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Wildcats wallop Red Devils

Ryan Lavner, Highlands Today

Avon Park's Markida Hawthorne, who scored a team-high 16 points, drives the lane and forces a shot through the outstretched arms of McKeel Academy's Heather Smith during Friday night's 65-39 loss in the Red Devils gym.

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By RYAN LAVNER

Highlands Today

Published: November 22, 2009

AVON PARK - A humbling loss like this can benefit a young team in the long run - or so Paulette Daley hopes.

"It hurts to have a huge loss like this," the Avon Park girls basketball coach said after her Red Devils lost to McKeel Academy 65-39 on Friday night.

"We're back to the drawing board now. Lesson learned, and sometimes it's good to get hit in the mouth this early in the season."

Markida Hawthorne scored a team-high 16 points and Favinnette Cotte added nine points for the Red Devils, who dropped to 1-1 with a home game against Bartow looming on Monday afternoon. No other Red Devil scored more than three points.

"Difficult shooting night, difficult hustling night," Daley said. "Just not a whole lot happening. They pretty much outhustled us."

Avon Park trailed 29-20 at halftime, but McKeel Academy opened up the third quarter on an 18-5 run to put the game out of reach early. Down by 20-plus points in the fourth quarter, Avon Park could resort only to fouling and ill-advised shots in traffic. The Red Devils trailed by no fewer than 17 points in the final period.

"When you see that you're outhustling someone else, that's the fuel you need to light that fire," Daley said. "And boy, they lit that fire on us."

Cappy Toney, who was quick off the dribble and decisive in the lane, scored a game-high 30 points and Brinae Wilkerson had 15 points for McKeel Academy, which finished 24-5 last season and is off to a 4-0 start this year (including the preseason).

McKeel Academy, interestingly enough, was held without a field goal until the 1:49-mark of the first quarter, when it scored on a breakaway layup. The Wildcats led 9-8 after the first 8 minutes, after sinking a 3-pointer in the waning seconds.

They took off from there.

The Wildcats consistently pushed their lead to double digits, taking full advantage of a lethargic defensive effort and getting easy baskets in transition. They threatened to put the game away in the second quarter, up by 15 points, but Avon Park hit back-to-back 3-pointers to pull within nine at halftime.

Particularly shaken by McKeel Academy's man-to-man defense, Avon Park came out flat in the third quarter and watched as Toney and the rest of the Wildcats buried shot after shot from the perimeter.

The Red Devils' passes lacked zip. Their defensive footwork was slow. And they seemed rattled, Daley said, when pressured with the ball in their hands.

On one disconcerting sequence in the third quarter, Toney drained a 3-pointer, stole the ball, made a layup, stole the ball again and made another 3-pointer.

Eight points in 30 seconds.

Asked if she could glean anything positive from an otherwise bleak performance, Daley replied: "No, none at all." She briefly reconsidered, then added: "We had a few players who came off the bench and played well for the starters."

Avon Park will look to regroup on Monday, when it plays Bartow at 4:30 p.m., the first game of a tripleheader in the Avon Park gym.

Ryan Lavner can be reached at 863-386-5841 or rlavner@highlandstoday.com

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