- April 26, 2024
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In search of their first win over their crosstown rival, the Matanzas Lady Pirates held a four-point halftime lead on Saturday night, but Armani Walker took things into her own hands late in the second half to catapult Flagler Palm Coast to a 60-55 victory.
“It was a good game,” FPC coach Javier Bevacqua said after the game, adding that he was trying to have his team work on its 2-2-1 press. “We’ve been trying to work on that for some time, and we ran it for three quarters of the game. But we finally gave it up and decided to just go man, which is what we like to do.”
FPC (7-3), which was coming off two District 1-8A losses during the week to Mandarin and Sandalwood, was able to refocus and get back to winning.
Matanzas (4-6) started the game off burying three 3-pointers in the first quarter. The Lady Pirates went on a 15-4 run, but the Lady Bulldogs were able to close out the quarter on a 9-0 run to close the gap. After one quarter of play, Matanzas led, 15-13.
FPC came out firing in the second quarter, though, and went on a 11-4 run, including a Walker 3-pointer to take a 22-19 lead with 3:24 left in the first half. It was FPC’s first lead since the Lady Bulldogs led 2-0 to start the game.
Matanzas’ Margaret Calhoun responded by nailing back-to-back 3-pointers to give Matanzas a 30-26 halftime lead.
But as the game wore on into the third quarter, FPC’s full-court press and smothering defense made the difference, forcing turnovers which turned into transition buckets.
FPC had 31 steals in the game.
With 5:29 left in the fourth quarter, FPC and Matanzas were even at 47-47.
It was crunch time. As the clock ticked down, the lights shined bright above the hardwood in the Matanzas gym, and it was Walker, FPC’s sophomore point guard, who was the featured act.
Walker scored 11 of FPC’s final 13 points, slamming the door on Matanzas’ upset hopes.
“Helluva game,” Bevacqua said, speaking about Walker’s performance.
Walker dominated the stat line, much like she has done all season: 35 points, 11 rebounds, 14 steals and one assist — a triple-double.
Bevacqua continued to say good things about his star guard: “She’s very unselfish. She could’ve put that game away early in the first half.”
Abude Koushakjy, in his first season with Matanzas, said he was trying to get his team to foul trailing by five points late in the game to force FPC to win the game by converting its free throws. But despite losing, he was proud of the way his team fought.
“We were really excited about being up against our crosstown rival and maybe lost a little bit of focus,” Koushakjy said, of the team’s second-half performance. “As far as coming together the first three quarters, I believe we did what we were supposed to do. We’re struggling playing all four quarters, and we’ll have to continue to work on that.”
Matanzas was led in scoring by Natalia Mejia, who tallied 15 points. Drew Good added 13 points.
For FPC, Saturday’s game was another example of how Bevacqua trusts his young team.
Despite trailing much of the game on the road and against a rival, Bevacqua didn’t panic. He didn’t call his first timeout until late in the third quarter.
“I refuse (to call timeouts) because it’s such a young team,” Bevacqua said. “I want them to figure it out on the court. It’s easy for me to give direction, and with a veteran team, sometimes they need to wake up. But sometimes you have to let a young team figure it out.”
