District girls basketball: Berean Christian rolls to district championship three-peat

WEST PALM BEACH — Berean Christian's young girls basketball team is growing up fast.

The Bulldogs, whose starting lineup includes a seventh-grader and an eighth-grader, dominated from the outset Friday night and rolled to a 55-29 victory over visiting Boca Raton Christian in the District 14-2A championship game.

The Bulldogs (17-6) defeated the Blazers (16-8) for the third time this season to advance to the regional quarterfinals on Wednesday at Berean Christian. As the likely No. 2 seed in Region 4, they also would host a regional semifinal if they advance.

"This team can get to state," Berean Christian coach Kevin Green said. "We got to the regional finals last year, so we'll see what happens this year."

How confident were the Bulldogs? Within minutes of the final buzzer, the players were donning "3 Peat" shirts to celebrate their third consecutive district title. Green said one of the players' parents ordered the shirts in advance -- with his blessing.

"We knew we were going to win," said eighth-grader Kalia LaBrec, who scored a team-high 18 points. "We're humble but we knew."

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Here are three takeaways from the game:

Defensive clinic

Berean's defense was suffocating in the first half, forcing 15 turnovers. When the Blazers managed to advance the ball past midcourt and get off a shot, they usually missed.

"Berean's a great team," Boca Raton Christian coach Nhu Nguyen said. "If they see opportunities where they can shove it down your throat, they'll do it."

The Blazers opened the game by going nearly six minutes without scoring, falling into an early 8-0 hole. They had nine turnovers in the first quarter. It was 11-2 after one quarter and 24-4 at halftime.

"Our girls are resilient on defense," Green said. "They give us a lot of energy and effort. In these types of games, you've got to be able to stop teams, and your defense has to be able to dominate. We did that in the first half."

The Blazers' shooting woes even extended to the foul line, where they were 0-for-8 in the first half and 7-for-21 for the game.

LaBrec heats up

While the Bulldogs were dominating on the defensive end, LaBrec was giving the offense a jump-start from long range. She scored 13 of her team's first 19 points, including a trio of three-pointers.

"I was definitely feeling it," she said. "I was feeling it before the game, too, when I was warming up. My teammates help me, they set me up, and it's all about the love. ... They always know how to find me."

When LaBrec gets into a rhythm like that, Green said, the Bulldogs make sure to get the ball to her.

"She's a gamer," he said. "That ball that you pass around is a big ball of energy, so we pass it around with love, patience, passion. It's all about hitting the right person at the right time. When you've got good ball movement, good things happen."

Seventh-grader Aliyah Harris-Green, the coach's daughter, added 13 points. Ashley Hendricks, a 6-foot-2 junior, had 11 points and six rebounds. Junior Yemeli Tavarez added seven points and a team-high 17 rebounds.

Hendricks, the team's elder stateswoman at 17, has enjoyed watching her younger teammates grow.

"I started playing basketball on this team when I was in seventh grade — I was always the youngest," she said. "Growing up with this team has been such a blessing, so now that I'm the oldest, I can help straighten out some of the girls who are younger now."

Bad News Blazers

Nguyen just shook his head when asked about the Blazers' first-half drought. 

"I just felt like there was a lid over the basket," he said. "We couldn't make a shot, we couldn't make a free throw, nothing was going in. ... You just can't win games like that."

Boca Raton Christian actually has a younger roster than Berean Christian, with three eighth-graders and no juniors or seniors. Sophomore Abigail Quinn provided the bulk of the offense for the Blazers, scoring 16 points, but no teammates scored in double figures.

"Coming into this game, I knew maturity was a factor," Nguyen said. "Berean's a little bit more mature — and tougher. But we've grown a lot in the past year and a half. Coming from last year to where we are now, it's night and day."

The Blazers are in a good position to earn an at-large bid in Region 4. Depending on how the seedings fall, a fourth meeting with the Bulldogs is a possibility.

"Hopefully we'll see them again," Nguyen said. "It's a great rivalry here."

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Berean Christian girls basketball rolls to third straight district title