Headed to Lakeland
At Tuesday night's Class 1A regional final in Port St. Joe, the Lady Tiger Sharks didn't allow Chipley to score until less than two minutes were left in the first quarter.
That was when Lady Tiger Kaleyah Watson nailed a three-pointer, but that would be all for her team that quarter.
With a 13-point cushion, 16-3 going into the second quarter, Kenny Parker's squad played solid basketball the rest of the way, en route to a 31-15 halftime lead, 53-24 bulge after three quarters and a brief running clock with three minutes left in the game.
In the end it would be a 62-30 win, led by a game-high 23-point performance by junior Mimi Larry, and 13 points from sophomore Jae Lenox.
Freshman Zhyion Quinn added 12, sophomore Mari Johnson 10, and two each by freshman India Gant and junior Shadavia Hudgins, to account for the easy win.
The win sets the stage for a return trip to the Class 1A Final Four in Lakeland next week, where the Lady Tiger Sharks will have a chance to avenge the one-point loss they endured in last year's finals against Hawthorne.
On Wednesday, Feb 24 at 6 p.m. in Lakeland, they'll take on the 20-2 Ponce De Leon Lady Pirates, a 72-32 winner over Paxton Tuesday night.
The second game will feature the 19-4 Hawthorne Lady Hornets, who beat Wildwood 47-29 Tuesday night, against the 23-4 Trenton Lady Tigers, who beat Branford 58-44 Tuesday night.
To view the semifinals, visit www.nfhsnetwork.com/
The championship game would be Friday at 7 p.m.
This article originally appeared on The Star: Headed to Lakeland
Meet the Editor
Wendy Weitzel, The Star’s digital editor, joined the news outlet in August 2021, as a reporter covering primarily Gulf County.
Prior to then, she interned for Oklahoma-based news wire service Gaylord News and for Oklahoma City-based online newspaper NonDoc.com during her four years at the University of Oklahoma, from which she graduated in May with degrees in online journalism and political science.
While at OU, Weitzel was selected as Carnegie-Knight News21 Investigative Fellow among 30 top journalism students from around the country. She also was senior editor managing a 12-person newsroom in coordination with Oklahoma Watch, a non-profit news organization in eastern Oklahoma.