Prep basketball | Southeast girls coast in Willie Clemons tournament opener

BRADENTON -- There's not much Southeast girls basketball coach John Harder hasn't accomplished in his career, but this year he's been able to do something for the first time in 42 years as a head coach.

Harder had all five starters from the previous season return, giving him the ability to sit back and watch as his players manage themselves on the court.

That strategy worked just fine Monday night as the Seminoles took down Lake Gibson 63-46 in the first round of the Willie Clemons Holiday Classic hosted at Southeast.

"It's crazy to think after all these years it's the first time I've had all five of my starters return," Harder said. "It's given me the ability to allow them to grow on the court without me inserting myself all the time, and it's important this time of year with districts right around the corner for them to make the right decisions in crucial moments."

Southeast (11-3) took a 40-16 lead into the half, but came out lax to start the third quarter turning the ball over seven times in eight minutes, enabling Lake Gibson to make small runs. Luckily, none big enough to make it a close game.

"We usually don't play that poorly in the third quarter, but tonight we rotated a lot of players so with that

you'll get turnovers," Harder said. "In the long run it's important to us to have depth come playoff time."

Shauntavia Green lead the Seminoles with 15 points and 14 steals, advancing her squad to play Tuesday against New Smyrna Beach at 5:30 p.m.

"It's just instinct, I know where the ball is going to be so I make sure to make a play," Green said. "Court vision is something that comes natural to me on both ends of the floor."

Tranae Jones scored all of her team leading 12 points from beyond the arc for Lake Gibson (6-10), but it wasn't enough to spark her team offensively.

"We just didn't play well tonight, as a team we turned the ball over and put ourselves in bad situations," Braves head coach Antonia Bennett said. "Tonight the girls didn't really know what to expect, I just wanted them to compete as hard as they could the entire game and they did that."

Junior Faith Mays scored 10 of her 15 points in the first half while grabbing seven rebounds, while Breyonna Reed chipped in 13 points, five steals and five assists.

"Coach Harder and my AAU coach have really helped me grow as a player, I just have to keep getting better," Mays said. "Now we just need to keep getting better as a team moving forward."

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 11:57 PM with the headline "Prep basketball | Southeast girls coast in Willie Clemons tournament opener ."