District Girls Basketball roundup: LPA annihilates Eau Gallie, Martin County ends 15-year drought
FORT PIERCE — Between jersey retirements and milestone wins for a legendary head coach, pillars of the outstanding Lincoln Park Academy girls basketball program have been celebrated at various points of the 2023-24 campaign.
Now, for the current crew of Greyhounds, it’s their chance to be praised.
Thanks to a monumental third quarter and a blistering start to the fourth, LPA turned a tight ballgame into a laugher en route to claiming its first district title since the 2020-21 season. The team added its 17th district title in program history following a 70-34 victory over Eau Gallie on Friday night from Lincoln Park Academy.
The win was especially sweet for a group almost entirely made of returners that endured soul-crushing defeats to end last season. In the district tournament a year ago, the Greyhounds were turned away by the narrowest of margins in a 43-42 semifinal loss to Rockledge. They followed that by falling 44-39 to Jensen Beach in the regional quarterfinals.
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With the offseason to stew over what could have been, the team returned this winter with a clear motto.
“After we lost in the regional quarterfinal game, I told my team, 'It’s district championship or bust,'” LPA head coach Wendell Adams said. “We brought back everybody, we didn’t lose anybody on our team. … Our goal was to win a district championship and fortunately we were able to do it.”
Adams created what he called “The Breakfast Club,” a 6 a.m. shootaround for players to participate in before returning for conditioning in the afternoon. Those shootarounds took place from August until the very first day of practice months later.
Those early mornings clearly paid dividends as the team knocked down nine 3-pointers. That’s juxtaposed to seven total 3-pointers in those final two defeats last season. The early bird got the worm this time around.
“We just put in a lot of work with Coach Adams from last year to this year,” sophomore guard Olivia Titherington said. “What he saying to us the whole year was ‘district championship or bust.’ So it was either you win it or you’re on the wrong side of history. And we didn’t want to be on that side.”
Sophomore guard Alexa Titherington added: “It feels amazing, we put so much hard work to get to this point. Ever since we got eliminated last year, we were like, ‘We know what we’re going to do this year, we know we’re going to win the district championship. We had morning practices, Saturday practices and it was just non-stop hard work.”
The hosts only enjoyed a four-point cushion at halftime before pouring in the game’s next 15 points and outscoring the Commodores 24-4 in the third.
Alexa Titherington got the run started with a putback. She later added a runner in the lane and two free throws during the surge. Olivia Titherington capped the 15-0 push with a basket on a drive and a 3-pointer.
Then in the final seconds of the third, freshman guard Jayla Willette shoveled a pass to junior guard Juliana Ball, who knocked a 3-pointer from the right wing. The flurry of haymakers didn’t stop landing to open the fourth as Ball hit another shot from behind the arc as part of an 11-0 run.
“I just feel like this is a big accomplishment because we’re all still really young,” said Ball, who was a member of the program’s last district title in 2021. “I’m very excited for us.”
Olivia Titherington scored a game-high 26 points to pace the Greyhounds, who entered as the top seed in the district. Ball hit five 3-pointers en route to 21 points while Alexa Titherington added 11 points.
Eau Gaille (15-12), the district’s No. 2 seed, got 13 points from senior forward Alayna Lherisse.
LPA (26-2) will be the second seeded in Region 4-5A once the state playoffs brackets are released on Sunday. The team will play a regional quarterfinal game at 7 p.m. Wednesday from home against an opponent to be determined.
Here are two takeaways from Friday's game.
LPA wears out the competition
The Greyhounds lit up the scoreboard. But it was the defense that was the turning point.
Lincoln Park forced 10 turnovers in the third quarter thanks in part to its relentless full-court defense. Earlier in the game, the road tam had success breaking the trap and finding junior forward Mirja Goertemoeller for layups. But according to Adams, the key flipping the game was wearing out the visitors, specifically Lherisse, Eau Gallie's leading scorer at 17.9 points per game.
"We knew that she had a high motor and she plays a lot of minutes. I know we're an uptempo, pressing team and my thoughts were that she was not going to be able to maintain that same intensity the whole game, he said. "We switched people on and off her and we switched up or different zone presses. I think that took its toll."
The Commodores did not score after halftime until Lherisse knocked down a baseline jumper with 1 minute, 39 seconds in the third.
Ball was one of the players to have a crack at Lherisse and was determined not to let her get going.
"I wanted to shut her down, I did not want her scoring anymore for them," Ball said.
Beatable? That's bulletin-board material
The home team led wire-to-wire, but struggled to seize control early.
Eau Gallie stormed back after falling in a 7-0 hole in the opening minutes. It entered the second quarter tied 12-12 following a jump shot from sophomore guard Avi Johnson to close the first frame. The visitors got off to another slow start in the next stanza, but a Lherisse corner 3-pointer trimmed the deficit to 29-24 at the half.
Among adjustments, LPA players were reminded of what was written about them in a Brevard County newspaper. Those words served as fuel coming out of the locker room.
"They had written an article and they said that we were beatable. And we did not want to hear that," Alexa Titherington remarked. "That was one of the messages at halftime and our coaches were motivating us saying, 'They said you're beatable, they said you're beatable. You need to show them and you need to blow them out by 40.'"
The margin didn't quite finish at 40, but the Greyhounds got darn close.
