American Heritage girls bring down perennial power Miami Country Day
PLANTATION — Two South Florida girls basketball powerhouses faced off in Plantation on Tuesday night — one from Broward County and the other from Miami-Dade County. The Broward team came out on top.
American Heritage and Miami Country Day, which have combined for 11 state titles since 2014, faced off in the Patriots’ gym, and Heritage came away with a 72-59 victory over the Spartans.
“It means a lot; it’s a good marking point.,” Patriots coach Greg Farias said. “Country Day has always been an amazing team. They play hard. They’ve been coached well for years. It was a good measuring stick for us, where we’re at, to continue to get better every day.”
American Heritage, which has dropped only one game so far this year, got out to an early lead over Miami Country Day. The Patriots never surrendered the lead, but they did withstand several runs from the Spartans where it looked like Miami Country Day might seize the momentum. Early in the second quarter, the Spartans went on a 9-2 run and cut their deficit to one point before the Patriots struck back with a 9-0 run of their own.
“Especially when you play the good teams, it’s always a game of runs,” Farias said. “So it’s going to really high and it’s going to go really low, so we’ve got to make sure that we equal their intensity to keep going with the runs.”
Five-star senior guard and FSU signee Ta’Niya Latson led all scorers with 27 points. Senior Joey Delancy added 13 points and junior Gabriela Dumas had 11 points. Miami Country Day Kristina Godfrey led the Spartans with 24 points.
“[Latson is] one of the best kids I’ve ever coached as a coach my whole career,” Farias said. “A good player, like she is, makes her whole team good. I don’t have to build an offense just around her. She creates her own offense off her defense. ... The difference between a good and a great player is how good they make their teammates, and she makes all her teammates better.”
The Patriots, who are ranked fifth in the state by MaxPreps, are 14-1 so far this season and have their eyes on winning a fifth consecutive state championship.
“I just feel like we’re going to do good,” Latson said. “We’re to going to have a good run. We’re meshing, we’re getting chemistry, and we’re playing better every game.”