‘Like Rucker Park:’ Mainland girls win in hostile environment to advance to final four

Ormond Beach Observer
Sports

There were .8 seconds on the clock, but it seemed a lot longer when Pensacola Washington’s Chamiah Francis received an inbounds pass and launched a half-court shot that would have tied the score against the visiting Mainland Buccaneers.

“Honestly? I was like, ‘How is she open?’” Mainland’s Anovia Sheals recalled. “Everybody was supposed to have somebody, but I'm just happy it hit the top of the backboard, because I didn’t want to go to overtime.”

The Bucs defeated the host Raiders 56-53 on Feb. 22 in a packed gym to win the Region 1-5A girls basketball final and advance to the state final four. Mainland is now two wins away from repeating as the Class 5A state champs.

“The game was one of the most intense that we've been in this whole year,” Mainland coach Brandon Stewart said. “They had like 300 or 400 fans in there to our five or 10 fans. So for us, it was a really hostile environment. It was fun, though. People were standing on the side of the sideline. I felt like we were at Rucker Park in New York City, but we ended up getting the job done.”

The Bucs (17-12) will face New Port Richie River Ridge (25-5) in a state semifinal at 3 p.m. March 6 at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. Their game will be followed by the Mainland boys basketball semifinal.

Sheals led the Bucs with 20 points. Olivia Olson scored 16 and Tia Dobson added 12 points. Mainland, which never trailed in the game, led 49-39 after three quarters, but the Raiders, led by Francis (17 points) and Mikerria Bonner (20 points) chipped away at the lead.

“It was so loud, the girls couldn’t hear what I was saying, but somehow they ran the plays that I was calling,” Stewart said. “But when the buzzer went off, it got really quiet.”

“You always see those type of games on YouTube or on TV,” Sheals said. “But actually to be able to play in that environment and then win, it's really big.”