- April 18, 2024
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Revenge is a dish best served cold, and on Wednesday night, the Flagler Palm Coast girls basketball team served an ice cold plate to Mandarin with a 93-83 overtime victory, avenging a three-point loss earlier this season.
Despite trailing by nine points with less than four minutes to play, FPC mounted a furious comeback to get within two points. With 6 seconds on the clock, Ladeijah Williams drained two clutch free throws to tie the game at 77-77 and force overtime. Williams finished the game a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line.
With four Mandarin players fouled out, the Lady Bulldogs pulled away in overtime, outscoring the Lady Mustangs 16-6 in the extra four minutes.
Mandarin was in foul trouble for most of the game, tallying 35 team fouls in 36 minutes of play.
On a night that didn’t mean a whole lot as far as seeding goes, it meant a lot to FPC. It was a total team effort, FPC coach Javier Bevacqua said. Five FPC players reached double-digits in scoring.
“I wish we made some free throws — we would have handled it in regulation,” Bevacqua said. “We’re both physical teams, we both play the same style: Man-to-man, and we’re going to check you. We expected a slugfest.”
The two teams combined for 60 fouls.
Point guard Armani Walker’s double-double led the way with 30 points, 11 rebounds, eight steals and five assists. But it was overall team production that pushed FPC over the top. Ivana Boyd also had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds to go with four steals and three assists. Williams added 16 points, Alicia Smith scored 14 and Princess Williams notched 10.
Mandarin led most of the game, but Bevacqua switched up his defense in the final minutes to force some steals and transition buckets.
“We didn’t want to show our 2-2-1 press because we hope to meet them in the district championship, so we held off as much as we could — up until about the 1:20 mark,” he said.
As Mandarin tried the run out the clock, FPC forced turnovers and capped off the comeback.
FPC (14-4) has six regular season games left on the schedule. With the win against Mandarin, they improved to 3-0 in January. The goal, Bevacqua said, is to finish the month 11-0. That would mean winning two games in the district tournament, including the district championship.
Although seeds are set for the District 1-8A tournament (which will take place in about two weeks), there was still plenty to play for Wednesday night, Bevacqua said.
Mandarin has secured the top seed and will get a first-round bye. FPC and Sandalwood will duke it out in the play-in game for a spot in the district title game and an automatic state playoff berth.
“We told the girls before the game that we knew — win or lose — it didn’t matter,” Bevacqua said after the game. “They had the best seed. But psychologically, it was a gut-check on our end because we lost a tough one at their place. And psychologically, we want to put a doubt in their mind when they come here (for the district tournament)."
