Next man up for Stranahan

Despite missing Herard, Dragons head to state final

LAKELAND — For the second straight year, Stranahan earned a trip to Lakeland. But this time, the Mighty Dragons took the court without one of their leaders.

Senior captain and Stranahan’s No. 2 scorer, Dave Herard, missed Thursday’s Class 4A state semifinal with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a dislocated meniscus that he suffered in the regional final against Pinecrest Gulliver Prep.

“It was a big blow for us,” Stranahan coach Terrence Williams said. “He had just started getting back going.”

But with Herard, who is signed to play football for Virginia, motivating his team from the bench, Stranahan held off Jacksonville Paxon 59-54 in the Class 4A state semifinals on Thursday morning at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, advancing to the team’s second straight title game.

“(Herard’s injury) kind of hurt us but his spirit was so uplifting, so the guys didn’t get too down,” Williams said. “So now he’s coach Herard.”

The first three quarters featured a back-and-forth game with six lead changes. Isaiah Adams, a UCF signee, led the way for Paxon. He finished the game with 29 points and nine rebounds.

“Isaiah Adams is a tough kid,” Williams said. “We knew that we would have to try to contain him as much as possible and, from a defensive standpoint, just make it pretty much a fouron-four basketball game if we could.”

Stranahan built an eightpoint lead in the third quarter, but Adams led Paxon right back into the game, cutting the deficit to one point by the end of the third quarter. But the Mighty Dragons came out firing in the fourth quarter, going on a 10-0 run to open the final period. They built that lead to as much as 12 points later in the fourth quarter, which provided enough cushion as Adams scored eight points in the final minutes.

“The experience helped us a lot because we had our ups and downs, but at the same time, no matter what, we stayed up,” senior Inady Legiste said. “Because we knew that the game is about runs. Coach preaches that to us from Day 1 — that they’re going to go on a run and we’re going to go on a run. We’ve just got to stay together and have confidence in each other. … We know we’re going to pull the win out, no matter what.”

With Herard out, Stranahan spread the ball out. Seven different players made a basket, and three players had double-digit points. Thaddeus Squire led the team with 14 points (and 10 rebounds), Chayse Culpepper had 13 points and Legiste had 12 points.

Stranahan will face Tampa Catholic in the Class 4A championship at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Most of the Mighty Dragons are seeking their second title, but Squire, who transferred from Boyd Anderson, is looking for his first.

“It’s my first time up here,” Squire said, “so I had to show the boys that the reason why I came here is to get a ring.”