Hornets, Highlanders advance in tournament
Published: Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 4:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 7:59 a.m.
LAKE WALES - Lake Wales and Haines City high schools earned a spot in the semifinals of the Class 4A, District 9 tournament with wins on Tuesday night.
The Hornets beat Spoto, 59-46, and the Highlanders won, 55-14, over Ridge Community.
Haines City and Lake Wales will play each other at 8 p.m. Friday and top-seeded Kathleen will play Tenoroc at 6 p.m.
The Hornets started their game sluggish.
Haines City coach Ladreda Akins said she benched the starters in the first quarter because of their slow start.
"No matter how bad you beat a team (during the season), in the district (tournament), it's 0-0," Akins said. "It's anybody's game."
After falling behind 14-2 in the first quarter, the Hornets stormed back with a 13-0 run to open the second quarter.
Haines City forced 16 turnovers in the second quarter.
The Spartans scored the first five points of the third quarter, but the Hornets answered with a 15-3 run to close the quarter and kept the run going throughout the fourth quarter.
Laderricka Spillman was the leading scorer for the Hornets with 15 points.
Jasmine Acevedo added 14 and Kenya Downing had 10.
Spoto's Brianna Thomas led all scorers with 20 points.
Lake Wales started its game against Ridge with a 27-0 run in the first quarter and forced the Bolts into 18 turnovers in the opening quarter.
Many of the Highlanders' starters sat for the second quarter, but they were still able to extend the halftime lead to 47-5.
Donesha White led the Lake Wales offense with 12 points.
Lucky Tensley and Quay Nealy each had nine points. Tensley had five assists.