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NCT: Second To One

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By CHRIS BERNHARDT JR.

Hernando Today

Published: December 11, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Throughout its five-year history, Nature Coast Technical has enjoyed consistent district prosperity, never failing to reach regionals.

Likewise Gulf High has advanced into the state playoffs in three of the past four years, finishing as the runner-up in Class 4A, District 8 to the Lady Sharks last season.

But the emergence of Wiregrass Ranch as a contender means one of those two perennial district powers could be in the unaccustomed spot of the outside looking in.

The Lady Bulls own victories over both Nature Coast and Gulf and currently sit atop the 4A-8 standings at 7-0.

Meanwhile the Lady Buccaneers visited the Lady Sharks Thursday night in a dead heat for second at 4-1.

In what likely ranks as its most encouraging victory of the young campaign, Nature Coast controlled the tempo from the start and cut off a handful of Gulf rallies en route to a 51-40 triumph.

"It's big," Lady Shark point guard Crystal Anthony said. "It puts us in second in the district. All we've got to do is finish Wiregrass now and get one more win versus Gulf. This is what we needed to jumpstart our push for first."

Strong guard play

Anthony and backcourt mate Jenn Marshall paved the way for Nature Coast (8-2 overall, 5-1 4A-8), combing for 27 points and generally keeping an up-tempo pace.

The junior Marshall finished with game-highs of 16 points and three steals. The senior Anthony scored 11 to go along with nine assists.

"Every time I looked up to her and she had the ball, I pushed as hard as I could and she had the perfect pass to me every time," Marshall said. "We always get out in transition. We have a lot of speed on this team so we use it."

A non-descript first half produced a 22-16 Lady Shark advantage. Forward Shareka Maner, Nature Coast's leading scorer on the season, opened the third quarter with her first basket of the contest, 24-16.

Brittany Brosnan and Nicole Adams hit on consecutive three-pointers to pull Gulf (6-2 overall, 4-2 4A-8) to within two, 24-22, but the Lady Sharks went on a 12-2 run.

After Maner helped break the Lady Buc trap with a nice pass to Marshall for a lay-up, Anthony found Maner for a fast-break hoop to open up a 32-22 edge.

Maner's putback made it 36-24, though Gulf closed the gap to 36-32 entering the fourth quarter.

Again Nature Coast answered, going back up by 10, 42-32, when Anthony hit Marshall for a lay-up, then curled around the defense for her own basket at the 5:53 mark.

The Lady Bucs got as close as four once more, on a pair of free throws by Adams, 42-38. Anthony dished to Maner and Marshall for two separate scores to open the lead back to double digits, 49-39.

Despite a scoreless first half, Maner finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds, two steals and a block.

Conversely, the Lady Sharks held the sophomore Adams, averaging 23.5 points per game at the start of the week, to just two field goals and 13 points.

The star point guard also had just one assist and one steal, well below her averages of 5.0 and 3.8 respectively.

"They did a nice job of keeping the ball out of her hands," Gulf Head Coach Mike Quarto said. "We have to do a better job of getting the ball to her. We also need to do a better job of understanding what they're doing so we can find another option.

"It's a big game, a district game, a road game, but it's a game in December. Hopefully by the first week of February we'll be playing our best basketball."

Also for Gulf, junior forward/center Kianna Mills tallied just 10 points, short of her 18.2 average, though she did pull down 11 boards.

"I think the key to Gulf is Nicole Adams," Nature Coast Head Coach Travis Lamle said. "Her and Kianna are the two big ones. We did everything we could do to stop them.

"We opened up in a little man (defense). We chased (Adams) everywhere. If she went to take a drink, we chased her there, too. We tried mixing things up to confuse her. We didn't want her to get the same look over and over again.

"…It's where we wanted to be. We've got Wiregrass next week. We've got to take it one step at a time. This was our first stepping stone."

NATURE COAST 51, GULF 40
Qtr. Scoring 1 2 3 4
Gulf 10 6 16 8 — 40
Nature Coast 16 6 14 15 — 51
Gulf (40): Brosnan 3 1-2 9, Seybold 0, Mills 2 6-12 10, Adams 2 8-8 13, Jones 2 0-0 4, McAuliffe 2 0-0 4, Melgard-Cyman 0. Totals 11 15-22 40.
Nature Coast (51): Helfand 0, Joens 2 0-0 4, Maner 4 2-3 11, Anthony 4 1-3 11, Marshall 6 4-6 16, Johnson 3 0-0 7, Byrd 1 0-0 2, Hattaway 0, Bossey 0. Totals 20 7-12 51.
Three-point field goals: GUL 3 (Brosnan 2, Adams); NCT 4 (Anthony 2, Johnson, Maner).
Total fouls: GUL 14; NCT 16.
Technical fouls: none.
Fouled out: Jones (GUL).
Records: Gulf (6-2 overall, 4-2 4A-8), Nature Coast (8-2 overall, 5-1 4A-8).

Sports writer Chris Bernhardt Jr. can be reached at (352) 544-5288 or cbernhardt@hernandotoday.com.

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