Miami girls weather foul trouble and a long scoring drought to reach state championship
Colleen Bucknor had to be patient through the entire second quarter Friday. With 25 seconds left in the first quarter, the star junior picked up her second foul and immediately shuffled to the Miami bench. The Stingarees would have to survive without their all-state forward.
It was exactly what Miami did for the next eight minutes — survived. The Stingarees held on to their two-point lead despite an extended scoring drought, then could let Bucknor take over in the third. Bucknor immediately converted an and-one to start the third quarter and Miami pulled away from Orlando Oak Ridge in the period. A two-point lead became 14 and the Stingarees could ease into the 9A girls’ basketball championship with a 43-32 win at the RP Funding Center.
“Big third quarter. She brought energy,” coach Sam Baumgarten said after the win. “She got her hands on balls. She got the steals. ... Getting around the basket, she missed some gimmes, but she was around there. She’s so dynamic for us, so she’s a big part of what we do.”
Miami will return to George W. Jenkins Arena at 7 p.m. on Saturday for a title-game meeting with Wekiva Apopka, who advanced to the championship with a 52-39 win against Deerfield Beach earlier Friday.
The Stingarees (21-5) never could find any sort of offensive rhythm in the first half against Oak Ridge’s zone defense. With Bucknor sidelined, Miami went 7:18 without scoring from the 2:01 mark of the first quarter until 3:01 remained in the second. By then, Pioneers (18-15) had pulled ahead. The Stingarees needed Shenikah Rachel to bail them out.
The senior post player, who finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, closed the quarter on a personal 6-0 run to push Miami’s lead back to 15-13 when Bucknor could return to the court.
Bucknor immediately jolted the Stingarees, grabbing an offensive rebound and going end to end for an and-one. With Bucknor on the court, Miami outscored Oak Ridge by 22 points.
A year ago, Bucknor was at the center of Miami’s heartbreaking loss in the state championship. The forward had a chance to win the game with a late layup and missed. Against Wekiva (24-6) on Saturday, Bucknor will have a chance at redemption and Baumgarten hopes the time spent on the bench to collect herself will be good for Bucknor.
“I think it was maybe good for her because she’s living off what happened last year, too. She wants to redeem herself,” Baumggarten said. “I’m sure there was a little nerves there. She wants to aim to please all the time, so I think the sitting was actually good for her and I think she got her thoughts together and she had a really good second half.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2019 at 9:53 PM.
