Twins Taliyah, Tatyana Wyche power American Heritage girls to 3rd straight state title
They present the sort of matchup nightmare not many teams in Florida can handle. Taliyah Wyche is 6-3 and a near-automatic double-double for Plantation American Heritage. Tatyana Wyche, her twin sister, is the same. Together, the sisters have helped turned American Heritage into a girls’ basketball juggernaut.
It took until 45 seconds were gone in the third quarter for the Patriots to even turn elsewhere for scoring. The Wyche sisters, who combined to score 47 points in the Class 5A championship Saturday, scored the first 28 for American Heritage.
“The game plan,” coach Greg Farias said, “was feed the beast inside.”
Without anyone other than the twins scoring, the Patriots still took a 14-point lead into halftime and never let Pensacola Pine Forest come any closer in the second half. There was no answer for Pine Forest and American Heritage cruised to a 51-33 win in Lakeland for its third consecutive state championship.
The Patriots (25-4) join Dillard and South Broward as the only teams in Broward County history to win three state titles in a row. They’re only the 14th team in state history to win three in a row. Before 2018, American Heritage had never even been to a state-championship game. Now the Patriots have the longest active state-title streak in the Florida High School Athletic Association.
The game plan was simple Saturday at the RP Funding Center. The Eagles (21-5) only list one player taller than 5-10 and 6-1 center Destini Ladd comes off the bench. American Heritage immediately started to feed the Wyches inside.
Taliyah Wyche opened the successful post-up, then scored on a cut to the rim off a steal by guard Maurissa Edwards. The junior opened the game on a personal 8-0 run, cutting backdoor to the basket twice more for open layups while her sister drew attention on the other side of the paint.
“I felt that I was going to get the ball a lot only because our guards — they pass a lot,” Taliyah Wyche said. “They’re not selfish, so I knew I was going to get the ball a lot. They handled a lot of pressure.”
Taliyah Wyche scored 10 in the first quarter on 5-of-6 shooting, 14 in the first half and finished the game with 31 points and 11 rebounds on 13-of-22 shooting. Tatyana Wyche scored four in the first quarter, 12 in the first half and finished the game with 16 points and 13 rebounds on 6-of-12 shooting. American Heritage took a 26-12 lead into halftime with all 26 points coming from the Wyche sisters.
All 19 of the field goals the Wyches made — and all 20 of the Patriots’ — were in the paint. They primarily scored by simply overpowering the defenders in the post, but also hit a few short face-up jumpers, and relied on their teammates to find them as cutters or on dump-offs. Small forward December Stubbs, who scored three points and the only other field goal on a layup 45 seconds into the third quarter, led American Heritage with nine assists. Daniella Aronsky, who averages more than 12 points per game and scored 18 in the 5A semifinals Thursday against Bradenton Southeast, only even attempted two shots and scored just one point on a free throw with 1:05 left, although the junior also handed out four assists.
The Patriots assisted on 14 of their 20 field goals.
“I just wanted to win,” Aronsky said. “They were going off, so just keep giving them the ball. They were kind of keying on my shots because I hit some shots last game, so give it to whoever’s going to keep scoring.”
Farias interjected.
“We never care about who the top scorer is or nothing like that,” the coach said. “We cheer each other on. Wherever the mismatch is, as coaches we’ve got to adjust and today it was these two.”
Those two will be back next season as American Heritage tries to make it four in a row. Aronsky will be back, too. Although Stubbs and Edwards are both graduating, the pieces are still in place for the Patriots to make a run at another bit of history.
Only five teams in the state have ever won four consecutive state championships, including the two others from Broward. As soon as the final buzzer sounded at George Jenkins Arena, the American Heritage contingent in the crowd started to chant “three-peat” again and again.
Twelve months from now, the plan is for those fans to chant “four-peat” instead.
“We’re going to miss the leadership, but with the twins and Dani coming back there’s a core that anybody in the state of Florida — in the nation — would love to have,” Farias said. “I’m blessed to have it back.”
This story was originally published February 29, 2020 at 5:24 PM.
