Westminster Academy’s one-two punch leads Lions to Class 3A girls’ basketball title game
The Westminster Academy girls’ basketball team’s combination of senior Claire Erickson and freshman Lena Girardi has been almost unstoppable all season.
That was the case again on Wednesday.
The duo’s latest high-level performance paid dividends in Westminster Academy’s 69-52 rout of Tallahassee FSU High in a Class 3A state semifinal at Lakeland’s RP Funding Center.
The Lions (26-5), looking for their third-ever girls’ basketball state title and first since 1991, will face Sarasota Cardinal Mooney at 4:30 p.m. Friday for the Class 3A title. It’s a rematch of a regular season game played on Dec. 31. Cardinal Mooney won that game, 57-55.
Westminster Academy hasn’t lost since.
“We’ll be ready,” Lions coach Shannon Wallhoff said.
They were certainly ready on Wednesday.
Westminster Academy fired on all cylinders, shooting 57.5 percent from the field as a team and holding Florida High (20-4) to a 30-percent shooting efficiency. The Lions held the edge in points in the paint (26-22) and second-chance points (16-11).
And it was that one-two punch of Girardi and Erickson paving the way.
Girardi posted a double-double, scoring 27 points and adding 14 rebounds. Erickson, the lone senior on this eight-player Westminster Academy team, added 22 points of her own on 6 of 10 shooting (including a 4-of-5 mark from three-point range). Junior Taelyn Carey also quietly had a solid game with 5 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.
“They’re workhorses,” Wallhoff said. “They want to win. They’re winners. They’re competitors. I’m blessed to have them on this team. They want to win, and they’re gonna show you that. They did today.”
Girardi and Erickson have been the anchor of this team all year, a team that finally ended a five-year drought of losing to Miami Country Day in the regional final to get back into the state title conversation.
Once they got to Lakeland, they had no intentions of the trip being a one-game affair. The two combined for 31 points in the first half to help the Lions take a 42-22 lead into intermission. The lead remained 20 points after the third quarter, and FSU High got no closer than 13 points the rest of the way.
“No matter where I am on the court, I know she’s gonna make herself known to me,” Erickson said of Girardi. “Even when I miss a shot, I know she’s going to be working hard, getting the board and shooting. She’s always there.”
The two will be there for each other for one more game with the chance to win the school’s first girls’ basketball title in more than three decades.
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 5:26 PM.
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