Northeast’s stellar girls’ basketball season ends with deflating loss in state semifinals
Northeast High’s girls’ basketball program has often been one of the better ones in Broward County.
But this season, the Hurricanes took things to a higher level.
And Wednesday, they stood within a couple of victories of playing for a prize that has eluded their school - a state championship.
Unfortunately for Northeast, the dream season didn’t have a storybook ending.
A poor start led to a huge deficit, which the Hurricanes were unable to completely overcome before falling 54-52 to Gainesville in a Class 5A state semifinal at the RP Funding Center.
Northeast (28-3), which set a school record for most wins in a season, won its first BCAA championship and made it to the state final four for the first time since back-to-back trips in 2016 and 2017.
But those accomplishments were little consolation for top-seeded Northeast, which felt like it could have gone home with more.
“In the second half, we finally played Hurricanes basketball, but we just fell short,” said Northeast’s lone senior Nykeria Flowers, who finished with 17 points. “We came together in a short period of time and did a phenomenal job putting this together. It’s a learning process for them. It was our first time on this stage and we did pretty well, but next year they’ll be ready.”
The Hurricanes didn’t play their typical brand of basketball soon enough though, and it cost them.
Gainesville opened the game hot from 3-point range and built a 33-13 lead with 3:14 left in the first half.
Northeast chipped away thanks to its defensive pressure throughout the second half and had one last chance to secure victory in the closing seconds.
Flowers hit a pair of free throws with 22 seconds left to cut the deficit to 54-51. A turnover gave the Hurricanes the ball back with 13.2 left. Flowers drove to the rim and missed, but Jazmine Jones, who also had 17 points, drew a foul. She missed the first, but made the second free throw with 4.5 seconds left.
Northeast, however, had three fouls to give before it became an automatic foul shooting situation. Gainesville drew one foul with 1.5 left, but then inbounded the ball and time expired.
“It was a tough road. We could have won,” Jones said. “They had a quicker start. We just have to keep getting better every day and get back next year.”
Gainesville shot 9 of 16 overall from 3-point range to build its early cushion. Jamison Cardwell, Jayden Terry and Mayah Gordon accounted for eight of those triples.
“They came out hot, and (Gordon), we didn’t expect her to hit that many shots, but she came to play and so did her teammates,” Northeast coach Lawrence Hanna said. “We started slow and on the big stage like this, you can’t do that. We fought back but we ran out of time.”
Flowers, who entered the week averaging 19.3 points per game, is a big loss for Northeast. But the Hurricanes will return the core of this year’s team, which includes Jones and Ya’Niyah Young, who had 16 points and 16 rebounds on Wednesday, in the hopes of returning to state next season.
“We accomplished more than anyone ever thought,” Hanna said. “We have one senior and bring back everyone else. We’ll be back. From the first day I told them we would make it to state. That was a seed planted. We’re here and we got a taste of it. When we get back, we have that experience now.”
