Cruz in control as Lake Highland wins 4A semifinal
Lake Highland Prep’s Zanoria Cruz was on the roster as an eighth grader the last time the Highlanders won a girls basketball state championship.
Cruz, now a senior, helped spark LHP (28-2) early in the second half of a 62-35 win over Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons (25-4) in a Class 4A state semifinal Thursday morning.
Lake Highland faces Jacksonville Bishop Kenny (22-9) in the championship game Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Lakeland’s RP Funding Center. The Highlanders will be shooting for their fourth state title in the sport after finishing as runner-up each of the past two seasons.
LHP led just 14-13 at halftime Thursday after struggling to shoot the ball in the first half. But things changed in the third quarter as Cruz made a pair of shots and turned a steal into an assist on a bucket by Nyla Harris as the Highlanders jumped out to a 24-15 advantage.
“I told them in the locker room that we had to dig in, that there was no way we could repeat what we did in the first half,” said Cruz. “We had to come out a totally different team. We had to attack them first.”
Cruz finished with 12 points, four rebounds and three steals. Sophomore Stephanie Ingram led Lake Highland with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
It was an unusual start to a postseason game for the Highlanders, who had dominated their past five district and region tournament opponents by an average margin points per game.
Lake Highland never trailed Thursday despite converting on just 5 of 21 attempts from the field in the first half. It was a shooting effort reminiscent of ones that came in losses this season against Montverde Academy and Maryland’s St. Frances Academy.
“We’ve had those moments,” LHP coach Al Honor said. “That’s why [an opponent] holding that ball can really affect the game when you’re not shooting well. That makes for a close game. In the second half we generated offense through our defense and that takes the bad shooting out of it.”
Cardinal Gibbons successfully dictated the pace of the game through the first two quarters while being patient with the ball and awaiting opportunities for uncontested cuts toward the basket.
“That pace right there is what we wanted,” Cardinal Gibbons coach Kevin Gordon said. “Give them credit. We turned the ball over [in the third quarter] and they turned it up.”
Lake Highland outscored the Chiefs 24-4 in the third period.
“We just applied more pressure,” said Honor. “[The girls] have it in them to do that all the time.
“In the first half we were all expecting something more, and we kept waiting on it to happen. Then in the second half we turned up the heat.” of 41.8