Wekiva shoots down Winter Haven in 6A semis

LAKELAND — Winter Haven forced more turnovers, had more steals and outrebounded Wekiva, but in the end, only one thing mattered.

Wekiva outshot Winter Haven.

The Mustangs shot nearly 50 percent from the field and, led by freshman Jada Eads' 31 points, defeated the Blue Devils 68-60 on Thursday night in the semifinals of the 2021 FHSAA Class 6A Girls Basketball Finals at the RP Funding Center.

It marked the second year in a row that Winter Haven has lost in the state semifinals.

"It's a tough way to end it," Winter Haven coach Johnnie Lawson said. "I feel for my seniors. They just played so hard. They don't come around a lot with the (Trinity) Hardy's and the (Shomari) Phillip's and the (Jayla) Murray's — all of my seniors."

Winter Haven did a lot of things well.

The Blue Devils had 16 steals to Wekiva's eight, and outrebounded Wekiva 51-40. The Blue Devils grabbed 31 offensive rebounds, and needed everyone of them to stay in the game.

While Wekiva shot 46.2 percent for the game (24-for-52), Winter Haven shot 30.9 percent (25-for-81), including just 28.6 percent in the first half.

"We had a hard time with layups," Lawson said. "We missed a lot of layups, and they made a lot of layups. If we hit our layups, we win the game."

Winter Haven finished with one more field goal, but Wekiva made three 3-pointers to just one (on 19 attempts) for Winter Haven. The Mustangs also went to the free-throw line twice as many times as Winter Haven (28-14) and outscored the Blue Devils 17-9 from the line. The eight-point difference provided the winning margin.

"A lot of the calls didn't go our way, so we just tried to play basketball, keep playing," Hardy said.

In the end, Winter Haven had no answer for Eads, who was 10-for-20 from the field and added five assist.

"We knew she was going to be tough," Lawson said. "She hit a lot of tough shots. She's a freshman who is not scared or nervous."

Along with Eads, Shadaria Smith and Shaniya McCarthy each had 10 points.

The Blue Devils were led by Hardy and Jayla Murray. Hardy was looking to bookend her career with state titles — she was a freshman on the 2018 championship team — but had to settle with reaching the state tournament in three of four years. She finished with 20 points, three steals, three rebounds and two blocks, but was 0-for-7 from 3-point range.

"There is is no place like Winter Haven," Hardy said. "You don't just wake up one day and come here. You've got to fight, you've got to work."

Murray, who missed the past two games with a knee injury, finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds.

"I was frustrated I had to miss the last two games, but I was there for my team," Murray said. "I was glad I was able to get here. I was lucky to play with them (teammates)."

After the Mustangs went up 56-44 early in the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils managed to cut the lead to five points twice and six points once with possession to make it a two- or three-point game, but each time the Blue Devils would miss a layup or have an inexplicable turnover.

At 58-53, Winter Haven had the ball but missed a shot. The Blue Devils had possession trailing 64-59 but had a turnover and had a missed shot then had a turnover when trailing 65-59.

"It was frustrating to miss a layup, of course, that you miss a layup but we keep saying, next play, next play," Hardy said.

Despite their advantage on the boards, Winter Haven twice missed rebounds with 18.2 seconds left and 15.1 seconds left after the Mustangs missed back-to-back free throws.

"These girls did a good job," Wekiva coach Tommie Butts said. "The guard play was solid. We got a couple of key rebounds down the stretch. They outrebounded us big time and they got easy putbacks that made it tough for us."

Wekiva started out strong by scoring the first six points of the game. 

The Blue Devils trailed 22-19, but went on a 8-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game at 27-22. 

Winter Haven led 28-24 when Wekiva ended the first half with a 9-0 run.

"I wasn't holding my head down," Murray said. "I still had faith in us."