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Basketball: Lely girls beat rival Naples for 4A-12 district title
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Basketball: Lely girls beat rival Naples for 4A-12 district title
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IMMOKALEE — It took a dozen years, but the Lely girls basketball team finally won another district title — in head coach Brandon Miller’s first season.
After two years of being beaten by Naples in the Class 4A-12 final, the Trojans took this year’s trophy with a 39-27 drubbing of the Golden Eagles at Immokalee High School on Saturday night.
Lely will face South Fort Myers on Friday at 7 p.m. in the first round of regionals. South Fort Myers lost to Cypress Lake 49-42 on Saturday
“Great defense,” Miller said. “I’m so proud ... Naples came out very disciplined, but our defense was just unlike any other games I’ve seen it this season.”
Lely led 22-15 going into halftime, after a buzzer beater by Veronica Perry, but it wasn’t until midway through the third quarter that the Trojans really took control of the game.
Lely went on a 12-0 run to start the third quarter, building a 32-19 lead to begin the fourth, holding Naples to just four third-quarter points.
Victoria Howard and Manolitha Joseph led the Trojans with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Miller said Joseph played one of her best games all season on Saturday.
“She’s the fastest girl in Collier County,” Miller said. “For her to really bottle that speed and be disciplined on defense ... you saw the results of that tonight.”
Joseph, a senior, didn’t want Saturday night to be her final organized basketball game.
“I won’t be playing in college,” she said afterward. “So this is really exciting. All season we’ve been working up to this game.”
Last year, No. 2 Naples upset top-seeded Lely in the district tournament on a last-second shot, and Lely went on to lose in the first round of regionals.
The Trojans are hoping this season’s district championship leads to a longer road through regions, behind the kind of defense the Trojans were able to execute on Saturday night.
“All season we’ve been a full-court team, but lately we’ve been executing really well in the half court, so we switched it to a 3-2 half-court trap recently and it has worked great,” Miller said. “It’s hard for other teams to adjust.”
Naples, which put up a stronger fight than its recent 57-29 loss to Lely during the regular season, was led by Aimee Osceola’s 11 points.
NAPLES (27)
Brown 0 0-1 0, Prescott 3 0-0 6, Parry 0 0-0 0, Naples 0 0-0 0, Ball 0 0-0 0, Osceola 5 0-1 11, Prokop-Ervin 1 4-7 6, Moran 1 0-1 2, Baines 1 0-0 2. Totals 11 4-10 27.
LELY (39)
Joseph 4 3-3 11, Licout 1 0-0 2, Perry 1 0-0 2, Dangler 2 1-2 6, Chairez 0 4-6 4, Neill 1 0-5 2, Howard 5 2-4 12, Johnston 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 10-20 39.
Naples 7 8 4 8 —27
Lely 7 15 10 7 —39
3-point field goals: Lely (Dangler), Naples (Osceola); Team fouls: Lely 15, Naples 17. Fouled out: Baines. Technical fouls: None.
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