Miami High girls basketball avenges loss to Norland, wins GMAC title
It didn’t matter when she went down writhing in pain, holding her left ankle midway through the third quarter.
When push came to shove, Miami High junior Colleen Bucknor had plenty of shoving to do on Thursday night.
After she left for the remainder of the third quarter to get her twisted ankle taped, Bucknor returned for the fourth quarter and scored 10 of her game-high 25 points to lead the Stingarees to a 61-42 victory over Norland in the GMAC championship game at Miami High.
A championship that Miami High has owned, winning five straight from 2012 to 2016, now returns to the Stings trophy case after close losses to Ferguson in each of the last two years. The win also avenged MHS’ 45-38 loss to Norland in the Junior Orange Bowl tournament over the holidays.
“Colleen is a beast,” said Miami High coach Sam Baumgarten, who watched his star player also pull down eight rebounds and record three blocked shots and a steal for good measure. “She really sucked it up and tonight she showed she really has a lot of grit. In the past, an injury like that, she might not have come back in but she knows how important she is to us now and the mission that we are on.”
The mission for Baumgarten, Bucknor and the rest of the players starts next week when they begin district play in a quest to get back to the state finals in Lakeland — one year after Bucknor’s shot underneath the basket as the buzzer sounded fell off to the side as they suffered a brutal one point loss in the championship game.
“I just had to get out there and find a way to get it done,” said Bucknor, who has multiple FBS offers but will not make a decision until next year. “Tonight we had to come out here with a lot of focus because the second half of the season is when you need to be playing your best and we feel like we’re getting where we want to be. I think about that shot last year everyday and we want to get back up there to Lakeland and take back what we felt was ours from last year.”
Bucknor scored 13 of her 25 in the first half that saw the Stingarees (20-5) take a 29-20 lead. Norland (19-6), which last won a GMAC title in 2011, came out with an 8-2 run to start the third quarter to slice its deficit to three.
That’s when Miami High went on a 16-2 run bridging the final four minutes of the third quarter and the first two minutes of the fourth to go up 47-30, all but ending the issue.
Said Baumgarten: “A good effort tonight not only by Colleen but all the girls. They bought in and really wanted some payback from when we lost to them in the Junior Orange Bowl tournament. I think they kind of remembered that.”
Ronaltha Marc and Veonce Powell led the way for Norland with 16 and 14 points, respectively.
MHS: Bucknor 25, Rachel 13, Daniels 8, Scott 5, Quinn 5, Whitley 4. NOR: Marc 16, Powell 14, Harris-Smith 6, Rolle 2, Mensah-Bell 2, Harris 2. 3-pointers: Powell 3, Rachel, Quinn, Whitley. Rebounds: Rachel 11. Assists: Whitley 5. Steels: Scott 4. Half: MHS 29-20.
This story was originally published January 31, 2019 at 9:39 PM.