Lake Highland Prep falls short against DME Academy
Lake Highland Prep suffered a rare girls basketball loss Tuesday night at home while playing short-handed against a tall and talented DME Academy squad out of Daytona Beach.
The Highlanders (5-1) turned the ball over at crucial times down the stretch, including twice in the final seconds, in a 49-48 loss. DME improved to 8-0.
Junior Eleecia Carter grabbed a loose ball on the offensive end and drained a jumper inside the final minute for Lake Highland’s first lead since the start of the fourth quarter.
UCF signee Amiya Evans answered with the final points when she drove to the low post, maneuvered past a Lake Highland defender and scored on a left-handed layup.
The Highlanders turned the ball over on their next possession. After forcing DME to the foul line, senior Nyla Harris rebounded a missed free throw try by Zeryhia-Lee Tuimoloau Aokuso with 8 seconds left, but an attempt at passing the ball up court was swatted away by Aokuso.
Harris, a Louisville signee, finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Carter drained three 3-point attempts while scoring 11 points in the loss.
The back-to-back FHSAA Class 4A state champion Highlanders entered winners of 53 of their past 56 games. The lone losses the past two seasons have come against Virginia’s Paul IV in a GIECO Nationals semifinal in April, and Montverde Academy and Maryland’s St. Frances Academy during the 2019-20 season.
“The way we lost, with two or three turnovers down the stretch, was tough,” Lake Highland coach Al Honor said. “That turnover bug bites us every time. We’ve got to fix that.”
The injury bug also has taken a toll on Lake Highland.
UCF signee Stefanie Ingram will miss her senior year with an anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered “two or three weeks” before the season started, according to Honor.
“To lose a player of that caliber is tough,” Honor said. “Her leadership and toughness is what we missed the most in a game like this. That’s a piece that’s hard to replace.”
Sophomore Camila De Pool-Maisonet, one of the team’s top defenders, pulled a hamstring on Saturday and was not available vs. DME. Senior Sierra Godbolt, who is nine months removed from surgery, played Tuesday with a large brace on her right leg.
“We talked at halftime about passing the ball down into the post because we’re bigger than them, and bringing the energy on defense, and that changed the game in the last two quarters,” DME coach Wesley Arocho said.
DME rallied from an 8-point deficit in the third quarter to tie the score at 34 on a 3-pointer by Tyana Walker with 1:25 left in the period.
Following a Lake Highland miss at the other end, junior forward Chloe Kitts grabbed an offensive rebound and converted a putback to give DME its first lead since the start of the second quarter.
A 3-pointer by sophomore Lexi Blue to open the fourth gave Lake Highland a brief 39-38 advantage. Kitts scored again off an offensive rebound soon after to reclaim the lead, which DME held until Carter’s bucket down the stretch.
Kitts, an Oviedo native who led The Master’s Academy to the Class 3A state championship game as a freshman in 2020, finished with a game-high 21 points.
Evans, the daughter of former NBA player Reggie Evans, finished with 16 points and Auburn signee Sydney Shaw added 7 points.
Kitts will face off against former Master’s teammates Hannah Kohn and Kiara Harris when DME hosts Hagerty on Jan. 15. Kohn and Harris transferred to Hagerty after helping the Eagles return to the state final four as sophomores last season.
“I’ve improved a lot since my freshman year, but I still need to work on a lot of stuff,” Kitts said. “There’s a lot of room for improvement, because I’m trying to be great.”