Girls Basketball playoffs: ECS advances to regional final; Fort Myers, Neumann eliminated

Coverage of Tuesday night's girls' basketball regional semifinals.

Class 2A-Region 3

Evangelical Christian 50, Seacrest 18

Playing Seacrest for the third time this season, ECS raced out to a big lead and then switched up its rotations to get some bench players more time.

The Sentinels’ offense may have wavered with the change, but their defense stayed on point.

ECS allowed two layups within the game’s first four minutes and the Stingrays wouldn’t score a field goal again until Hanna Valdes hit a layup with 3:04 left in the game. In between Seacrest converted eight free throws in the second quarter and went scoreless in the third as the Sentinels advanced to the Region 2A-3 final with a 50-18 victory.

“Most teams try to stop you three times in a row. This team maybe stops you 13 times in a row,” ECS coach Dwayne Donnell said. “Janiyah Church brings tremendous energy. Everybody tries to find stat lines and listen to points and stats. That ain’t what this team is about. Janiyah Church is a huge part, integral to us because she disrupts everything you're trying to do. She tries and she does make it difficult for you, which allows us to get out and run and do some other things behind the girls.”

The Sentinels (23-4) will host St. Pete Keswick Christian (22-7), which downed St. John Neumann 60-45, with a date at the Final Four on the line Friday night.

Region Quarterfinals: Fort Myers, ECS, St. John Neumann, Seacrest girls basketball score wins

Girls Basketball Regionals: See which 9 SWFL teams reached the FHSAA playoffs

“We’re just going to be doing the same thing we've been doing, just being aggressive, getting after it, playing good D, running our offense, going to the rim, getting rebounds,” said ECS sophomore Maddie O’Berski, who scored game-high 20 points. “I mean, as long as we play like we can play, I'm not too worried. But I'm definitely staying with that mindset, getting after them, going quick, Playing good D.”

Donnell wasn’t looking forward to playing St. John Neumann for a third time because of the familiarity the teams have with one another so he sees Keswick as a fresh challenge.

“We don't know them, they don't know us, so we're gonna go out and play 32 minutes of great basketball and try to play our style and hopefully be able to be successful.”

ECS came out quick against Seacrest, building a 15-4 lead after one quarter with O’Berski burying two 3-pointers. O’Berski added another 3 among her five second-quarter points and Zaira Mitchell scored nine as the Sentinels built a 36-12 lead at the break. Seacrest’s only points in the second quarter were 8-of-9 free throws made by Madison D’Elia.

Seacrest’s offense suffered a blow when starting point guard Ty’Nazia Smith fouled out with 3:16 left in the third quarter. Playing with only seven players and no seniors, Stingrays coach Nikita Carty said the experience of playing in the big game should help his team in the future.

“Other girls were able to handle the ball, handle the pressure in big games so they know how to handle pressure, what it feels like,” said Carty, whose team finished 13-11. “So good experience for them. We learned from it. Everything is a lesson, we’ll move forward, we’ll learn and we'll be back and better next year.”

− Ed Reed

Keswick Christian 60, St. John Neumann 45

Keswick Christian’s defense helped propel the Crusaders (22-7) to a 60-45 win over St. John Neumann (19-8) in the Region 2A-3 semifinal.

With one of the area’s best players in Sophia McCartney out with a hand injury, the Celtics struggled to find any offensive rhythm in the loss. The Crusaders’ full-court press was an immediate issue for St. John Neumann, as Keswick Christian forced several early turnovers and jumped out to a 12-6 lead five minutes into the first quarter.

The story continued in the second period as the Celtics struggled to get the ball past half-court, and the Crusaders turned good defense into even better offense.

As the first half expired, St. John Neumann shifted their press break and went on a 7-0 run, ending the half down 26-17 despite constant turnovers and a cold shooting start.

“We didn’t take good care of the ball in the first half,” said Celtics head coach John Wholihan. “We just didn’t make shots either. Give them credit, they played good defense, And we had shots that we wanted, we just didn’t make them.”

To start the second half, Sydney Martin hit a triple for St. John Neumann, then knocked down a free-throw to cut the deficit to 28-21. That is the closest the Celtics would get, however, as more turnovers gave the Crusaders easy transition buckets and the third frame ended 38-30 in Keswick Christian’s favor.

In a game that could’ve quickly slipped out of control, the Celtics stayed in fighting form despite watching their deficit grow in the fourth quarter.

The Crusaders kept their foot on the throttle, however, and outscored St. John Neumann 22-15 in the final frame to secure the 60-45 win and a trip to the regional final.

Ava Graham scored 9 of her team-high 20 points in the fourth quarter for Keswick Christian. Hannah Jantomaso was invaluable in the middle for the Crusaders, tallying 15 points while turning the battle on the boards to a full-fledged war.

Martin shouldered the load for the short-handed Celtics on offense. She finished with a game-high 21 points. Lily Wahlfeld added 9 points for St. John Neumann.

With McCartney out, Wholihan looked to his underclassmen to step into the minutes. Freshman Hailey Scheffler got the nod to start and picked up valuable postseason experience in the loss. She finished the game with four points, but Wholihan says the trial-by-fire will pay dividends down the road.

“We had a freshman and sophomore starting and they got a lot of experience the last five or six games,” Wholihan said. “You know, we’re missing Sophia. But a lot of the girls got to play and get more experience at the varsity level. I’m looking forward to the future, we’ve got some great young players. And we’ll have Sophia back, too.”

− Nick Wilson

Class 6A-Region 3

Bloomingdale 55, Fort Myers 44

Bloomingdale outscored the Green Wave 19-9 in the fourth quarter to pull away for a 55-44 regional semifinal win.

The Bulls (26-2) had five different scorers in the deciding frame, while Fort Myers relied on Jadah Toombs and Tyra Brown to score all their fourth-quarter points and 15 of their 19 second-half points. Toombs finished with 14 points while Brown scored 13 for the Green Wave, which finish the season 19-7.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: ECS girls basketball reaches regional final, Fort Myers, St. John Neumann fall