Sebring Rumbles Past Booker

SEBRING - Hannah Shoop and Whitney Wells may not be the fastest girls on the floor for the Sebring girls basketball team, but both agree: Speed aside, it's tough to keep up with someone who never stops.

Shoop, a junior, had 17 points and 14 rebounds, and the senior Wells added six points and six boards Tuesday night to lead the Blue Streaks to a 42-31 Class 4A-District 10 victory over Sarasota-Booker at SHS.

"Whitney and I have really worked on moving without the ball, because a player who's moving is a lot harder to defend than someone standing still," Shoop said. "It's intense, and it's tough physically and mentally, because you're always going."

Sebring coach Mike Lee said movement is key to his team's success on both ends of the floor, and so far, the Streaks' legwork has paid off. The Tornadoes bookended their offensive night by scoring six points in the first quarter and five in the fourth, a sign, Lee said, that his team is buying into his defensive philosophy.

"The thing we talk most about is movement," Lee said. "Moving, anticipating and rotating: When they pass it, we're already moving.

"Holding a team to 31 points is tough to complain about, but I'm still going to complain."

After jumping out to a 26-17 lead at the half, Booker made a run in the third quarter, pulling the game to within two possessions early in the fourth. But Sebring's high-low game - implemented just last week to counter zone defenses - was too much for the Tornadoes to recover from.

"It takes a lot of pressure off the guards when our posts play like they did tonight," said Sebring senior Whitney Lee, who had eight points and eight assists. "To have two posts who can not only score, but play well together, is really nice."

As was the Streaks' turnover margin on the night: Sebring had just 12 giveaways against an athletic, pressing Booker squad, a number coach Lee said he could live with.

"If we can do that every night, we'll be pretty good," he said. "I think they realized, too, that when they stopped taking care of the ball, that's when Booker went on a little run.

"We have a smart team, and they know how to adjust."

The Streaks (5-1, 3-1 district) next take to the floor on Friday night, when they travel to Hardee.

"We have lots of room for improvement, but I think we're all improving each day," Whitney Lee said. "We're playing intense, but we all know we need step it up a little more defensively to get it to that next level."