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Booker Makes Statement Against AP

Chris Hoffman/Highlands Today

Avon Park's Beonca Godfrey goes airborne on Friday night during the Red Devils match with Booker.

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By Christopher  Hoffman | Highlands Today

Published: January 13, 2008

AVON PARK — The Booker girls basketball team showed Avon Park a different face on Friday.

One of defense and speed — a cat-like quickness and reflexes that blew past the host Red Devils in a 53-40 win that could be a precursor to the Class 4A-District 10 tournament.

Booker's 2-3 defense battered the Avon Park guards around as if they were in a storm, forcing 32 turnovers during the game, which led to countless easy baskets for the Tornadoes.

The Red Devils had no answer for the tempo Booker set, watching as the Tornadoes streaked out to a 19-8 after the first quarter — a period that saw Avon Park turn over the ball 11 times, which led to seven points for the visitors.

Avon Park looked stunned as they strolled out for the second quarter, which saw no adjustments to Booker's style of play.

"We came out shaky in the first half," said Avon Park's Daija Barrett. "We really had a hard time adjusting to their quickness and tempo. They were very good defensively in playing the 2-3 zone and they run and see the court well.
"They were just the better team tonight."

With the loss, Avon Park drops to 15-4 overall and 7-4 in the district, while Booker improves to 14-6 and 8-3 in district play and has a pair of wins over the Red Devils, who drop to the No. 3 seed behind the Tornadoes for the upcoming district tournament.

Turning the ball over 23 times in the first half, Avon Park couldn't mount an effective rally, trailing by 20 points at the half.

But then confidence or desperation — whichever cascaded over the team first — set in, which sparked and 8-4 run to start the second half.

"Coach [Daley] switched to a 1-3-1 zone which cut off the baseline where they were hurting us," Barrett said. "We kept telling ourselves that this was our house and made a nice run at the end."

That run spilled over into the final stanza, as the Red Devils cut the lead down to nine with 1:58 left to play on the strength of good passing, getting everyone involved and not relying on one player and finally hitting the easy baskets.

Barrett knocked down a 3-pointer and Breanna Tate's back-to-back buckets cut the lead to 49-40, but the last of four 3-pointers on the night by Booker's Kay Larkins iced the win for the visiting Tornadoes.

AP head coach Paulette Daley was at a loss for words at her team's performance in front of the home fans and against a district foe.

"[Booker] really rattled us tonight," Daley said. "We lost our composure and couldn't get it back. We seem to only play good when we're in the lead. We showed a lack of confidence in our shooting and way too many turnovers and missed free throws to get past a team like Booker."

Avon Park was led by guard Beonca Godfrey and Tate, who each finished with nine points, while Booker's Brittani Williams scored a game-high 16 points and Larkins finished with 15 points for the Tornadoes.

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