Winter Haven girls smother Tampa Sickles

WINTER HAVEN – Winter Haven girls basketball teams have been described many different ways through the years, but one thing is always consistent: their defense is smothering.

Winter Haven broke out its renowned full-court press from the opening tip-off and never backed off through the entire first half on its way to routing Tampa Sickles, 73-38, on Thursday in a Class 7A regional quarterfinal.

“Our press was really good,” said Winter Haven freshman guard Serenity Hardy, who led all scorers with 24 points – including 12 at the half. “I feel like our effort was really good. We definitely could have given more but I am satisfied with tonight. The sharing of the ball, and we shared it a lot. Our communication was really good, but our hustle with the press was great.”

Top-seeded Winter Haven (21-4) will now host Sarasota Riverview Tuesday at 7 in a semifinals matchup. Riverview advanced after topping Plant City Durant 57-45.

Winter Haven has won five state championships, including a three-peat under head coach Johnnie Lawwon from 2016-18. However, the Blue Devils have not been back to the state tournament in two years and seem determined to get there even though they have a young roster.

“If we don’t make it to state, this means nothing,” Lawson said. “We’ve talked about not being complacent and being a lot better with our defense. I thought it was a lot better today. The level of our practices, the intensity has gone up. They know if we are not consistent with it, they will see me tomorrow.”

Winter Haven jumped out to a commanding 27-6 first quarter lead and extended it to 44-18 at the half. Hardy said the game was really won during Wednesday’s practice when Lawson told the Blue Devils to come straight out of the locker room hustling.

“Yesterday’s practice, Coach Johnnie was like, ‘Warm-ups is everything. The first two minutes are everything. We have to go hard in warm-ups, so it can affect the game. So that was really our goal to give it all we had in warm-ups because usually teams walk through warm-ups. It starts there,” Hardy said.

Winter Haven also picked up 13 points from senior guard Kassadi King and 11 from senior guard Bre’Asia Washington. Freshman guard Aubrey Hall connected on three 3-point shots to finish with nine. Collectively, Winter Haven shot 8-of-15 from the free-throw line.

Sickles (18-8) head coach Mark Keys said his team prepared for the press all week long but still couldn’t solve it.

“I’ve been here 21 years, so I have played them many times and we know it is coming. Our kids got a little hurried and they did exactly what they wanted to do to us, which was speed us up. We got a bunch of young kids,” Key said.

Freshman guard Kelsey Sharpe led Sickles with 20 points including 14 in first-half.

“She did a good job of scoring when we needed it against a very good defense, the best defense there is,” Key said.