Thanks to a strong performance by its two Division I guards and a dominant effort on the boards, Louisville-Male heads home to Kentucky with a third-place plaque from the Naples Holiday Shootout girls basketball tournament.
Male went on a big run halfway through the fourth quarter Saturday in the American Division third-place game at Gulf Coast High School. The Bulldogs pulled away from Greater Atlanta Christian to win 74-64.
An 18-4 run starting in the third quarter and stretching into the third gave Male a 12-point lead with 3:30 to play. Before that, the teams had traded blows with six tied and three lead changes in the third quarter alone.
Ciaja Harbison, committed to St. Louis, had 14 points and 8 assists for Male, while Butler recruit Emilia Sexton scored 11. Camero Browning, a 6-foot-1 junior, added 14 points and 16 rebounds.
Greater Atlanta Christian was playing without leading scorer Robyn Benton. The 5-foot-9 senior, committed to Auburn, injured her knee in Friday’s game and did not play Saturday.
Without Benton, GAC’s other Division I recruits stepped up. Taylor Sutton (committed to Middle Tennessee State) scored a game-high 22 points. Caria Reynolds (Hofstra) added 15 points and 13 rebounds.
American Division
Fifth place — Mason (Ohio) 68, Troy (Ala.)-Charles Henderson 39: Mason knocked down seven 3-pointers to cruise past Charles Henderson.
Trailing by as many as 29 points, the Trojans cut their deficit to six before the Comets pulled away with streaky shooting from behind the arc and strong play in the paint.
The Comets scored 19 of the game's 21 points in the first quarter.
Samantha Puisis, a Florida State commit led Mason with 32 points, knocking down six of the Comets' seven three-pointers in the game.
Naiara Jones led the Trojans with 16 points in their second game of the day.
Seventh place — Miami Country Day 75, Fort Myers 74: With a chance to tie the game at 74 with 4.9 seconds left Aasiya Berry stepped up to the charity stripe for the Spartans.
After Berry made her first free throw but missed the second, teammate Koi Love snatched the rebound and buried a floater to push Country Day past Fort Myers.
“It’s just hard to lose a game like that when the girls fought so hard,” Fort Myers coach Chad Terrell said. “We wanted to end the year off on a good note but it just didn’t happen that way.”
Down by as many as 14 points, Destanni Henderson took over to help the Green Wave come back and take a 67-66 lead with 2:44 left to play in the fourth.
Henderson, a South Carolina commit, scored 12 of her 35 points in the fourth quarter as the Green Wave (9-4) came up just short of successfully completing a come from behind victory.
“Destanni Henderson put us on her back,” Terrell said. “It (stinks) that we couldn’t finish. You hate for a game to come down and end up like that.”
Despite having Fort Myers claw away at every single lead they built, Love proved to be the Spartans’ answer for any run the Green Wave made.
Love led the Spartans with 36 points and 11 rebounds, while Sydney Shaw and Maria Alvarez scored 14 and 12 points, respectively.
National Division
Third place — Wilmette (Ill.)-Loyola 42, Newtown (Pa.)-Council Rock North 38: Loyola let a double-digit lead slip away thanks to a late dry spell, but the Chicago area team survived to claim third place.
The Ramblers led by nine in the first quarter and were up 27-15 at halftime. Council Rock began chipping away at the lead in the third quarter and pulled within one possession with 20 seconds left.
Trailing 41-38, the Indians missed a 3-pointer with 10 seconds to play but Loyola knocked the rebound out of bounds. On the inbounds play, Council Rock stepped out of bounds. Loyola’s Julia Martinez then hit 1 of 2 free throws to seal the win.
Addison Ebeling scored 17 points and Celia Satter had 12 points for Loyola. Mackenzie Tinner was Council Rock’s only double-digit scorer with 14 points.
Fifth place — Fort Lauderdale-Cardinal Gibbons 40, Lehigh 24: The Lightning struggled to generate any sort of offense without injured starting point guard Haylie Holloway, falling to Cardinal Gibbons.
“We’re down two starters right now, but we fought,” Lehigh coach Arthur Cedeno said. “We didn’t have Haylie Holloway playing and we tried to make some adjustments to put the girls in position to win.”
Going into the second quarter all knotted up at eight, the Lightning’s struggles to take the lid off the basket started to form.
Despite knocking down only one field goal and three free throws in the second quarter, the Lightning (7-3) were still in striking distance, trailing 20-13 at the half.
After both teams struggled to score in the third quarter, combining for only 16 points, the Chiefs outscored the Lightning 11-4 in the fourth to pull away with the win.
“They outrebounded us in that second half and got three shots to one compared to us,” Cedeno said.
Deja Antoine led the Chiefs (8-5) with 20 points and six rebounds, while Maria Berrocales added nine points, four assists and six rebounds.
Seventh place — Charles Henderson 69, Bradenton-Braden River 66: Tatyana Silver hit a layup with 20.5 seconds left in the fourth to give the Trojans a lead they would not surrender.
Despite Charles Henderson coming out on top, Braden River finished in seventh place in the National Division due to the Trojans serving as a replacement team. It was one of two games for Henderson in the tournament Saturday.
After trailing for the entire first quarter before battling back in the second, the Trojans outscored the Pirates 22-12 in the third quarter.
Maori Davenport led the Trojans with a double-double, scoring 22 points and snatching 13 rebounds. Tatyana Siler added 19 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.
Cheyenne Stubbs knocked down four 3-pointers and scored 23 points to lead the Pirates. O’Mariah Gordon recorded a double-double with 16 points and 10 assists, while Julia Rodriguez added 15 points.
Naples Holiday Shootout
At Gulf Coast High School
Thursday
National Division
Wilmette (Ill.) Loyola 61, Braden River 49
New Orleans (La.)-Ursuline 48, Lehigh 36
Fort Myers 53, Newtown (Pa.)-Council Rock North 48*
Gulf Coast 53, Cardinal Gibbons 41
* Council Rock automatically advances because Fort Myers was replacement team
American Division
Louisville-Male 51, Mason (Ohio) 48
Harrodsburg (Ky.)-Mercer 82, Fort Myers 77
Atlanta-Westlake 64, Miami-Country Day 35
Greater Atlanta Christian 43, Troy (Ala.)-Charles Henderson 36
Friday
American Division
Game 9 – Consolation, Mason (Ohio) 57, Miami Country Day 49
Game 11 – Consolation, Charles Henderson 58, Fort Myers 53
Game 13 – Semifinal, Westlake 60, Male 50
Game 15 – Semifinal, Mercer County (Ky.) 84, Greater Atlanta Christian 68
National Division
Game 10 – Consolation, Lehigh 56, Braden River 53
Game 12 – Consolation, Mercer County (Ky.) 69, Cardinal Gibbons 47*
Game 14 – Semifinal, Ursuline 62, Loyola 57
Game 16 – Semifinal, Gulf Coast 56, Council Rock North 49
* Cardinal Gibbons automatically advances because Mercer County was replacement team
Saturday
American Division
Seventh place – Miami Country Day 75, Fort Myers 74
Fifth place – Mason (Ohio) 68, Troy (Ala.)-Charles Henderson 39
Third place – Male 74, Greater Atlanta Christian 64
Championship – Mercer County 77, Westlake 73
National Division
Seventh place – Troy (Ala.)- Charles Henderson* 69, Braden River 66
* Charles Henderson is playing as a replacement team
Fifth place – Cardinal Gibbons 40, Lehigh 24
Third place – Loyola 42, Council Rock North 38
Championship – Gulf Coast 53, Ursuline 51