When the Warner women’s basketball team woke up on Thursday, they did so with hopes of sneaking into The Sun Conference tournament.
LAKE WALES — When the Warner women’s basketball team woke up on Thursday, they still had hopes of sneaking into The Sun Conference tournament.
St. Thomas put a big dent in those chances.
The Royals, who entered the night trailing Thomas (Ga.) by one game in the race for the final spot in the conference tournament, struggled to contain the Bobcats in a 74-50 loss at the Turner Athletic Center.
“We’ve got to score, we’ve got an unbelievable problem scoring,” said Warner head coach Joe Sanchez. “We get opportunities. Start the game, we have five-straight stops, we can’t score. They have high-quality guards and they’re very skillful.”
St. Thomas (18-7, 14-1 TSC) jumped out to 25-11 lead after the first quarter and never looked back. Leading scorer Samara Auguste (17.8 points per game) was held to just six points on two makes in the first half.
But the inside-out combo of Chakari Merritt and Kristina Bugarski proved to be too much for Warner. The Bobcats’ duo combined for 20 points in the first half.
The lethargic Royals (12-15, 3-12 TSC) trailed by as many as 24 points.
“When you don’t have size, we have to shoot 50 percent or better from the perimeter because we’re undersized,” Sanchez said. “What I can tell you is that next year’s team will be quite different.”
Those struggles continued in the second half. St. Thomas’ ball movement gave Warner problems defensively and, as has been an issue throughout the season, its inconsistency offensively prevented any sort of rally.
The Bobcats struggled with the Royals last month in Miami Gardens, rallying from a 14-point deficit late to win. No rally was necessary on Thursday.
“The game of basketball is 40 minutes, 30-second shot clock,” Sanchez said. “You’ve got to answer. We can play defense all you want — and we do play defense — but if we can’t score, and we shoot the poor percentage we’re shooting, it limits us.”