When a gator attacks its prey in the wild it holds on tight and never
From the opening tip, the Gators played a smothering defense over the Chargers forcing many errant passes and turnovers. The faster Gators took advantage of this and ran out to a 24-2 lead at the end of the first behind some very long NBA distance 3-point shots by the seniors Mahri Petree and Karli Waddell. The Chargers took 5 minutes to get on the board.
Stine made much use of his deep bench substituting many different players and mixing up the lines and giving some of the younger players from the junior varsity team that was called up for the playoffs a chance to play.
At the half, the Gators had a commanding 46-4 lead and in the second half were able to cruise to their sixth straight district championship in a row in only the teams 8th season behind some solid defense by his players. The Chargers were relentless until the very end, never giving up and gave it their best shot in spite of the deficit they faced.
The Gators were led by in scoring by freshman Jazmin Chupp with 10 points followed by the seniors Waddell with 9 and Petree with 8. Celina Davis and freshman Mya Petticord chipped in 6 apiece. The Gators were relentless on the boards at both ends of the court led by Petree with 9, Makenzie Day with 7, and Alaya Mack with 5. Petticord & Day also led the team in steals while Petree came up big with several blocked shots.
“There are 3 trophies, Districts, Regionals, and the State Championship,” Coach Stine said. “This feels good but we got bigger things planned and it’s going to get tougher from here on out.”
“This is just the first step,” the Senior Petree stated. Petree has spent all 4 years on the varsity team so is used to winning the District championship but doesn’t take anything for granted. “We work hard, it’s a great team, and we’re really hungry and we want to win and I want to show them what it takes to win.”
Arbor Prep moves into Regional 22 and will play at 6 P.M. Monday night against Dearborn Advanced Tech at Riverview Gabriel Richard High School.
