South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
St. Thomas Aquinas rallies to win regional
POMPANO BEACH — Sparked by Karina Gordon’s 24 points and a pressing defense, St. Thomas rallied from down 18 points to beat Ely 73-65 and advance to the 6A girls basketball state tournament for the third year in a row.
Nyla McFadden added 14 points, while Kamryn Corporan added 10 points, including two key 3-pointers in the second half.
“An incredible effort playing 32 minutes of basketball by us,” St. Thomas coach Oliver Berens said. “We showed incredible resilience. When things weren’t going our way, we started pressing and creating turnovers. Shots started falling,and the girls were getting confident. Was a great effort to come back and win that game.”
Ely (22-4) came out on fire, charging to a 22-8 first quarter lead behind the play of Janessa Kelley and Gianna Corbitt. Ely then took its largest lead of the game when Ashleigh Battle hit a short jumper to give the Tigers a 28-10 lead with 6:24 remaining.
After Kelley knocked down two free throws, Ely was in control with a 34-19 lead with 4:19 to go in the first half.
Gordon then hit back-to-back 3-pointers, followed by Khadee Hession’s layup, and suddenly the Raiders found themselves down by five points with 2:05 to play before halftime.
“Gianna got her second foul, and after that, we lost the momentum and chemistry,” Ely coach JR McNabb said. “We started turning the ball over from that point on the rest of the game.”
The Raiders (22-8) came out fast to open the second half, scoring nine straight points, including Corporan’s 3-pointer to give St. Thomas a 44-41 lead, the first time the Raiders lead since early in the first quarter.
“We understood if we pressed them — we had a little more depth — and could make it an extra possession game, we would work our way back into the game,”Behrens said.
Both teams traded baskets, and when Corbitt hit a layup to make it a 54-51 game with 5:52 left, it looked like once again the game between these two squads was going to come down to the wire.
Corporan buried another 3-pointer, and then Gordon followed with her own 3-pointer and then a layup, blowing the game open for St. Thomas with a 62-51 lead with 2:47 to play.
“Gordon is unbelievable. She got in early foul trouble and had to sit a little, but when she came back in she did a great job on the offensive end, but also on the defensive end by creating steals and turnovers,” Berens said.
From there, the Raiders hit 9 of 10 free throws the rest of the way to clinch the victory.
Corbitt led Ely with 18 points, while Kelley added 17, including 11 of 12 from the free throw line.
St. Thomas advances to play Charlotte in Lakeland on Thursday in the state semifinals.