Western rallies past Dr. Krop for first girls’ basketball region playoff win in history
Brandie Taylor insisted her team had been there before, but really Western never had. The Wildcats, playing in the girls’ basketball region playoffs for just the second time ever, were down at halftime and their hopes of winning a region game for the first time hinged on a comeback in Ives Estates.
In this moment, history didn’t matter. What did were the close wins Western had pulled out this year. Taylor asked her players to think about those comebacks. They leaned on them to make history and rally for a 53-48 win against Dr. Krop in the Region 4-Class 7A quarterfinals Thursday.
“We’ve been here before in other games where we were down and we rallied back,” Taylor said. “They just believe in each other and we made some adjustments to light a fire.”
Wildcats swingman Jordan Pravato, nicknamed “JP3,” led all scorers with 23 and hit five three-pointers to pace Western in its comeback, outdueling Lightning guard Lindsey Weingard in The Thunderdome.
It was a far fry from Taylor’s first practices as coach in Davie six years ago. Taylor took over in 2014 after the Wildcats had spent more than 20 years in irrelevance. Before it reached the District 13-7A championship Friday, Western hadn’t been to a district final since 1980 and the Wildcats looked like it when Taylor started out. At practices, she’d have to walk out onto the court to explain what the different spots were. This is the short corner. This is the foul line extended. One time, she had to dedicate an entire portion of practice to explaining how to substitute into a game.
Last year, Western got to the region playoffs for the first time brought back three of its starters this year. The result has been already the best season in school history after a second-half comeback at Dr. Michael M. Krop High School.
On Tuesday, the Wildcats (10-6) will play in the Region 4-7A semifinals for the first time — a rematch with Gulf Coast in Naples after the Sharks beat them for the district title last week.
“It’s been a long haul,” Taylor said. “We’re happy to be making history.”
Western needed a third-quarter eruption to get there. Weingard scored 15 points in the first half and the Lightning (14-9) took a 27-21 lead into halftime. In the third quarter, Western outscored Dr. Krop, 21-6.
Pravato, who hit two corner threes in the first quarter, drained two more in the third. With the game tied at 29-29, the Wildcats found the junior in the right corner to put them ahead 32-29, then found her again in the opposite corner on the next possession to push the lead to 35-29 after starting the half on a 14-2 run. Western took a 42-33 lead into the fourth quarter and held off a final push from Dr. Krop.
After her 15-point first half, Weingard scored only five in the second. The senior — who leads 7A in scoring at more than 22 points per game, according to MaxPreps — was the focus of the Wildcats’ defense the entire night. With 16 seconds left in the first quarter, Weingard hit a 25-foot three to put the Lightining up 15-14.
“You’ve got to get out on here,” Taylor told her team at the end of the quarter. “That was a far shot, but now you know her range.”
In the second half, the Wildcats turned up its pressure, blitzing Weingard in the backcourt to get the ball out of her hands and speed up Dr. Krop’s offense. The Lightning scored only 17 points in the second half and couldn’t quite complete a comeback in the fourth, even after cutting the lead to 51-48 with 31 seconds left.
“We just had more energy,” Pravato said. “Everyone had energy on the press. Even when we made a mistake, nobody was worrying about it.”
