Senior Night Celebration

BROOKSVILLE - After the Central High girls' basketball team had beaten county rival Springstead Thursday night, 54-22, the entire Lady Bears squad formed a circle at midcourt after the game and performed their own rap verses.
And with five seniors playing their final home game of the year, it was understandable that the ball club was as happy as they acted.
With Amanda Morris and Ronisha Browdy leading the way, the Bears rolled to an early lead as they improved their record this year to 10-11 with one final game left in the regular season.
"I'm pretty pleased with the way we're playing now," said Central Head Coach Penny Gressick. "Since the beginning of the year, we've improved a lot and we lost our first six games of the year."
"But the reason for that is A: We came out of the gate and played the hardest teams we'll play all year right off the bat. And B: I've got a young group of kids, I mean I start a freshman point guard."
On Thursday, the Bears had a relatively easy time beating the 3-20 Eagles.

Seniors: front and center

Gressick started all five of her graduating seniors at the start of the game. And with Browdy, Courtney LeCours, Cortney Gay, Brittany Lahey and Shannon Terrell playing most of the first quarter, the Bears jumped to a 12-5 lead.
Then for the final two minutes of the first quarter and four minutes of the second, the normal Bear starters played and the lead swelled from seven points to 27-5 by going on a 17-0 run.
Midway through the third quarter, the lead grew to more than 30 points, which meant that there was a continuous running clock for the final half.
Morris led Central with 14 points while Browdy added 10 and LeCours had seven points for the Bears with McKenzie Burns and Raquarra Ishmar each had six. Springstead was led by Lynsay Riddle with eight points.
Central has one game remaining this year, a road game Friday against Crystal River before they enter the Class 5A-District 7 tournament next week.
"We start the district tournament Wednesday when we play River Ridge in the first round," said Gressick. "We've beaten them both times we played them this year. Then if we win next Wednesday, we'll have to play the number one seed, which will probably be Land O'Lakes.
"I thought it would be kind of a tough game tonight because this is the last time those five seniors will ever play together on this court," said Gressick. "But at the beginning of the year, I said I thought we would be a .500 club and that's pretty much where we are."

Central 54, Springstead 22
SPG 5 2 10 5 -- 22
CEN 11 19 16 7 -- 54
Springstead (22) - Zavitz 1 0-0 2, Donohue 0 0-0 0, Spalding 2 1-1 5, White 0 0-0 0, Armstrong 1 1-3 3, Lariosa 1 0-0 2, Riddle 3 0-0 8, Knoer 1 0-0 2. Totals - 9 2-4 22.
Central (54) - Browdy 2 5-6 10, LeCours 3 1-1 7, Terrell 0 0-0 0, Lahey 1 0-0 2, Gay 0 0-0 0, B. Morris 1 0-0 2, Olson 1 0-0 3, A. Morris 6 2-2 14, Velez 2 0-0 4, Burns 3 0-1 6, Ishmer 3 0-0 6. Totals - 22 8-10 54.
Three-point field goals - Riddle (SPG); Brawly (CEN).
Team fouls - SPG 12; CEN 10
Fouled out - none.
Technical fouls - none.
Records - Springstead (3-20 overall, 3-3 HCAC), Central (10-11 overall, 0-6 HCAC).