Mustangs use full-court press to slip by Bruins

BRADENTON — Lakewood Ranch High boys basketball coach Chris Kawcak believes most people don’t realize how quick his guards can be on the hardwood.

His Mustangs made believers out of host Bayshore in their Class 4A-District 10 matchup Tuesday night, though the Bruins looked so confused in the second half it might take them awhile to realize what hit them.

Bayshore was cruising along with a 10-point lead near midway through the third quarter when Lakewood Ranch went to a full-court press. The Bruins fell apart committing 19 turnovers the rest of the way in dropping a 73-67 contest.

The victory sends Lakewood Ranch (8-15) into tonight’s semifinal at No. 1-seeded St. Petersburg Lakewood. After going winless last season, Bayshore ends its second-year under coach Warren Bell with a 6-17 record.

Bayshore had beaten Lakewood Ranch two of three this season, but the Mustangs never used a press to any extent. They practiced it all week, and when they put it to work they outscored Bayshore 44-28.

“The press was pretty much the difference (Tuesday),” Kawcak said. “They weren’t expecting us to put that much pressure on them because we hadn’t done it a lot in previous games. But we’ve got some pretty fast guards that might surprise some people and were ready to put it on.”

Trailing 39-29 with 5:26 left in the third period, Lakewood Ranch went to its press and outscored Bayshore 16-7 to trail 46-45 heading into the final period. Jordan Baker, who led all scorers with 29 points, scored 12 of the 16 points to spark the spree that saw the Bruins turn the ball over 10 times.

Bayshore had trouble inbounding the ball with players looking confused and out of position. And when the Bruins finally got the ball to someone he was swarmed by Ranch defenders.

Lakewood Ranch trailed 51-50 with 6:06 left in the game when it scored seven straight points to take the lead for good.

The final points of the spurt came on a 3-pointer by Baker, who drained four of eight from beyond the arc for the game and connected on 11 of 19 field goal attempts. Bayshore turned the ball over five times during the seven point run and didn’t get a shot off.

The Mustangs extended their lead to 69-59 with 58 seconds left. They missed four straight free throws while Jeremi King scored on two layups and Javaris Jackson completed a four-point-play with a trey and a free throw to cut the Bruins deficit to 69-67 with 12.8 seconds left.

Danny Zarella ended the Mustangs’ free throw drought by converting two foul shots and then after a Bayshore miss added two more with less than a second left to put the game away.

Lakewood Ranch had three players in double figures with Zarella adding 15 points and Jake Carlton 14. King led Bayshore with 22 points, and Jackson had 21. The Bruins had a huge 30-13 advantage on the boards led by Javier Terry’s 13 rebounds, but their 24 turnovers to only 13 for the Mustangs did them in.

The Mustangs connected on 7 of 20 from beyond the arc and shot 22 for 68 from the field. Bayshore was 23 for 54 from the field and two for eight from 3-point land.