High school basketball: Barron Collier will face ECS in Thanksgiving tournament girls final
A roundup of Southwest Florida high school games played Friday, Nov. 26.
Girls Basketball
ECS 50, St. John Neumann 46: The Sentinels battled back from a fourth-quarter deficit to remain unbeaten this season on day two of the Barron Collier Thanksgiving tournament setting up a matchup with Barron Collier in the championship.
The Celtics ended the first half with a 23-19 lead over the Sentinels thanks to an impressive effort on the offensive boards led by Sophie McCartney. But early foul trouble kept McCartney out for crucial stretches for Neumann.
“When she’s (McCartney) in the game it’s a given we should get a rebound,” Neumann coach John Wholihan said. “We missed her when she got into some foul trouble, she missed about seven minutes tonight. It’s nice to have someone in their rebounding for you.”
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Senior guard Leah Martin-Gonzales led the Celtics finishing with 21 points which pushed her over 1,000 career points.
As the fourth quarter began the Sentinels had chipped away at the Celtics lead, bringing the game within 34-33. Needing a way to stop the Celtics' attack, ECS coach Dwayne Donnell began using a half-court trap.
“You have to do something to throw them off,” Donnell said. “Kid (McCartney) was dominating us inside, they were getting second shots I think they had 12 points in the paint. We had to do something to cover up our defense and try to keep them off the offensive glass.”
The Sentinels would take the lead thanks to a 3-pointer from Zaira Mitchell with 2:09 left in the fourth quarter and go on a 5-0 run to seal the deal.
Mitchell would finish with 12 points, while China Jenkins led all Sentinel scorers with 20 points.
“We had a full phenomenal team,” Donnell said. “We love our five, not one motto and our kids played as a team and I thought we did a great today to come and get to a championship in this tournament.”
Barron Collier 61, Dunbar 35: The Cougars used a huge second half, outscoring the Tigers 47-19 to advance to the Barron Collier Thanksgiving tournament final against ECS.
Guard Deydra Ramos led all scorers with 25 points for the Cougars as they improved to 3-0 this season.
“Deydra has been phenomenal for us I think she is one of the best players in the area,” Barron Collier coach Mike Hamburg said. “One of the big things I saw improve from her was she got to the foul line like eight or 10 times. That’s growth and that’s what we look for.”
Barron will face ECS in the final Saturday.
“We played ECS in the preseason and lost by 10,” Hamburg said. “We turned the ball over 24 times. We obviously have to keep (China) Jenkins off the boards and slow down their transition. If we can do that we can win.”
Naples 59, Lely 8: Molly Richards led all scorers with 13 points and Sydney Martin scored 10 points with 11 rebounds as the Golden Eagles took down the Trojans.
Mariner 57, Lely 37: Ashley Retiz scored 20 for Mariner while Valentina Maldonado-Reyes scored 14 and Maria Minto added 11.
Boys Basketball
Mariner 59, Naples 55: Ryan Hercek and his Tritons picked up their first win of the season in comeback fashion against Naples Friday.
Down 53-47 with 1:47 left in the fourth quarter, but over the next minute Armondo Arguilles and the Mariners' defense would turn up the intensity and go on a 10-0 run where Arguilles scored all 10 points.
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“It was a team effort I’m feeling good we got our first win of the season,” Arguilles said. “There is more to come, we have a game tomorrow.”
Arguilles would finish with 23 points to lead all Triton scorers but continuously gave praise to his teammates for the win.
“You got to fight to get wins,” Hercek said. “I thought we did that, I thought we did a pretty good job. We were down six with two minutes to go and fought back. It just always feels good to get wins in the beginning of the season.”
Palmetto Ridge 70, Estero 44: Iago Stanback led the way for Palmetto Ridge with 16.
Golden Gate 55, CSN 50: no stats provided.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: ECS, Mariner, Barron Collier and Naples all girls basketball winners
