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Aquinas and Blanche Ely to Play for BCAA Big 8 Girls Title
Junior guard Janessa Kelley (No. 5) of Blanche Ely scored 17 points to lead her team to a 37-28 victory over Dillard in a BCAA Big 8 basketball semifinal on Friday at South Plantation High
By Dave Brousseau
BCAA Writer
PLANTATION – For the third time in four years Blanche Ely will play for the BCAA Big 8 girls basketball championship.
Led by junior guard Janessa Kelley, who scored 11 of her team high 17 points in the second half, Ely defeated rival Dillard 37-28 in the first of two semifinals on Friday at South Plantation High.
The Tigers (19-2), after defeating the Panthers for the ninth straight time, will play in Saturday’s finale against St. Thomas Aquinas at 7 p.m.
Aquinas advanced with a 79-50 victory over Cardinal Gibbons. The Raiders point total was the second highest of the season.
The Raiders (16-8) went into full offensive mode in the second quarter when they outscored the Chiefs 24-14 in the second quarter for a 43-29 lead at the half.
If that wasn’t hard enough to rally from a 14-point deficit to begin the second half, Aquinas began the third quarter with an 8-0 run that began with back-to-back 3 pointers by Karin Gordon and Kamryn Corporan.
Gordon finished with a team-high 19 points, while Corporan had 17 points.
The Raiders would outscore Gibbons 28-5 in the quarter and enter the final quarter with a 71-34 advantage.
Senior guard Brooke Buckman of Gibbons led all scorers with 20 points. Aquinas had defeated Gibbons in their previous two meetings 61-23 (12/6/22) and 79-33 (12/7/21).
The championship will be the third meeting in four years between Aquinas and Ely. The Tigers defeated Aquinas in 2020 and 2021 for the school’s first two Big 8 titles.
Ely got off to a 10-3 start with a pair of converted three-pointers from Aniyah Ruddock and Gianna Corbitt.
Dillard not only cut into the Tiger lead, but by the half only trailed 19-17 at the break.
The Panthers were able to stay close based on the much needed 13 points from senior forward Khyala Ngodu. She was held to only four points in the second half.
Freshman guard Gabrielle King was the only other scorer for Dillard with four points in the opening half.
Kelley’s 11 second half points equaled the entire scoring output in the half by Dillard.