Westminster Academy girls basketball finally beats Miami Country Day, reaches state semis
.JPG "Westminster Academy coach Shannon Wallhoff celebrates with senior point guard Claire Erickson beating Miami Country Day in the Region 4-3A final on Friday, Feb. 18, 2022.")
The final buzzer sounded, and the small-but-mighty Westminster Academy girls basketball team broke into celebration at Miami Country Day.
And in the midst of the euphoria following a win a half-dozen years in the making, there was an emotional embrace between a coach and her senior point guard.
Shannon Wallhoff and Claire Erickson had been through all the defeats on this court each of the last five years, all the runs to the regional final only to find themselves on the losing end of that matchup.
Not this year.
They finally got over the hurdle, finally achieved what had seemed to be unachievable.
With almost every big moment running through Erickson, the Lions powered their way to a double-digit lead early and never looked back in their 47-32 win over Miami Country Day.
Westminster Academy (25-5) is now two wins away from its third-ever girls basketball state title and first since 1991. The Lions face Tallahassee FSU High at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Lakeland’s RP Funding Center in a state semifinal.
“We got it done,” Wallhoff said. “It’s amazing.”
Fittingly, it was Wallhoff’s one senior on a youth-laden team — five of her eight players are freshmen — that set the tone.
Erickson scored eight consecutive points on a pair of three-pointers and a layup as part of an overall 12-2 Westminter Academy run that put the Lions up 14-2 late in the first quarter.
Erickson didn’t score the rest of the night, but she didn’t need to. Erickson’s value on Friday — and for most of the season — came in so many other facets of the game.
“Scoring isn’t everything,” Erickson said. “Keeping everyone composed is something I take pride in. Just keeping the tempo how it should be helped a little bit today.”
She was the facilitator of the offense and a lockdown presence on defense. She set up just about every play at halfcourt, fending off steady doses of double teams by Miami Country Day and was able to get the ball in the hands of Westminster Academy’s top shooters.
“She’s one of the best point guards in Florida,” Wallhoff said. “One of my favorites to coach. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her [next year]. She’s a great facilitator, a great scorer, a great teammate, a great leader. She’s everything.”
“She’s the glue to our team,” added freshman Lena Girardi, who tied with fellow freshman Abby Price for a team-high 12 points on Friday. “Without her, we would definitely not be here. She’s been through all of them. She’s an amazing person, an amazing point guard.”
Westminster Academy went into halftime up 26-12 and extended its lead to as many as 23 points in the third quarter.
Miami Country Day (20-9), which had made it to at least the state semifinals each of the last nine years with seven state titles in that span, showed life late to cut the deficit to 15 with 3:20 left but the game was all but over at that point. Miami Country Day sophomore Kayla Nelms had a game-high 13 points.
“The team kept pushing,” Erickson said. “I’m just so proud of how we played.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 11:00 PM.
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