEY CHAPEL -- In the four-year history of the East Pasco Wildcats, last week's outing at the Youth Basketball of America Nationals will not go down as one of the bright spots.

The under-15 team, made up mostly of Wesley Chapel players, won once in five games to finish 22nd in the July 23-29 series at Lakeland Kathleen High.

Last summer, East Pasco finished fourth in the nation as an under-14 team, and in 1998 the under-13 team placed ninth.

"As the team's get older the competition continues to get tougher and tougher," East Pasco coach Kent Mills said, "but I still feel like the Wesley Chapel kids played hard."

In its lone win, 92-72 against Chicago, the Wildcats got balanced scoring with five players in double figures. Brandon Harrison led East Pasco with 18 points. Jonathan Seber scored 17, Zach Mills and Tyrone Tomlin each had 15 and Chris Roberts 14.

East Pasco led late in all four defeats and coach Mills felt the team had a shot at winning each game. It all came down to "just some breaks here and there," he said. "When you're playing good, quality basketball teams sometimes those things happen."

Earlier this summer, the Wildcats were runners-up in the YBOA State Championships. For the season, East Pasco finished with a 144-41 overall record.

Two other East Pasco teams qualified for nationals with the under-13 team posting a 3-2 mark and the under-12 squad going 1-4.

The under-13 Wildcats (33-14) won only once in the elimination round, 60-48 over Washington, D.C. Zarron Cann led East Pasco in scoring in that game with 18 points and teammate O.J. Murdoch scored 11.

The under-13 Wildcats, also a state runner-up, defeated Charlotte, N.C., 66-42, Gainesville, Ga., 60-48 and Fairfax, Va., 64-61 in the preliminary round.

JUNIOR OLYMPICS SWIMMERS: Five swimmers from the New Port Richey Aquatics team competed in the Junior Olympics Swim Meet on July 20-23 at the International YMCA in Orlando.

While there were no medalists in the bunch, New Port Richey coach Dale Kilgore was impressed that "they all dropped their times."

India Kurlis turned in the best performance among the New Port Richey swimmers by placing 11th in the 50-meter breaststroke with a time of 38.89 seconds.

Kimmi Murphy swam the 50 freestyle in 32.27.

Kurlis and Murphy also took part in two relays. They joined Samantha North and Emily Fregger to swim the 200 free relay in 2:17.56, and combined with Fregger and Stephanie Green for a 5:54.67 in the 400 medley relay. The latter relay team, however, was disqualified for a false start.

"No big deal, though," Kilgore said of the disqualification. "For most of the girls, this was their first big meet."

SWIMMING CLINIC: The New Port Richey pool, located at 6650 Van Buren St., is hosting this week's Stroke Clinic led by instructors Linda and Doug Cassidy.

The clinic, which continues through Friday, is conducted from 7 to 8:30 a.m. daily and costs $3 per session. It is open to anyone entering middle school or high school. For more information, call (727) 841-4567.

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