Sebring Sidesteps Palmetto

SARASOTA - No championship is just handed to a team, and the Sebring girls basketball team seemingly tried to rest on its laurels of past tournament wins and almost saw their chance at a third-straight district championship slip away.

Hannah Shoop's basket on a beautiful no-look pass by senior Whitney Lee with 1:07 to play ended a Blue-Streak scoring drought - which saw a 15-point lead dwindle to just four points - and lifted the Blue Streaks past the No. 4 seed Palmetto Tigers 52-44 in the semifinals of the Class 4A-District 10 tournament on Friday.

"Sloppy. We just played really sloppy," said SHS head coach Mike Lee. "We tried to do too much and it almost kicked us in the butt. We talk about making good decisions on the court and we failed to do that. We had to get back to playing basketball and play within the flow of the game."

The Blue Streaks were scheduled to face the No. 2 seeded Booker Tornadoes on Saturday. Results were not available at press time.

Six turnovers out of seven possessions midway through the fourth opened the door for Palmetto's comeback. Sebring committed a pair of 10-second timeline violations and bad decisions nearly cost the Blue Streaks a chance at the title.

Lee, who scored a game-high 17 points was held to just four points in the final quarter, calmed the Blue Streaks down in the final minute, dishing out two assists and scoring the game's final basket to will her team to victory.

It was Lee's past tournament experience that was the difference down the stretch.

"We can't just lob passes and get lazy like that against Palmetto," the senior said. "[Palmetto] was focusing on me and that opened up the floor for other girls to step up. We just have to play smarter basketball."

Blue Streak guard Chelsea Davis, who rolled her ankle on the game's final play, wasn't worried they'd lose, but that Sebring wasn't playing the way they're capable of.

"We kept turning the ball over, and any good team will take advantage of those opportunities," Davis said. "We got careless with the big lead and took our foot off the gas."

Sebring's offensive machine kicked into overdrive in the second quarter, turning a three-point deficit to a whopping 10-point lead, holding Palmetto to just six points in the quarter, as the Streaks hit shots from all angles.

Lee got the Sebring bunch on its feet with a touch pass to a cutting Brenita Grant, who split the Palmetto defense for the basket. Lee followed that performance up with a picture-perfect 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the half and a 26-16 lead.

Coach Lee wanted to bottle up that second quarter performance by the Streaks to use in every quarter for the rest of the season.

"That's the way we should be playing all the time," Coach Lee said. "We moved the ball well and ran our plays. I give the girls license to be creative on the court and ad-lib, but sometimes we do that too much and that's when we see the turnovers creep back into the game.

"That's why it's so important to have experience on your team. To get your team back on track and not wilt under the pressure."

It was back to the status quo in the third, with both teams trading baskets and the Blue Streaks getting one better than the Tigers, walking a 12-point lead into the final quarter.

Shoop, who was a monster on the boards, finished with 13 points and Grant chipped in seven for the Blue Streaks.