American Heritage routs Bishop Moore to win fifth consecutive girls’ basketball state title
As Ta’Niya Latson took the ball up the court with two minutes left, the message from coach Greg Farias was simple.
Find a way to get a stoppage in place, a chance for Farias to take his three seniors out and personally congratulate him.
The game had decided long before that. Plantation American Heritage’s fifth consecutive girls’ basketball state title, this time a 69-31 blowout over Orlando Bishop Moore for the Class 5A crown, was all but a formality.
So Latson got fouled driving to the basket.
After she made her first free throw, Joey Delancy and Emani Theodule made their way to the bench, getting a hug from Farias along the way.
Then Latson hit her second free throw for her swan song. She walked off the court, a smile on her face, and embraced Farias as one of the final possessions played out on the court before celebrating with her teammates.
“It was well deserved,” Farias said. “They put in so much work during the summer, three days a week in our gym working on fundamentals to get better, and it was led by them. Honored to have them.”
Those three — Latson, Delancy and Theodule — were the key to American Heritage’s latest run capped by the most lopsided state championship game victory during the five-year run and the most one-sided state championship win by a Broward girls’ basketball team since Deerfield Beach’s 94-38 win over Palm Beach Lakes in the 2003 Class 6A title game. American Heritage also became just the third team in state history to win at least five consecutive girls’ basketball state titles, joining Jacksonville Ribault (five from 1999-2003) and Miami Country Day (six from 2014-2019).
After the blowout, one in which American Heritage (25-4) had a running clock going midway through the third quarter, Farias said this title run was the most special of the five outside of maybe the first one.
Why?
“People gave us no kinds of kudos that we were going to come back,” Farias said.
Four of their top players from a year ago were gone — twins Taliyah and Tatyana Wyche are playing at the University of Florida, Daniella Aronsky is at Emory University and Sydney Shaw transferred to DME Academy. Delancy, who transferred to American Heritage from Nova her junior year, was the only starter back from that team.
There was talent coming to replenish what they lost. Latson, a McDonald’s All-American who signed with Florida State, transferred in from Atlanta Westlake. Theodule was returning from a torn ACL. Sydni Studesville and Gaby Dumas, both juniors, were ready to take the next step.
“We stuck together,” Delancy said, “and we played together.”
Added Theodule: “We were all puzzle pieces, and it all fell into place.”
And Latson: “We all had our individual roles and we knew that we had one goal — one mission — and that was to win state.”
They did that — convincingly.
American Heritage went up 5-0 in the first 16 seconds against Bishop Moore on a Theodule three-pointer and a Delancey layup after a steal. Bishop Moore called timeout. The Patriots knew the game was theirs.
“That timeout was a momentum-changer for us,” Delancy said. “We knew we had them.”
The Patriots pushed their lead to 21-4 after the first quarter, 43-16 at halftime and 59-24 after three quarters before cruising in the fourth quarter.
Latson led all scorers with 24 points while adding 10 rebounds, seven assists, three blocks and three steals. Theodule scored 15 points and had five rebounds. Delancy added 14 points, six rebounds and three assists.
“We did what we had to do,” Latson said. “We beat them early and got to sit down early.”
Not long after, they got to celebrate.
“It was tough,” Farias said, “but people didn’t realize that we have a system. You’ve got to buy into the defense. You’ve got to put in the work. We did that.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 5:16 PM.
.JPG)