ECS girls basketball has another shot at a Class 2A title, and they don't plan to miss

Evangelical Christian thought it had all the pieces to win a Class 2A girls' basketball championship in 2023 and rolled into the state semifinals looking like it might happen.

But that's when the Sentinels inexplicably played their worst half of basketball, hitting only 22% of their shots while falling behind Horeb Christian 38-22 before losing the Class 2A semifinal 66-58.

That was then. The 2024 Sentinels are in the now, feeling like they have learned from those mistakes and have added the pieces to hoist a state championship trophy on Thursday at the RF Funding Center in Lakeland.

"You gotta bring it out two more times," ECS coach Dwayne Donnell said. "God is awesome. And he's got us here to make this an opportunity to do that again. So I'm expecting Him to bless us. I'm expecting Him to do great things because we're in a position to do great things and bring another state championship back because he's gonna let us have it."

Last Year: ECS falls to Horeb Christian in state semifinals

The reach their ultimate goal first the Sentinels will have to dispatch the Fighting Christians from Jacksonville University Christian School on Tuesday. UCS (19-6) was the No. 2 seed out of Region 2A-1 and the District 2A-3 champion. The Fighting Christians reached the state semifinal by downing North Florida Educational on Thursday 32-30.

"We're excited about what our possibilities could be," Donnell said. "But we have to play the game. You know the stakes. Last year we thought we were better than Horeb and we dropped an egg in the first quarter and we didn't play well the first quarter so hopefully we have learned, got a taste of what the big game feels like and we will play better and play like Sentinel basketball."

ECS is the only returning Final Four team from a season ago, but they are not the same team. Yes, their three top returning scorers have returned in senior Zaira Mitchell, a Rollins College signee, junior Maddie O'Berski and sophomore Kellisia Grant. But they added senior point guard Jadah Toombs and junior guard Areille Marc, transfers from Fort Myers High, and sophomore center Nalah Smith, a Mariner transfer. All three fit perfectly into the Sentinels' attacking, pressure defense leading to a fast break and up-tempo offense.

Toombs (10.7) joined Mitchell (10.1), O'Berski (11.7) and Grant (10.8) averaging double digits in scoring, while Marc proved in the regional final against St. John Neumann she can't be forgotten, hitting three 3-pointers in the second quarter and finishing with 14 points while Smith added 10, including a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.

"It's a testament to our team," Donnell said. "If you go to our stat sheet it is misleading because you're gonna go at Maddie and you're going to go at Zai. Yes, they do great things, but we have four other kids that score the basketball."

Toombs was the backbone for the Green Wave the previous three seasons but fell short of reaching the state Final Four. The News-Press All-Area First Team and Southwest Florida All-Region team player for the past two years said making it to state was one of the reasons she moved to ECS.

"On this team, you can't really worry about one person because if you're worried about me, then look at Ari, if they go at Ari then there goes KG," Toombs said. "Like our team has so many pieces now where you can't just worry about one person."

Donnell said Toombs' addition has opened up so many more possibilities for her teammates on both ends of the floor.

"I think, no disrespect to last year's team, this roster is a little different," he said. "We have kids that can do a little different things and handle the ball in situations like Jadah did. She took total control of this (regional final) game without coach telling her. We wrote a few instructions and she took it in and really maximized the potential and got us to the basket and got us into good positions."

Unlike ECS, which ran out to a 20-4 halftime lead on St. John Neumann in the Region 2A-3 final on its way to a 61-42 win, University Christian had a defensive struggle in the Region 2A-1 final.

Eighth-grade guard Kennedi Tatum hit a game-winning 3-pointer with 7.8 seconds to lift the Christians over NEI. UCS trailed 30-27 when Alanna Tatum hit a pair of free throws with 1:09 to go. Then, after a steal, Alanna Tatum found sister Kennedi in the right corner for her go-ahead 3 and a 32-30 win.

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The Sentinels are used to producing points, averaging nearly 63 points per game while the Fighting Christians average only around 44. Sophomore Alanna Tatum is the only UCS player who averages double-digit scoring at 14.7 per game while her twin eighth-grade sisters Kennedi and Londyn are also two of the team's top players. The Christians are coached by Keith Stroud, who ECS fans may remember from softball as he coached UCS to a 3-2 win over the Sentinels in the state championship game last spring.

Although a new year and new team, Mitchell said last year's disappointment will have the Sentinels focused heading into this week.

"We definitely thought we were going in to win the whole thing and it kind of just put a little bit of doubt on us," Mitchell said. "But I think this year, we're more confident in ourselves and us playing these games and attacking people more and imposing our will on people will definitely help us in this next game."

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Revamped ECS Sentinels ready for another shot at Class 2A girls basketball title