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Tornadoes Slip Past Devils In OT

Chris Hoffman/Highlands Today

Avon Park’s Beonca Godfrey halted a Booker run with a driving lay-up during the fourth quarter of the Class 4A-District 10 tournament on Friday.

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By Christopher  Hoffman | Highlands Today

Published: February 3, 2008

SARASOTA — Daija Barrett's tears told how close the Avon Park girls basketball team came to a rematch with the Sebring and an extension of its season, as the junior reluctantly relived the final seconds of Friday's Class 4A–District 10 semifinal game against Booker.

"My father has told me time and time again that free throws win games," Barrett said. "It was a lot of pressure, but as a player you want the ball in your hand to win the game. It just didn't fall for me tonight."

Barrett walked up to the charity stripe with 9.9 seconds remaining in OT down by two and focused on her target, but both shots toyed with falling before rolling out and the No. 3 seed Red Devil's season rolled away in a 47-45 loss to the No. 2 seed Tornadoes in the semifinals of the Class 4A-District 10 tournament.

"I tried to relax when I was at the line," Barrett said after the game. "We looked forward to meeting Sebring but now we're looking forward to next season."

The Red Devils watched an 11-point lead evaporate in the final five minutes of regulation, as the host Tornadoes used a punishing half-court press to harass the Avon Park guards, forcing turnovers and scoring in transition as the visiting bench watched helpless.

Booker's Kay Larkins' seven-point fourth quarter was the conduit that sparked the 13-2 game-tying run, but it was her rebound off a Beonca Godfrey miss that sent the game to overtime with the raucous Tornado crowd on their feet.

"Their fans were into this game in the fourth quarter," Barrett said. "I think that really energize them and we couldn't combat that."

The momentum shift for Booker was like someone turned on a switch and the girls were in a frenzy.

After Godfrey hit the free throw to complete a three-point play, the Tornados blew by the Red Devils, scoring seven-straight points, including Larkins' 3-pointer from the left wing off an Avon Park turnover that got the pro-Booker crowd fired up.

Godfrey, who scored all five of the Red Devil's points in the fourth, hit a run-stopping jumper from the top of the key, but it was clear that Booker wasn't to be denied. Missed shots and bad passes plagued Avon Park for the remainder of the quarter and the Tornadoes tied the game off turnovers.

"Missed free throws and layups were the story of the game," AP head coach Paulette Daley said. "I stressed to the girls to slow the game down and get good shots. I think the heat of the game got to the kids. We stopped playing our game."

Barrett knew they let a trip to the district finals slip away in regulation, as Booker found and exploited every weakness in the Red Devils game.

"To say that this was an emotional game is an understatement," Barrett said. "[Booker] applied intense pressure and we tried to slow things down and switched our defense to slow down their best player."

In overtime, Avon Park led by a basket on a jumper by freshman Markida Hawthorne, but Larkins' orchestration of the Tornado offense was unmatched, as she picked apart the Red Devil defense, finding teammates for open shots and opening up a 46-42 lead with less than two minutes left.

Larkins finished with a game-high 24 points.

Hawthorne drained a 3-pointer with 54 seconds left to give Avon Park a ray of hope. After Booker's Alicia Jackson hit just one of two from the charity stripe, Godfrey's tough shot through a double-team was off target and Barrett drove to the lane with 9.9 seconds left to set up the game's final sequence.

Booker was scheduled to meet top-seeded Blue Streaks in Saturday's district final. Results were not available at press time.

The lack of production from the other Red Devils was another cause for the tournament exit, as Avon Park received only 14 points from players other than Godfrey and Barrett, and Booker held Godfrey without a field goal in overtime with a constant diet of double teams.

Both teams played a sloppy first half, with Avon Park turning the ball over five times in the second, and the lead changed hands six times before Hawthorne heaved up a prayer from way beyond the arc that found nothing but net to give the Red Devils a 22-20 half time lead.

Avon Park settled down in the second half, outscoring Booker 11-5, with Godfrey and Barrett accounting for all the points in the third for an eight-point Red Devil lead heading into the final stanza.

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