Other area scores
District 8-6A Final
No 1. Martin County 53, No. 2 Heritage 49: The Tigers’ championship moment was 15 years in the making as they overcame adversity and a second-half deficit to defeat the Panthers from Melbourne High School.
It is Martin County’s first district title since 2009.
“Tonight, they were down after the first quarter, second quarter and third quarter. But our players came back and were like, ‘We’re not losing,” Tigers head coach Georgia Taylor said. “And they just fought, fought, fought the entire time.”
The Tigers and the hope of breaking their title drought seemingly took a blow when sophomore guard Karolina Ramirez went down with an ankle injury in the first half. According to Taylor, Becca Witt was vital in Ramirez’ place. The 5-foot-9 sophomore slid over from her off-guard position to the primary playmaker.
Witt had back-to-back three-point plays to keep County within striking distance at 24-21 entering halftime. Ramirez returned in the third, scoring seven of her nine points during that frame.
“It was cool for (her teammates) to see that,” Taylor said of Ramirez’ return. “If she’s hurt and she’s fighting, then we got to fight, too.”
Martin County did not take the lead until freshman guard Brianna Valenza nailed a go-ahead 3-pointer in the fourth quarter. She later drilled a free throw to ice the game and finish with 10 points.
Scoring eight points in the fourth, Witt poured in a team-high 19 points.
Junior forward Trishay Collins scored a game-best 20 points to pace Heritage (12-9).
The Tigers (17-7) have won their last six games and will likely host a regional quarterfinal game on Wednesday.
District 7-7A Final
No. 1 Palm Beach Gardens 55, No. 2 St. Lucie West Centennial 52: Two nights after tremendous late-game execution led to an overtime win over Central, the Eagles could not close the deal during a road loss at the top-seeded Gators.
The visitors had as much as a 10-point lead and entered the fourth up 40-31 before Palm Beach Gardens came back.
“That’s a great team over there,” St. Lucie West Centennial head coach Jesse Stewart said. “I think they have some really good bigs and role players, hats off to them. I think we were just pretty much leading for the majority of the game, but they never stopped and gave up. That’s just a well-coached team.”
The home team regained the advantage and built a cushion from the foul line in the final minutes. The Eagles closed to within 53-50 with 17 seconds remaining after a 3-pointer from senior guard Arianna Knapp, but they wouldn’t get any closer.
“We got to take better care of the ball and knock down our free throws. The small, little things like that ended up costing us late in the game,” Stewart said. “I’m extremely proud of how the girls fought, but it just wasn’t our night.
A terror on the boards, Kyana Poitier led Gardens with 17 points and 23 rebounds. Alicia Russell and Latasha Whyte each had 11 points while Azariah Marrero had 10.
Sophomore forward Jada Parson and Jailyn Williams had 12 and 10 points, respectively for Centennial (15-10).
District 8-3A Final
No 1. King’s Academy 60, No. 2 Somerset College Prep Academy 48: In just their second second season as an FHSAA program, the Spartans showed fight during their first district title game, but ultimately couldn’t keep pace with the Lions in West Palm Beach.
Somerset (16-10) was only behind by a 30-26 margin before King’s Academy broke free in the second half.
“I felt like we did keep it competitive,” Spartans head coach Ralph Ciceron said. “But (the Lions) veteran leadership and a couple other factors contributed to them pulling away. I felt like we could’ve been a little bit more sharp, offensively moving the ball. But I felt like they did a great job making sure they were corralling our guards and making entry passes a whole lot more difficult than they did in the first half.”
Kayla Curry and Chelsey Francis had 18 and 10 points, respectively, for Somerset. Jade Jones scored a game-high 21 points for King’s Academy. Sophia Kateris added 20 points.
Even with the loss, Ciceron is encouraged by his team’s performance. SCPA was significantly more competitive in this meeting than their two most recent matchups: a 69-51 win earlier this season and a 66-31 blowout last season.
“We’re getting closer and we’re chipping away,” Ciceron said.
The Spartans are likely bound for the postseason as they are ranked fifth in Region 2-3A and in line for an at-large bid.
District 13-2A Final
No 1. Merritt Island Christian 51, No. 2 Morningside Academy 12: The Eagles went scoreless in the opening quarter during a rout against the Cougars.
Morningside Academy (17-6) trailed 18-0 at the end of the first quarter and 34-4 at halftime.
“Just want to thank God for the opportunity to be here, coach the girls and be in the position we were in. It’s an honor in itself to be able to get to the district championship game,” Eagles head coach Joseph Banks said. “I think that we’re definitely better than what we were tonight, I think nerves got the best of us tonight. But we played a really strong program.”
Stats were unavailable.
Entering districts ranked ninth in Region 4-2A, Morningside’s playoff fate will be decided when brackets are released by the FHSAA on Sunday. Regardless of how the results turn out, Banks, in his second season as head coach, is embracing the climb to a successful program.
“This is just a part of the growing pains and the building blocks of what it takes to build a great program,” he said. “That’s what the goal is and that’s what I want to achieve with this program.”
Patrick Bernadeau is a sports reporter for Treasure Coast Newspapers. He can be reached at (772) 985-9692, on X at @PatBernadeau or via email at pbernadeau@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Girls Basketball: Lincoln Park Academy, Martin County win district titles
