Bayshore shakes off delayed start and turnover woes for girls basketball district quarterfinal win

BRADENTON -- The crowd of about 25 had to wait an extra hour for Tuesday's Class 5A-District 11 girls basketball quarterfinal to take place.

That was because visiting Dunedin's bus was late.

But when the crowd finally got a chance to see which team would be crowned, missed shots and turnovers were abundant.

In the wake, host Bayshore escaped with a 54-39 victory through some stout rebounding and timely second-half scoring.

"We just kind of sat around and played a few games while we were waiting ... so they were kind of loose," said Bayshore head coach Jamaal Sanders about the delayed start.

The Bruins (11-14) set up a semifinal meeting at county rival Southeast on Wednesday after receiving double-digit scoring games from Alexus Norman (17 points), Quonnisha Orr (13) and JoJo Muldoon (12).

"We have to really work on defense, that's the main thing we've got to work on," said Norman about facing the Seminoles in the semifinals.

Both teams struggled to get any offensive flow going in the first half as the Bruins held a slim, 23-20, advantage at halftime.

Dunedin (3-17) shot 25 percent from the field, while Bayshore produced a 29.6 field goal percentage during the opening two quarters.

In total, the two sides combined for 62 turnovers in the game.

Bayshore committed 41 of them, which is due, in part, to losing its starting point guard, Jayla Dirden, roughly 1 1/2 weeks ago due to a concussion.

And the Bruins nearly received another potential season-ending loss when Muldoon, a pivotal frontcourt player, left briefly at

the end of the third quarter after chasing a loose ball and coming away with an injured left elbow.

Sanders, though, said she'll be fine moving forward.

"She just kind of tweaked it," Sanders said. "It shocked her more than anything."

Muldoon's presence, alongside Norman and Orr, produced several key buckets and glass work in the fourth quarter as the Bruins connected on 9 of 14 shots in the final period.

Bayshore also tallied a 51-29 edge on the boards for the game, which helped offset four different occurrences of four straight possessions that yielded turnovers.

"We're able to get rebounds, we're probably about 100 percent ... winning," said Sanders, whose team shot 52 percent from the field in the second half.

Now they'll battle state-ranked and top-seeded Southeast with a chance to clinch a berth into next week's regional quarterfinals.

"We're very familiar with them," Sanders said. "We're going to have to limit turnovers. When we get an opportunity to make shots, we're going to have to make shots. And we're going to have to kind of control the pace."

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Bayshore shakes off delayed start and turnover woes for girls basketball district quarterfinal win ."