Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Easy does it for Nova, Blanche Ely
Dillard, St. Thomas Aquinas also victorious on opening night of tournament
PLANTATION — The Broward County Athletic Association Big 8 girls basketball tournament began at South Plantation High on Thursday night.
Here are the recaps for the four games:
Nova 48, Hallandale 17: The Titans (22-3) had no issue handling Hallandale (15-8) in the first quarterfinal of the day.
Nova’s defense was too much for the Chargers offense. Hallandale needed more than four minutes to get a basket in the first quarter and needed nearly six minutes to get a point in the second quarter. They ended the first quarter with only six points.
“The thing we got out of it is we’re moving on to tomorrow night,” Nova coach Jason Hively said. “We know we’ll need to play a lot better if we’re going to be successful and possibly winning a ballgame tomorrow and moving onto [Saturday].
“[We] had some moments here and stuff, but we’re a little bit out of sync today.”
Trinity Delancy led the Titans with 15 points and racked up four rebounds. Jamie Levy added 12 points on four 3-pointers. Delancy hit a third-quarter three to put Nova up by 35, starting a running clock.
“Trinity was fabulous,” Hively said. “She’s our captain for a reason. She’s been on fire all year.
“I tell everybody she’s one of the best shooters in the state. She proved it today. She hustles. She plays every minute as hard as she can.”
Nova will face Blanche Ely in the semifinals Friday at 6:30 p.m.
Dillard 58, Cardinal Gibbons 49: Dillard’s bid for a ninth Big 8 title stayed alive despite an early challenge from Cardinal Gibbons as the Panthers picked up a win over the Chiefs.
Gibbons (20-3) held the lead for much of the first half, but Dillard (16-6), led by 6-foot forward Khyala Ngodu, took the lead near the end of the half and Gibbons didn’t get ahead again for the rest of the game.
Ngodu put up a double-double Thursday, finishing the game with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
“She played OK,” Dillard coach Marcia Pinder said. “Not up to my standards, though.”
Briah Christia was second for the Panthers with nine points. Nadine Ognenovic led the Chiefs with 13 points, while
Jennifer Whitlow had 12.
Dillard will face St. Thomas Aquinas in the semifinals Friday at 8 p.m.
Blanche Ely 82, Western 19: Blanche Ely cruised in its quarter over Western, picking up an easy victory in Thursday’s third game.
“We’re actually playing really, really good basketball as of late,” Tigers coach J.R. McNabb said. “The girls are figuring out how we want to play.
“They’re playing really hard defensively. And we’re getting out and really, really pushing the ball.”
The Tigers (18-5) got out to a big early lead and never looked back. At halftime, they led the Wildcats (14-6) 49-13.
Ely spread the ball around, and four players finished the game with doubledigit points. Ja’Leah Williams led the team with 18 points, while Jaylen Ponder had 17, JaNiyah Moore 14 and Mikhia Lumsdon 10.
“It’s very, very important,” McNabb said. “I pride myself on making sure we have a complete team, complete balance, scoringwise. I think with that it makes it very, very difficult to game-plan for us.
“If we have one person who’s scoring the bulk of the points, I think it makes it a little easier. We’ve got some girls that are capable of putting up large numbers, but with the group that we have, they don’t have to [do that].”
St. Thomas Aquinas 59, Cypress Bay
38: The Raiders, who lost last year’s Big 8 title game on a buzzer-beater, came out in the quarterfinals with a strong performance.
Despite missing some key players, St. Thomas (18-5) picked up the victory against Cypress Bay (13-5).
“I liked the first half and the pace that we played at, the energy that we played at,” Raiders coach Oliver Berens said. “Right now, we’re banged up. We need to get healthy, and we need to get healthy quick.
“We’ve got a big run coming up, and we’ve got a really good team. But we really need to get all of our pieces back.”
The Raiders led from the game’s opening basket, but Lightning guard Sophia Jones gave them issues. She led all scorers with 16 points, but St. Thomas held her to only one basket in the second half.
“I think we did a good job of making Sophia give up the ball,” Berens said.
Breanna Gustave led St. Thomas with 15 points, while Jada Green and Vanderbilt signee Bella LaChance had 12. Maya Williams added 10 points.
“[Gustave’s] done a really good job stepping up, and I thought she hit a few big shots for us,” Berens said.