Brahmans nip Streaks

The Sebring girls basketball team showed plenty of hustle and intensity in losing to Okeechobee by a score of 49-47 in Tuesday night's Preseason Classic in the Blue Streak gym.

Madison Rose scored a team-high 15 points, including four 3-pointers, to pace the Sebring offense, and junior forward Shannon Williams added 10 points and pulled down a game-high 19 rebounds in the hard-fought loss to the Brahmans.

"It was an up and down game," said veteran Blue Streak coach Mike Lee. "I liked our energy level and our effort and I saw a lot of things I liked, but I also saw a lot of things we need to work on.

"That's what you expect from the first game of the season and our goal is to get better as the season progresses."

Okeechobee came out on fire from the field to open the game as guard Essence Williams scored six of her 12 points and Keighly Stewart added four of her nine points to help the Brahmans take a 15-8 lead heading into the second quarter.

Sebring, which had 21 turnovers in the contest, battled back behind the outside sharp-shooting of Rose and the strong inside play of the 5-foot, 10-inch Williams to trim its deficit to 26-24 at the half.

"Okeechobee is a good team," said Lee. They have good ball handlers, can shoot the outside jumper and they have a real strong inside game.

"We started out a little slow, but the girls adjusted to the speed of the game and got more confident as the game went on."

Okeechobee center Jewel Buck, who scored a team-high 15 points and pulled down 14 rebounds, picked up her third foul just before the half and started the third quarter on the bench.

Sebring took advantage of her absence in the paint by taking the ball to the basket as Zykeria Dawkins scored six points and Williams powered her way to eight points, as the Blue Streaks built a 39-35 lead heading into the final eight minutes.

"Zykeria improved as the game went on," the Sebring coach said. "She ran the offense, played solid defense and saw the floor pretty well.

"Buck is a real good player and with her on the bench, Shannon was able to use her size and dominate the paint."

Okeechobee, with Buck back in the lineup, fought back in the game on the inside play of Buck and the outside shooting of Stewart to take a slim lead.

But Rose buried a 3-pointer from the wing to tie the game at 47 with 23.4 seconds remaining.

Okeechobee's Markeisha Youmans was fouled and converted both free throws to give the Brahmans a 49-47 lead with 12.7 seconds left in the game.

Sebring raced the ball up the floor and Moore had a good look on a 3-pointer from the right wing, but the ball glanced off the rim.

Dawkins grabbed the rebound and had a 12-foot baseline jumper to tie the game, but it missed and the ball went out of bounds off an Okeechobee player with 0.3 seconds remaining in the game.

Sebring's last attempt was waved off to give Okeechobee the close win.

"We had a couple of good looks to either win the game or tie it and just couldn't get the ball to fall for us," said Lee. "At the end we made a mistake because with only 0.3 seconds left, you can't catch the ball and shoot, you can only tip it.

"There were a lot of teaching points in the game and that's what the preseason is all about and we'll learn from it and strive to get better."

The Preseason Classic concludes tonight with Okeechobee and LaBelle playing at 6 p.m., while Sebring takes on Bartow, which routed LaBelle in Tuesday's first game, at 7:30 p.m. in the Blue Streak gym.