Dillard girls’ 10th state championship made more special because of standout seniors
After 10 state championships, it can start to get tough to distinguish one from the other for Dillard girls’ basketball. Marcia Pinder has been at the helm for all 10, eight of which have come since 2004.
The coach knew this latest one would be particularly special. Genovea Johnson and Raven White are a rarity in the modern landscape of high school basketball, especially at a public school. The two star seniors have been at Dillard since they were in middle school.
“I guess I’m still stunned,” Pinder said at her postgame press conference. “It hasn’t sunk in yet, but for these young ladies — especially Genovea and Raven, who’ve been in the program since middle school — it means a lot.”
On Saturday, their long journey through the Fort Lauderdale public school culminated at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. Johnson and White helped carry Dillard to its 10th state championship with a 43-40 win against Ponte Vedra Nease at George W. Jenkins Arena. The championship is Dillard’s first since 2015 and comes at the end of a relatively significant rebuilding process. When Johnson and White were sophomores in 2017, Dillard didn’t even qualify for the region playoffs.
For the majority of the 7A title game in Lakeland, Johnson and White carried Dillard. White, who has signed a National Letter of Intent with the Southern Jaguars, held star Nease center Camille Hobby, who has signed with the North Carolina State Wolfpack, to only nine points, then scored Dillard’s only field goal in the fourth quarter. Johnson, who also signed with Southern, was the focal point of the 19-point third quarter, which gave Dillard (26-5) the breathing room it needed to hang on.
Nease (29-2) opened the second half with a bucket and Johnson answered with a pull-up jumper in the lane to put Dillard back ahead 21-20. Two minutes later, Johnson sliced through the lane and finished a circus layup through a pair of defenders to stretch the lead out to 27-23. A possession later, Johnson drove and kicked out to the left corner for a three-pointer by Ling, then sought out the sophomore in the same corner again less than a minute later. Ling, who scored a game-high 11, fell to the floor as her second straight three fell through the net and gave Dillard a 33-25 lead.
Dillard unloaded for 19 in the third. All 19 coming from three-pointers, free throws or shots in the paint.
“Everybody knows my game. I know my game,” Johnson said at the postgame press conference. “Me going to the basket allows a lot of other things to open up, so if it’s not a basket for me, it’s for someone that will score.”
Johnson finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists, then Dillard stalled. Nease opened the fourth on a 4-0 run to cut Dillard’s lead to 32-27 with 6:35 left and Dillard called a timeout. Dillard only took two more shots the rest of the way, one of which was an and-one by White to give Dillard a 41-36 lead with 2:30 remaining.
White finished with nine points and six rebounds. Like Johnson, she has also been at Dillard since middle school, so Pinder remembers a time she was basically hopeless on the court.
“She couldn’t chew bubblegum,” Pinder said. “I’d hate to see her come in the gym because I knew she was going to fall at least 15 times.”
Her and-one was the difference. Nease had a chance to tie the game with a three in the final seconds, but a jumper by star guard Kiya Turner, who has signed with the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, hit back rim. Johnson pulled down the rebound and Dillard’s 10th championship celebration was on.
Pinder, who has been coach for all 10 titles, doesn’t have retirement plans any time soon and teams like this are why. Dillard is one of only two public schools in Broward County with both middle and high schools, so Pinder gets to see growth like she did from White and Johnson.
Most of Pinder’s championships haven’t been driven by players who come up through Dillard’s middle school program. In her dream world, this would be the model for No. 11 and beyond.
“Not yet,” Pinder said, “but it’s coming.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2019 at 4:04 PM.
