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Canterbury Ends Drought

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By RICK HARMON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 10, 2008

TAMPA - Sarasota Christian can't get to Canterbury soon enough.

Following the Crusaders' 66-55 Class 1A-District 11 victory against Citrus Park Christian on Saturday, Canterbury coach Dave Smith is looking forward to playing someone other than a district opponent.

He will get his wish Thursday when his Crusaders (14-7) host Sarasota Christian (19-7) in the 1A-Region 3 quarterfinals. Canterbury will be making its sixth regional appearance but will be entering as a district champ for the first time since 1977. That's the same year the Crusaders recorded their only regional win.
Citrus Park (6-16) will travel to Bradenton Christian (23-4) on Thursday for the Eagles' first regional appearance.

Canterbury jumped to a 25-8 first-quarter lead as its stingy, trapping defense was working again - as it did against Academy at the Lakes in the semifinals.

"We came out with the attitude that we wanted to trap and use our athleticism in the first quarter to get the lead," Smith said. "We forced them into a lot of turnovers. Then we found ourselves in foul trouble in the middle of the game, so we had to change up a bit."

Leading scorer Brandon Hamilton picked up three fouls while Adam Graves, James Gray and John Lancaster each had two at halftime.

"We had to sit back a little bit on defense, and that's not what we do well," Smith said. "Then in the fourth quarter, we said, 'Hey, let's go out and get back into our trap and make them come after us.' It worked well. We hit a couple of layups and we were tough at the foul line in the fourth quarter."

Hamilton picked up his fourth foul with three minutes left in the third quarter and Lancaster got his fourth with 2:00 left in the third.

But neither fouled out and Hamilton spent the majority of the fourth quarter at the foul line - hitting 13 of 18 in the final eight minutes. He finished with 28 points, including 18 free throws and Lancaster finished with 21, including three first-half 3-pointers

Pierre Komandur led the Eagles with 21 points.

Reporter Rick Harmon can be reached at (813) 259-7341 or rharmon@tampatrib.com.

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