The Blanche Ely High School girls’ basketball team advances to Friday’s regional final

One teams dream season goes on, just barely.

Blanche Ely survived a scare but held on to defeat St. Thomas Aquinas 46-42 in a Class 6A regional semifinal on Tuesday at Blanche Ely High.

The Tigers (25-6) will host Dillard, a 58-49 winner over Nova, in a regional final on Friday. The Ely girls’ basketball program hasn’t won a state championship since 1992.

The victory also extended the Tigers winning streak to 15 games. They have also defeated Dillard three times this season. A fourth win will mean a trip to the state semifinal in Lakeland.

“I don’t know how many of these I have left in me,” said Blanche Ely coach Henry McNabb. “I’m just happy to be on the positive side of this win.

“I knew this was going to be competitive. St. Thomas is a great team, so I knew we were going to be in a dog fight, and it came down to the last seconds.”

Zaria Blake made Ely’s only basket of the fourth quarter, giving the Tigers a 41-39 lead with 3:28 left to play in regulation. They would never trail again.

Bella LaChance, who led the Aquinas with 13 points, scored on a short jumper with 51.3 seconds left that closed the score to 43-41.

It became a free throw contest from there.

Led by Ja’Leah Williams, four Ely players scored 11 points on the night.

“It was tough, but we made it look tough,” Williams said. “Beating Aquinas three times lets everybody know we’re not holding back and need to do what we have to do.”

The pivotal fourth quarter saw Aquinas cut into a seven-point deficit to 39-37 just seconds into the quarter.

Samara Spencer tied the score at 39-39 with 5:28 left. She finished with 11 points.

Ely opened the second half with an aggressive defense that didn’t allow Aquinas good looks at the basket. In doing so, the Tigers were able to stretch the lead to 10 points at 36-26 until the final second of the quarter.

The Raiders (20-8), which had managed only two baskets dropped a pair of 3-pointers from LaChance and Spencer.

Jaylen Ponder had a solid first half with 10 points that helped the Tigers to a 28-22 lead at the break.

The Raiders got eight points from center Angelee Rodriguez in the half as LaChance and Spencer were held to nine combined points.

▪ 4-4A Girls’ Regional semifinal — Cardinal Gibbons 59, Gulliver Prep 39: Cardinal Gibbons defensive standout Emily Jimenez wasn’t about to let Gulliver Prep scoring sensation Kaitlyn Sanders go off against the Chiefs.

Jimenez’s relentless defense on Sanders, who was coming off a career-high 45 points against Hallandale in the Region 4-4A quarterfinals, proved pivotal as the host Chiefs pulled away from a 38-20 halftime lead to defeat Gulliver Prep.

While Sanders had her way against Hallandale, finishing with six 3-pointers, she found no such operating room against Jimenez, who has carved out a niche as a defensive stopper for Chiefs coach Kevin Gordon.

“I love the challenge,” said Jimenez. “We had a lot of games where coach holds me to that standard. I felt real ready for the game. Sanders is a really good player and played well, but I saw the 45 points all over twitter and wasn’t going to let that happen. “

Sanders, who averaged over 19 points this season, had some flashes but ultimately had to work for all of her team leading 16 points.

Unlike the Raiders (17-12), who run everything through Sanders, the Chiefs (24-3) used a balanced 3-guard attack led by Jennifer Whitlow (13 points), Sharale McCormick (21 ponts) and Jimenez (16 points) to advance to Friday’s Region 4-4A Finals against the Keys Gate -Delray American Heritage winner.

Fabian Lyon

▪ Miami High 54 Gulf Coast 39: Miami High advances and will play visiting Krop at 7 p.m.

Sophomore Janay Quinn had 11 points and 5 assists in the victory. Colleen Bucknor added 11 points after sitting for 13 minutes in the first half with foul trouble. Darria Whitley had 9 points and 7- rebounds, and Kiara Cruz added 8 points and 4 steals.

BASEBALL

▪ Archbishop McCarthy 7, Doral Academy 6: DOR – Gaby Gutierrez 2R, HR, Luis Espinal 2-3.

▪ Belen Jesuit 5, West Broward 3: BEL – WP Francis Cruz, SV - Alejandro Morales, Francis Cruz 3 IP, no runs; Ryan Bertran 2 -3; R; Andy Guttierez 2-4, 2B, R; Lou DeGoti 1-3, RBI; Andrew Lamazares 1-3, 2B, R; Chris Bayo 1-1; Dorian Gonzalez 1-3, RBI, R. BEL: 1-0.

BOYS’ SOCCER

▪ Region 4-3A semifinal — University School 8, Keys Gate Charter 0: Diego Garcia four goals, Sebastian Baredes, Ethan Subachan, Joel Castellanos and Santiago Mizrahi one goal each. GK Simon Mertnoff shutout, 13th of the season. US: 18-0-2.

This story was originally published February 18, 2020 at 10:06 PM.