Prep girls basketball: Gulf Coast loses at Tampa Bay Tech in 8A regional final
TAMPA -- Gulf Coast entered Friday's Class 8A region final knowing it would have to keep Tampa Bay Tech's forwards off the boards if the Sharks wanted to return to the girls basketball state final four.
Unfortunately, they allowed one too many offensive boards at the wrong time when Tampa Bay Tech forward Auryel Perkins rebounded a miss by Shannon Lose with 50 seconds left in regulation and scored to boost the Titans' lead to 53-50.
After a miss by Sharks guard Mya Giusto seconds later, Perkins grabbed the defensive board and rifled a pass downcourt to a streaking K'Nisha Godfrey. Giusto sank two free throws after.being fouled on the Sharks' next possession that shrank the deficit to 55-52.
Titans forward Janae Thomas missed her first free throw after being fouled with 3.5 seconds left. A violation on the second free throw gave the Sharks a glimmer of hope but they were unable to get a clean shot off at the end of the game.
"We just dug ourselves too big of a hole to overcome," Gulf Coast coach Mark Woodruff said. "We allowed them to control the boards in the first half and they took us out of our game."
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The Titans outrebounded the Sharks 35-22.
Tampa Bay Tech advanced to the state semifinals in Lakeland on Friday, March 2 at either 2 or 4 p.m.
The Sharks (25-3) reached the state semifinals a year ago and traveled to Tampa Bay Tech (26-3) with extreme confidence that they would exceed last season's result.
The Titans, though, came into Friday's match-up with similar bravado, especially considering they were on an 11-game winning streak.
Tampa Bay Tech had outscored opponents 64-32 before its game against Gulf Coast, and it looked like the Titans were on their way to another blowout when they scored eight straight points in the second quarter to take a 22-16 lead into halftime.
"Defense, defense, defense," Titans coach Reggie Lawrence said. "We knew they would be a tough opponent and we stressed defensive pressure the entire week leading up to the game."
The Titans increased their lead in the third quarter after Sharks guard Jordan Cloutier was accidentally elbowed in the paint trying to get a rebound. At the end of the third, the Sharks trailed 40-28 and seemed on the verge of being routed.
That's when junior guard Yasmeen Chang, a Miami commit, caught fire, scoring 15 of her game-high 21 points to will Gulf Coast back into the game. Her heroic efforts fell short, though.
"Yasmeen was awesome," Sharks junior forward Sydney Eugene said. "She got us going and we almost pulled off the comeback win. This hurts but it will motivate us for next year."