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Lakeland Gets Past Plant City In Final

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By JARRETT GUTHRIE, Tribune correspondent

Published: February 10, 2008

RIVERVIEW - Lakeland held off a Plant City squad that fell into foul trouble early Saturday night, winning 68-64 to take the Class 6A-District 8 title. It was the Dreadnaughts' second straight district title.

The Dreadnaughts (23-5) were in control from the start, taking a three-point lead after the first quarter and leading by six at the half. By halftime, four Raiders starters had three fouls each as Plant City (15-9) racked up 17 fouls while trailing 39-33.
Lakeland opened the second half with a pass from Rocco Lauricella to Richie Edwards, who dunked. Edwards led the Dreadnaughts in scoring with 18 as five players had eight points or more for Lakeland.

The Dreadnaughts padded their lead to 11 points during the third quarter, but the Raiders were able to cut the deficit to four heading into the final quarter.

Plant City tied the game at 64 with 3:00 to go, but an Edwards jumper and two free throws from Quinton Everett sealed the win for Lakeland. Everett scored 18 points and Demetrius Baldwin added 12 points; the players combined to go 15-for-20 from the free-throw line.

"Plant City really came out tonight trying to beat us," Baldwin said. "They really came with it, but we stuck it out in the end."

Channing Woodall led Plant City with 27 points; Rod Henderson added 19.

"Really, we had no flow tonight," Raiders coach Dale Chambers said. "It was high-intensity, and both teams really wanted the championship.

"I thought both teams played hard, but in the end we just didn't keep our poise."

Both teams had plenty of looks from the free-throw line. Lakeland converted 21 of 35 attempts; Plant City managed to make 13 of 30.

Edwards said the key to the game was Lakeland's ability keep to pressure on Plant City and play tough defense.

"I think it took a lot of heart from our guys, because we knew they were going to play us tough," Edwards said. "We wanted to withstand each run they had, because we knew they were going to keep coming at us all game."

Correspondent Jarrett Guthrie can be reached at

jguthrie@pop.tampatrib.com.

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