Evangelical Christian girls win Class 2A state basketball championship

LAKELAND – Two losses led to a state championship.

Evangelical Christian, from Fort Myers, watched its 18-point lead dwindle down to five and then responded to win the Class 2A girls basketball state championship with a 57-46 win over Central Florida Christian Academy at the FHSAA Finals on Thursday at the RP Funding Center.

It was the first girls basketball state championship in school history for the program.

“This is so awesome. God is so great,” Evangelical Christian head coach Dwayne Donnell said. ”I can’t even describe what’s going on in my mind right now. I am so happy for our school and community.”

Evangelical Christian (26-3) won its last 13 games in a row and attributes its title to a turnaround which happened after a pair of losses in January.

“We lost a game to Charlotte when I asked them to play perfect, and I wasn’t perfect in the game,” Donnell said. “It was the Martin Luther King tournament and then we also lost at the buzzer to a team out of Missouri (Southeastern Prep Academy), and we had a very bad team meeting after that. So it was those two losses, and this team then was receptive to the challenge from their coach.”

Evangelical had three players reach double figures, Maddie O’Berskil with 15, Zaira Mitchell with 12 and Jadah Toombs with 11.

CFCA (24-5) entered the final redhot, having won 15 of its last 16 games, with its only loss coming at the hands of Class 7A Dr. Phillips – which vies for a three-peat 7A title next week.

“We’ve tried to build a championship pedigree and teach the girls this is what you have to do, on and off the court, and this is what you have to do to be a champion. The girls have followed that lead,” said CFCA second-year head coach Tom Butts, who won two state championships at Wekiva in 2014 and 2019.

Janiya Swift led CFCA with 16 points and four rebounds while Aarin Manuel scored 13.

CFCA rallied in the third quarter to narrow an 18-point lead by Evangelical Christian down to seven points, 40-33.

Evangelical Christian (26-3) seized a 31-14 halftime lead but were played close in the second quarter by CFCA after a shaky first quarter.

Evangelical Christian started fast, going on a 11-2 run to open the game and pushed its lead to 21-6 by the end of the first quarter. O’Berski capped the quarter, swishing a 3-pointer at the buzzer for Evangelical.CFCA was just 3-of-15 shooting in the first quarter.

Evangelical dominated the glass in the first half, out rebounding CFCA 25-16 while snatching 17 defensive rebounds.