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Girls Basketball: Terrapins Take District Title

Tribune photo by JULIE BUSCH

Tampa Prep's Robin Costello chases the ball down court as the Indian Rocks Christian team trails behind during the 2A District 9 Girls Basketball Tournament Friday at Tampa Prep

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A Tribune staff report

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 7, 2009

Updated: 02/07/2009 01:31 am

TAMPA - It had been eight years since Tampa Prep's girls basketball team had a district title added to its championship banner that hangs in the home gymnasium.

Terrapins coach Greg Linley thought that had been too long, so when he took over the program two years ago, a district title became the main goal. With a come-from-behind 46-44 victory against Indian Rocks Christian Friday night in the Class 2A-District 9 championship game, Tampa Prep fulfilled that goal.

Linley nearly cost his team the title when he was called for a technical early in the fourth quarter. A Tampa Prep player also was called for a technical for kicking the ball after a foul. Those two fouls helped aid a 15-0 Golden Eagles run, giving Indian Rocks a five-point lead.

"When I got that technical, I thought that I had really messed up," Linley said. "I'm so proud of my kids for responding the way that they did."

Tampa Prep (16-10) responded with a 10-3 run to close out the game, which included senior Ayala Wasser's game-winning layup with 45 seconds remaining. Wasser led the Terrapins with 29 points. Freshman Tori Trador led IRC (21-5) with 13 points.

"I just knew I had to make that layup for the team," Wasser said. "It was just another layup."

Katherine Smith

TC Holds On To Win 3A-11 Title

For Tampa Catholic's Colette Eule, the seconds seemed like minutes as her team watched a comfortable lead dwindle in the final minutes of Friday's Class 3A-District 11 championship game.

The Crusaders had a nine-point lead with just more than two minutes remaining and held on to defeat archrival St. Petersburg Catholic, 48-45, at Berkeley Prep. It was their third win this season over the Barons, but it was also the most difficult.

"Our games are always close, but this time the last minute seemed longer than the entire first half," said Eule, who led TC with 16 points. "We beat them three times and that is never easy because we have such a rivalry."

The Crusaders led by double digits throughout most of the game and led 40-27 heading into the fourth quarter, but St. Pete Catholic mounted a comeback behind Jerica Coley, who led all scorers with 29 points.

Coley took the ball to the basket on almost every touch and the Barons closed the gap to 48-45 with 10.5 seconds left. The Crusaders pressured the Barons and Coley was forced to throw up a shot with less than four seconds left and it came up short. Coley pulled down her own rebound but missed on the follow and the Crusaders escaped.

Jeff Berlinicke

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