Bradenton Christian girls basketball season ends with loss to Carrollwood Day in state semis

Bradenton Christian spent the week it had to practice for Tampa Carrollwood Day in the Class 3A semifinals preparing for what it knew would be the biggest hurdle separating the Panthers from a shot at a state championship. Carrollwood Day’s defense thrives with chaos, a mess of limbs at midcourt turning every long pass into a gamble and every dribble near the sideline into a struggle.

Yet Bradenton Christian fell victim to every problem Carrollwood can cause Tuesday at the Lakeland Center’s George Jenkins Arena. The Patriots intercepted passes at midcourt. They deflected balls and dove on top of the loose ones. They sped Bradenton Christian up and forced the Panthers to throw the ball out of bounds. Sometimes a BCS player just traveled or dribbled a ball off her own foot. There were 33 turnovers in all for Bradenton Christian and Carrollwood led the entire way to win 73-37 in Lakeland.

“We’ve seen it. We’ve watched it,” head coach Janelle Hochstetler said. “But you can only prepare and practice so many times. It’s more being exposed to it, and we haven’t seen that type of press all season by the other team, so we knew it would be a challenge getting those passes over the top.”

The Patriots will play for the 3A championship Thursday against Tallahassee Florida A&M back in Jenkins Arena. The Panthers’ best season since 2010 ended shy of an appearance in the state title game despite a No. 1 ranking in the Florida Association of Basketball Coaches/Source Hoops poll.

No. 3 Carrollwood never gave BCS (28-2) much of a chance. The score was 1-1 the last time Bradenton Christian was so much as tied and the Panthers never led. By the end of the first quarter, the Patriots (27-2) had already built a 24-10 lead by forcing 12 turnovers and within the first minute of the second quarter Sophie Giardina, BCS’ leading scorer, had picked up her third foul.

“What’s the head of the snake? Usually the point guard,” Carrollwood head coach Karim Nohra said. “If you chop the head off the snake, what happens? The snake dies.”

On the way to its near-flawless regular season and the opening rounds of the playoffs, Bradenton Christian never faced an opponent like the Patriots. Carrollwood presses like the Panthers, only with a roster full of players who match BCS’ tallest in terms of height. Bradenton Christian brought players from its boys team, which went to the Class 3A championship game last year, in to practice during the past week to try simulating the Patriots’ blend of size and athleticism.

Only so much can come through preparation, though. Although Carrollwood started five freshmen, their head coach knows this stage well. Nohra was coaching in his sixth straight semifinal after reaching at least the final four the last five years with Land O’ Lakes Academy at the Lakes. The new head coach had a crop of promising athletes to meld in his image and Tuesday was the Patriots at their best.

It took less than 11 minutes for Carrollwood’s lead to spike to 20 for the first time and with 2:55 left in the third quarter a running clock began. When Giardina was on the floor, the Patriots set up a trap at midcourt. When the guard was on the bench, Carrollwood went to a fullcourt press against the Panthers’ less-capable ballhandlers. The Patriots threw BCS out of any sort of rhythm. Bradenton Christian never scored on consecutive possessions.

“For me it’s about playing head games with the other coach and the other point guard,” Nohra said, “because I think if you’re able to handle the point guard of the other team, confuse them you have a shot at beating them.

Guard Savannah Woodland and forward Bailey Sikkema finished as the Panthers’ only two players in double figures with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Tiasia McMillan led the way for the Patriots with 22 points and Cairah Mays added 16.

Mays also dished out eight assists and grabbed eight steals to flirt with a triple-double. Earlier this season, the 5-foot-7 guard had a quadruple-double with points, rebounds, assists and steals. She was Woodland’s counterpart at shooting guard and one of three spots in the lineup where Carrollwood had a size advantage.

“We prepared a press break,” Woodland said, “but you can’t really know how a team will play against you.”

During the season, Bradenton Christian wondered how it truly stacked up with the other elite teams in its classification top ranking. Success, it seemed, had come a year early for a junior-laden team.

Bradenton Christian will have a chance to return to this same stage in 2018, but Tuesday was a chance for affirmation in a surprise season. Instead, it became a sour ending.

“We knew what was ahead of us,” Hochstetler said. “We just came up short on the execution parts.”

This story was originally published February 21, 2017 at 10:51 PM with the headline "Bradenton Christian girls basketball season ends with loss to Carrollwood Day in state semis."