Add Another District Trophy To The Mantle

WESLEY CHAPEL - While it may be awkward, in the future Nature Coast Technical girls basketball coach Travis Lamle may consider having Cherikhan Waddy and Shareka Maner play hurt all the time.

With Waddy hobbling around on a bum ankle and Maner hobbled with a sore knee, the Sharks won their third district title in school history as they defeated the Gulf High Buccaneers for the third time this year, 47-36, to win the Class 4A, District 8 title game Saturday night at Wiregrass Ranch.

Waddy, a senior who missed parts of the year with a sore leg, injured her ankle in the first quarter Saturday, but still managed to score a game-high 13 points.

Meanwhile Maner, who hurt her knee earlier in the tournament against Springstead, overcame her problems to score 12 points and pull in 16 rebounds Saturday to help the 22-5 Sharks win.

Nature Coast now will face Poinciana, the runner-up team from 4A-7, Thursday night in a home game. Poinciana lost the 4A-7 finale to perennially tough Orlando-Bishop Moore Saturday night, 59-47.

Quick start

The Sharks won the game in the first half as they outscored the Bucs 23-4 and then held off a late Buccaneer rally to take the title.

"Maner and Waddy both played hurt tonight," said first-year Coach Lamle. "Maner was a beast on the boards tonight and we put the ball in Cherikhan's hands in the fourth quarter."

Gulf came into the finals after beating Hernando 53-37 as Jordan Schulman scored 26 points while Nicole Adams had 25. But Saturday, the Sharks handcuffed Gulf's two leading scorers to a combined seven points in the first half and a total of 23 points in the game.

"We tried to change up defenses on them," said Lamle. "They have a freshman point guard in Adams and we wanted to make her work hard and she did. We had (Crystal) Anthony on Adams and a combination of people on Schulman. We played a two-man zone behind them and tried to make them go to their left."

This one was decided in the first half.

After Gulf scored the opening two points of the game, the Sharks outscored them 12-2 for the rest of the period and then ran off a 9-2 run on the Bucs in the second quarter.

The lead mushroomed to as much as 18 points in the third quarter before the 19-9 Buccaneers staged a fourth-quarter rally.

A Colleen McAuliffe rebound basket made it 38-30 with 4:32 left in the game but two steals by Waddy were turned into lay-ups by Alyssa Joens and Jennifer Marshall that finally put the game out of reach.

Waddy also broke the 1,000-point mark for her career Saturday. Maner helped out with 11 points and 16 rebounds while April Trezise helped out with eight points. Gulf was led by Adams with 12 and Schulman with 11 Saturday.

According to Lamle, holding down Gulf's two top scorers was the main reason his team was able to win Saturday.

"I think we jumped on them early and took away their main scorers," Lamle said. "They still found a way to get the ball to Schulman but I thought we did a good job defensively on Adams."

NCT now gets ready to play the first round of the regional Thursday night on their home court when they face Poinciana.

"We know a little about Poinciana and we've got some film coming soon," said Lamle. "After talking with some coaches we know they're not very big but they are probably the most athletic team we'll face all year. Then if we get past them, we'll probably face Bishop Moore again. And I shouldn't call it a rivalry because we can't seem to beat them."