Waddy Injury Mars Another Nature Coast Rout

BROOKSVILLE - Never would someone suspect that Nature Coast Technical could suffer a devastating blow in a game against Springstead High.
As expected, the Lady Sharks routed the young, over-matched Lady Eagles, 50-15, Friday night at their home gym.
Nature Coast thus completed its Hernando County Athletic Conference schedule at 6-0 and ran its all-time county mark to 32-0.
More importantly, though, the Lady Sharks had cause for concern over the health of senior guard Cherikhan Waddy, the county's reigning Player of the Year.
Waddy left the game late in the first half, limping toward the locker room, and never returned to a contest her team had easily in hand. She did sit on the bench in the second half.
Her right leg had what Head Coach Travis Lamle described as 'a dent in it', though the coached noted that she attempted to talk her way back into the game.
Still, Lamle had no clue about the extent of her injury as he reflected on a less than satisfactory if still dominating win.
"We gave up a ton of offensive rebounds," lamented the first-year head coach. "We didn't do a lot of things right. We'll see what's going with 'Rikhan (Waddy).
"We tried to work on our zone offense stuff. What's sad is when the reserves come in our stuff against the zone looks pretty good. When some of the starters are in there, it was one pass and shoot and that drives me crazy. We're trying to get better with games like this and work on some things."
Nature Coast improved to 16-5 overall, 13-0 in Class 4A, District 8 action.
However, the Lady Sharks dropped five straight across two holiday tournaments when the competition level increased significantly.
Springstead (2-17 overall, 1-12 4A-8, 0-5 HCAC) actually hung around early, holding the Nature Coast lead to 3-2 for several minutes.

Waddy chips in

Still Waddy scored all seven of her points in the opening period, helping the Lady Sharks go up 18-4 in the first quarter. Jen Marshall added four points off the bench.
It became 32-6 by halftime, as the Lady Eagles didn't record a second-quarter basket until Sasha Spalding's hook shot with 55 seconds left. Shareka Maner tallied eight of her game-high 12 points in that quarter.
Top reserve Kaitlin Wadsworth, who didn't play in the Indian Rocks Christian School Holiday Tournament because of missed practice time while on vacation and sat out another game due to illness, chipped in four points in the second.
Springstead held off the running clock, triggered by a 35-point deficit, until Crystal Anthony drained a three-pointer at the end of the third quarter to make it 50-13.
Spalding and Bryer Zavitz both led the Lady Eagles in scoring with five points. Spalding tacked on three blocked shots and five rebounds. Caitlin Hughes had seven rebounds and Jazmin Armstrong six.
"Tonight we broke their press eight or 10 times," Springstead Head Coach Todd Toomer said. "Their press is so awesome and we broke it. My young kids are stepping up. It's great to see young kids fighting. They're playing hard.
"The inexperience came through. It's one of those things we've got to work on in practice a lot more.
"...We knew we were going to take our lumps. The girls don't care. They want to go out and play with any of them and that's what you want to see as a coach."
Maner contributed nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals along with her point total. Anthony had nine points and three steals. April Trezise hauled in seven rebounds to go with six points.
"I'm not happy with today. I'm happy with where we're going," Lamle said. "The practices have been better. For some reason today that didn't transfer out there and they've got some good, young kids."

NATURE COAST 50, SPRINGSTEAD 15
Qtr. Scoring 1 2 3 4
Springstead 4 2 7 2 - 15
Nature Coast 18 14 18 0 - 50
Springstead (15): Donahue 2 0-0 4, Spalding 2 1-2 5, Armstrong 0 1-4 1, White 0, Zavitz 2 1-2 5, Brinker 0 0-1 0, Hughes 0, Tuomey 0, Lariosa 0, Shelmet 0, Riddle 0, Schuetter 0. Totals 6 3-9 15.
Nature Coast (50): Joens 1 0-0 2, Wajerski 0 3-4 3, Trezise 3 0-2 6, Anthony 3 2-5 9, Waddy 2 3-3 7, Maner 6 0-0 12, Marshall 2 1-2 5, Wadsworth 1 2-2 4, Brockhoff 1 0-0 2, Priest 0, Helfand 0, Houston 0, Exum 0. Totals 19 11-18 50.
Three-point field goals: NCT 1 (Anthony).
Total fouls: SPG 13; NCT 15.
Technical fouls: Maner (NCT).
Fouled out: none.
Records: Springstead (2-17 overall, 1-12 4A-8, 0-5 HCAC), Nature Coast (16-5 overall, 13-0 4A-8, 6-0 HCAC).