Tough defense and balanced scoring leads Miami High to GMAC girls’ basketball title
Playing stingy defense has been its identity for years.
So has taking on the best of the best early in order to prepare for the tough road to Lakeland.
For the Miami High girls’ basketball team, the formula is still working.
The Stingarees smothered rival Norland on Thursday night at the Miami Jackson High gym en route to a 49-20 victory which secured them the GMAC championship.
Miami High (13-8) held the Vikings (9-8) to only 10 points in each half a year after it was denied the GMAC crown by its longtime rival.
Beginning with districts next week, the Stingarees are gearing up for a run at a fifth state title and second in the past two seasons after losing in the 7A final last year.
“We pride ourselves on defense like we always do,” Miami High coach Sam Baumgarten said. “I think today was a great example of that.”
Diamelys Morena led the Stingarees with 11 points while Sydney Wilson totaled 10 points.
Miami High used its size advantage to smother a Norland squad missing two starters on the defensive end and pick up key points in transition at the other end.
Danajah Peterson had eight rebounds and five steals while Cameron Araujo had five assists.
Miami High navigated through a tough early portion of its schedule which included nationally-ranked teams and others ranked high in the state and opened the season 1-6.
“We played seven of the top 13 (ranked) teams on MaxPreps,” Baumgarten said. “That’s only going to get us better. In the end, it seems to be working out and in a game like this, if we hadn’t played those games, our kids might have been nervous, but they were not. They were ready.”
The experience was worth it as the Stingarees appear to be hitting their stride just before the postseason, winning 12 of their past 14 games.
The Stingarees recently got their starting point guard Janay Quinn back in their lineup after she missed a month with an injury. Quinn is averaging 12 points, 4.4 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 2.8 steals per game.
““Our depth is pretty good and the team chemistry this year is wonderful,” Baumgarten said. “This is one year that you can go down Class 7A and anybody can win it. I think we have the team to do it and if Janay can start clicking again with our group we can do it. We have a lot of weapons so let’s see how it goes.”
COACHING MILESTONES
Miami High’s victory was Baumgarten’s 300th of his career.
Baumgarten, who has coached at Miami High for nearly three decades along with his parents, Sam and Jeanette and now his brother, Nick, have led the Stingarees to all four of their state titles and five state runner-up finishes.
Norland’s victory over Miami Killian in the semifinals on Tuesday was also the 500th career win for longtime Vikings coach Carla Harris.
Under Harris, the Vikings have won two state titles and finished state runner-up three times.
