Miami High falls short in rematch with nationally ranked Dr. Phillips in state semifinal
Orlando Dr. Phillips is the 18th-best team in the country, according to MaxPreps, but Miami High specializes in making everyone — no matter how talented — look ordinary or worse. Miami High torments opponents with suffocating defense, a constant search for transition buckets, and an often-undersized roster full of gritty guards and fearless forwards. It has turned the Stingarees into a perennial title contender — a fixture in Lakeland for the girls’ basketball final four — and meant Dr. Phillips, no matter its on-paper advantages, had to scrape with Miami High until the final moments Friday at the RP Funding Center.
In the end, the Stingarees didn’t quite have enough to pull off the upset, though, and fell to the Panthers, 40-31, in the Class 7A semifinals.
“If I had a crystal ball and you told me that I was going to have Dr. Phillips with 40 points at the end of the game, I would’ve told you we’d win,” coach Sam Baumgarten said, “and we didn’t.”
Miami High (23-6) took a lead into halftime and was well within striking distance near the end of the third quarter before an 8-0 run for the Panthers (29-1) crushed the Stingarees’ upset bid.
Miami High always tries to win with defense, and low-scoring games were good enough for the Stingarees to get to five straight title games, and eight in the previous 10 years. They knew they would have to be close to perfect to knock off Dr. Phillips, though, and their offense wasn’t good enough.
No one scored in double figures for Miami High, and the Stingarees shot just 26.1 percent from the field, 11.8 percent from three-point range and 31.3 percent from the free-throw line.
The free throws were particularly crippling for Miami High. The Stingarees started the fourth quarter with four straight misses at the line, and the Panthers steadily built an insurmountable lead in a game without basically any semblance of consistent offense.
It was a typical Miami High showing. Neither the Stingarees nor Dr. Phillips cracked 20 points before halftime, and neither led by more than four points until the fourth quarter. Miami High took an 18-17 lead into halftime and trailed the Panthers 26-23 at the end of the third, setting up another tight finish between between the Stingarees and Dr. Phillips inside George Jenkins Arena.
A year ago, Miami High blew an eight-point lead to the Panthers in the final 5:03 of the 7A championship. In the rematch, the Stingarees again faded in the fourth.
After Miami High’s second set of misses at the line, Dr. Phillips point guard Trinity Taylor drove to the rim, rebounded her own miss and finished a putback to get the Panthers’ lead up to 28-23. The Stingarees tried a long pass on the ensuing inbound and overthrew everyone, prompting a timeout from Baumgarten to regroup. On Dr. Phillips’ next possession, Panthers center Elise Horn scored on a putback, and Dr. Phillips took its largest lead of the game — until the final minute — at 32-23.
“What might have killed us,” senior wing Alexie Sanchez said, “was the boards.”
The Panthers finished with a 43-31 edge on the glass and 14 offensive rebounds. Although Dr. Phillips only shot 33.3 percent from the field and 11.8 percent from deep, the Panthers shot 30 percent better at the line and made up for their turnovers by stealing extra possessions on the glass.
With 14 points, Dr. Phillips’ fourth quarter was its highest scoring period.
“If we hit some free throws, it’s a different game. If we hit some threes, it’s a different game,” Baumgarten said. “I think we pull it off.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 3:30 PM.