Blanche Ely earns 1st girls BCAA Big 8 title

PLANTATION — Blanche Ely, spurred on by a 22-2 run, defeated St. Thomas Aquinas, 53-45, Monday to earn its first BCAA girls Big 8 championship in the 23 years of the event.

Junior guard Ja’Leah Williams led Ely with 18 points and Jaylen Ponder added 11. The Tigers improve to 20-6 on the season.

Ely trailed St. Thomas, 24-14, midway through the second quarter. But the Tigers turned up the defense and got their transition game going.

Ely finished the first half on a 12-2 run to tie the contest 26-all at the half and then scored the first 10 points of the third quarter to take command at 36-26.

Asked what the key was to the run, Tigers first-year coach Henry McNabb said: “Adjusting to their zone. They played their zone a little different than the first time. It was really aggressive on the exterior. So I think moving Ja’Leah to the high post let her be aggressive and make decisions was the key.”

“We rushed it a little bit on offense and when we did rush they were able to get easy transition opportunities, which is the way that they want to play,” added St. Thomas Aquinas coach Oliver Berens.

Junior guard Samara Spencer — an Arkansas commit — led the

Raiders with 25 points. Vanderbilt guard recruit Bella LaChance finished with eight points.

Ely led 41-32 heading into the final period. St. Thomas would get as close as 41-38 in the fourth but could not totally get over the hump.

The loss

19-6.

The tournament was extended to a Monday finish because Friday’s play was postponed due to a potential MRSA issue. drops the

Raiders

Boys big 8 Field announced

to

Western and Northeast High will open the boys BCAA Big 8 tournament at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Fort Lauderdale High.

Game 2 of the quarterfinals Wednesday pits Dillard against Fort Lauderdale.

On Thursday it will be Stranahan vs. Miramar at 6:30 and Pines Charter vs. Boyd Anderson at 8.

The semifinals are scheduled for Friday with the championship game Saturday night.

Ely defeated Dillard in last year’s boys BCAA championship game.

Pat Lammer is a correspondent for the South Florida Sun Sentinel.