Boys basketball | Bradenton Christian romps into region semifinals
BRADENTON -- The Bradenton Christian boys basketball team saw a little bit of itself in a young Seacrest Country Day team Thursday, even as the Panthers ran away with an 81-34 victory in the Class 2A-Region 3 quarterfinal.
The Panthers (25-3) were in sync on the defensive end all game, forcing an inexperienced Seacrest team into 26 turnovers and converting those opportunities into easy points.
"We were like that a few years ago, getting beat by 40 and 50 points, still trying to grow and find our identity," Bradenton Christian head coach Scott Townsend said. "Luckily, now we have the same guys and they've elevated their game. The team trained hard together all offseason and played travel ball to build that cohesiveness you saw tonight."
The outcome was never in question as Townsend used multiple trapping defenses to confuse a team that started four sophomores and struggled against the physical play the Panthers displayed.
"I like to keep teams off-balance and guessing what's coming next," Townsend said. "We will force a few turnovers in one set, then after the opposing teams calls timeout to adjust I'll switch it up to throw them off and tonight it worked."
Senior Ryan Leunk who averaged 20 points and seven rebounds per game during the regular season, led the Panthers with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
"The guys understand that this is it for some of us, and we want to go out on a high note so we leave it all out there on the floor because it could be our last game," Leunk said. "This is the furthest any of the players have gotten since we joined as freshman so getting this first win in regionals was great, but we aren't satisfied yet."
As for Seacrest (7-17), third year head coach Curtis Hancock hopes to steal the blueprint Townsend laid out for his Panthers a couple years back and get his team in the same position down the road.
"My guys are extremely young, but I tried to use this game as a learning experience," Hancock said. "Even when we were down 40, I called timeouts and kept coaching them, I want them to grow from this loss."
Jake Lister scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half. Dominick Otteni chipped in 14 and Trent Bell added 11 points for Bradenton Christian.
"Our defense really ignites our offense, and it's important that we stick to that identity because it gives us a balanced attack and easy transition points."
The Panthers advance to Tuesday's regional semifinal against Sarasota Christian -- a team they've already beaten three times this season by a combined 116 points. The game will be at Bradenton Christian.
This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 11:51 PM with the headline "Boys basketball | Bradenton Christian romps into region semifinals ."