Offensive woes cost Deerfield Beach girls in state semifinals for second straight year
The game was ugly in so many ways for the Deerfield Beach girls’ basketball team and for the second year the Bucks came up short in the Class 9A semifinals, losing this time to Apopka Wekiva, 52-39, at the RP Funding Center on Friday.
Shooting woes plagued the Deerfield offense as it did a year ago in semifinal loss to Miami.
Wekiva will play either the Stingarees or Orlando Oak Ridge on Saturday at 7 p.m. for the 9A championship.
Deerfield Beach coach Tami Vaughn wasn’t amused by her team’s poor shooting, specifically under the basket. With a lack of perimeter offense, the Bucks had no other choice but to go low.
“Our shooting wasn’t very good,” Vaughn said. “Making layups has been a mental downfall for us the past couple of games. We go through drill in practice, but I think it’s the atmosphere and nervousness.
“It was the state finals and I think we were just nervous.”
Regardless of why, the Bucks (18-10) shot only 30.2 percent from the field and only 50 percent on free throws. In last years semifinal setback, Deerfield only shot 21.3 percent from the field.
The lone bright spot for Deerfield was guard DenAsia Mitchell, who finished with 18 points. No other player was above eight points for the Bucks.
“We needed to keep attacking even though nothing was working,” said Mitchell.
As bad as the Bucks’ performance was in the first half, somehow, they only trailed 26-20. As it was through much of the game, the Deerfield missed chances against Wekiva (25-6) were from normally simple lay-ups.
“Deerfield is huge,” said Wekiva coach Tommie Butts, who was previously the coach at Blanche Ely. “We wanted to make sure we provided pressure wit the guards. We didn’t want and easy shots for them in the paint.”
In the end, the Bucks’ 39 points marked the sixth time they scored less than 40 points in a loss.
This story was originally published March 1, 2019 at 8:39 PM.
