Bayshore girls rally by Immokalee

The Bayshore High School girls basketball team had trouble inbounding the ball, was miserable at the foul line and had one of its best players become virtually invisible in the second half with foul trouble.

So, the Bruins did what they’ve done all season, win.

Jasmine Youngthunder poured in 20 points and made key steals late to take up the slack as the Bruins took out Immokalee 50-46 in the opening round of the Class 6A-Region 3 tournament on Thursday.

While nothing was easy, from their 9 for 24 performance from the line to the three-hour trip from Bradenton via a crawl down State Road 82, Bayshore head coach Jamaal Sanders will take it.

“We’ve been winning ugly all season. We knew it would be a grind and we just outlasted them,” Sanders said. “Playing that way has caught up with us from time to time. We just got going defensively and started rebounding in the second half.”

That long commute had the girls sluggish as the Indians (15-7) led for much of the first half. Marie Volcy (18 points) got underneath for easy buckets.

Alexus Norman helped keep the Bruins in the game, but foul trouble made her a non-factor after a quick start. Enter Youngthunder, who took control, and with the help of Jayla Dirden, rallied Bayshore and build a lead to as much as nine early in the fourth quarter.

But Immokalee’s press gave Bayshore problems all night, and had the Indians not missed so many shots, might have pulled it out. Youngthunder made some key steals down the stretch and Dirden made two clutch free throws in the final minute to ice the game.

“We just kept at it. We knew we struggled at the start and had to pick it up a bit,” Youngthunder said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we made our shots when we needed to.”

Norman scored 13 while Dirden added nine for Bayshore, which will play at St. Petersburg Lakewood on Tuesday for the second time in two weeks. Bayashore lost the district 66-38 to the Lakewood.

Volcy led Immokalee with 18 points, while Estonia Louis had 12. However, The Indians also struggled from the line and lost starter Azariah Howard for much of the second half due to injury.

“We had to have someone who hadn’t played the position and adjust,” said Bridgette Toombs, Immokalee coach. “Bayshore adjusted to us when they needed to. We got turnovers, we just didn’t finish them.”

This story was originally published February 9, 2017 at 10:30 PM with the headline "Bayshore girls rally by Immokalee."