Miami High holds on to advance to fifth consecutive girls’ basketball title game
The Miami High girls’ basketball team started its Class 7A state semifinal in a funk. Five turnovers and five missed shots in the first five minutes put the Stingarees in an early hole against Orlando Colonial on Friday. They needed a spark, someone to put the game on her shoulders.
Who else to do that but Janay Quinn?
The senior point guard, all 5-2 of her, scored eight of her team-high 17 points to start the second quarter and give Miami High its first lead of the game. The Stingarees never trailed en route to a 56-53 win to earn their fifth consecutive appearance in a state title game.
“She’s our leader,” Miami High coach Sam Baumgarten said. “We call her our little engine that could.”
And they needed every bit they could get from Quinn considering Miami High (20-8) didn’t played near its full potential. Baumgarten knows as much. And he knows they’ll need to do more if they want to beat Orlando Dr. Phillips at 8 p.m. Saturday for the Class 7A title.
The Stingarees led by as many as 17 points, 43-26, midway through the third quarter on Friday. They should have been able to cruise down the stretch.
With 12 seconds left, the lead was down to two.
Quinn hit one of two free throws with 4.6 seconds left and Miami High stymied Colonial on its final possession to secure the win.
Overall, Miami High hit seven of 10 free throw attempts in the final 4:13 to keep its lead intact despite Colonial’s furious comeback bid.
“If we came up here with a group that’s never been here before,” Baumgarten said, “we would have lost that game.”
Luckily for Baumgarten, his team has experience. His seniors have been here each of the last three years, winning it all in 2020 and finishing as state runner-up in 2019 and 2021.
It showed early when the team fell into an 8-1 hole five minutes into the game and responded to finish the quarter down just 12-8.
“At one point, we had to look around and say, ‘Yo, we’re here. We have to pick this up,’” Quinn said. “Hopefully this stops after the first quarter.”
It mostly did, thanks to Quinn. Her eight points to start the second quarter — including a pair of three-point makes — stopped the bleeding. Her team followed suit. Miami High outscored Colonial 21-7 in the frame to go into halftime up 29-19.
And then the resilience showed up once more when the team didn’t get frazzled down the stretch as Colonial found itself one shot away from tying the game or taking the in the final possession.
“We kind of buckled a little bit,” Baumgarten said, “but I’m hopeful we just buckled in the semi and not the final.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 4:51 PM.
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