Stranahan tops Cooper City in quarterfinal
FORT LAUDERDALE — In Stranahan’s first appearance in the BCAA Big 8, the Dragons pulled off a 67-64 quarterfinal victory over Cooper City despite 40 points from Cowboys sophomore guard Dallas Graziani on Thursday night at Fort Lauderdale High. In the other quarterfinal, Blanche Ely rallied late to hold off an upset bid from Cypress Bay in a 68-63 victory.
A pair of Stranahan sophomores, guard Brian Dugazon and center Inady Legiste, scored 23 and 17, respectively, as the Dragons (15-5) advanced to face Coral Springs in today’s 8 p.m. semifinal.
“It’s a big accomplishment for the school, for the program, for myself, being that this is the first time making it to the Big 8 semifinals,” Stranahan coach Terrence Williams said. “Very contentious game — didn’t expect it to be that big of a crowd, that big of an excitement. Hats off to [Dallas and senior brother Dylan Graziani, who finished with 10]. They shot the ball very well.”
Senior forward Ryan Curbelo of Cooper City (21-3) leaned in for a 3-pointer at the buzzer that missed wide left.
Dallas Graziani torched the Dragons from the outside. He hit six 3-pointers and several other deep twopoint jumpers as Stranahan increasingly pressured him and began to front him off the ball to keep it away from him.
“Just continuing to fight through the picks, fight through the screens, make key blocked shots, key rebounds,” Williams said.
The two teams dueled in a tightly contested third quarter to enter the fourth tied. Tensions peaked during a stretch when Stranahan had a steal that led to an and-one layup, and followed that up with another field goal after a foul on the made free throw extended the possession. A technical foul on Stranahan turned the snowballing momentum, and Graziani and Dugazon exchanged backto-back 3-pointers.
Cooper City led 33-31 at halftime with Graziani already at 17 points on three 3-pointers. The Cowboys went on a 12-2 run in the second quarter to counter an 11-1 Dragons run.
Ely advances to take on Miramar in today’s 6 p.m. semifinal. Trailing most of the night, senior guard Michael Forrest willed the Tigers (17-7) to victory with 18 of his 30 points in the fourth.
Ely took its first lead on his layup with 3:20 remaining. He scored on an andone with 1:40 to go and hit free throws late to seal it.
Cypress Bay’s (16-8) Kenny Anderson, the junior guard and son of the former NBA point guard by the same name, and senior Tremaine Major each scored 17 and sophomore guard Brandon Garcia had 14.
Miramar and Coral Springs came up with victories over Deerfield Beach and Western, respectively, in Wednesday’s two quarterfinals.
dfurones@sunsentinel .com, @DavidFurones_