Highlanders wins rematch vs. Eagles
Stephanie Ingram’s face lit up with a smile after seeing Lake Highland Prep teammate Eleecia Carter turn a behind-the-back pass along the baseline into a short bucket inside their home gymnasium Wednesday night.
“We work on those behind-the-back passes while just messing around in practice,” Ingram said with a laugh. “I saw an opportunity to throw one, and it might not have been the best pass, but she finished. I appreciated that.”
Lake Highland Prep (16-2) defended its status as the newly minted No. 1 team in the state’s MaxPreps computer rankings with a 65-51 victory over No. 3 Montverde Academy (11-4). The win avenges a 56-55 loss to the Eagles on Dec. 28. LHP converted on only 13 of 31 attempts from the foul line in that Florida Prospects Christmas Tournament game.
The Highlanders made sure the matchup this time around didn’t come down to free throws.
Carter opened the second quarter with a pair of 3-pointers to give Lake
Highland a 23-13 lead less than three minutes into the period. The 10-point advantage held up at halftime at 31-21 as Montverde finished the final minutes of the half on a 7-2 run after Ingram and Carter hooked up on the pass.
Zanoria Cruz led LHP with 18 points and Nyla Harris added 16 points.
Carter drained three shots from beyond the arc and finished with 13 points.
Ingram, a sophomore, displayed aggressiveness throughout the night while hitting the hardwood for loose balls and challenging defenders for possession.
“She’s just a tough, hardnosed kid who has fun playing the game,” said Lake Highland coach Al Honor. “She’s loves the game and she’s not really caught up in all these things that most kids are caught up in. Her toughness works its way through our team.”
Montverde, which has dropped three in a row after losing back-to-back games in Atlanta over the weekend, got to within 35-26 midway through the third quarter. The Eagles later cut the LHP advantage to 54-44 with less than four minutes left but got no closer.
“I’ve put this team through a gauntlet [of a schedule], so I didn’t think we’d go undefeated, but I didn’t see us dropping two in a row either,” said Montverde coach Laura Harper before the start of the game.