PORT ST. LUCIE — How long had it been since the St. Lucie West Centennial girls basketball team last won a regional title?
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant were on the tail end of a three-peat with the Los Angeles Lakers. The UConn Huskies women’s basketball team was just starting a three-peat of its own. And Caitlin Clark was only a few weeks old.
But the Eagles’ wait, which lasted nearly a quarter-century, is officially over.
For the first time since 2002, Centennial is headed to a state semifinal. The team overcame a halftime deficit to defeat Treasure Coast 52-40 in the Region 2-7A championship game on Friday, Feb. 27 from St. Lucie West Centennial High School.
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“It feels amazing,” Eagles senior forward Jailyn Williams said. “I’ve been here for four years and every year before this, we came up short. This time we actually made it and it feels great.”
Centennial moves to the Class 7A state championships, which begins on March 13 from the CSL Companies Court at UNF Arena on the campus of University of North Florida in Jacksonville.
The Eagles (23-6) were the region’s No. 1 seed while the Titans were seeded second. The teams previously battled for the District 7-7A crown. Centennial won that game handily, but the rematch was anything but easy.
Treasure Coast (25-5) trailed by as much as nine in the opening minutes before storming back in the second quarter. Baskets inside from senior forward Reniah Flynn and a pair of 3-pointers from sophomore guard Kenya Burns lifted the visitors to a 23-22 advantage at the end of the first half.
The night was ultimately decided over the next eight minutes as the Eagles were relentless attacking the paint on one side of the floor while causing numerous turnovers with traps and pressure on the other.
Running the floor in transition, senior center Lovely Gabriel banked in a floater at the buzzer to give Centennial a 38-25 cushion at the end of the third.
“I never doubted them for a second. It was just getting them back focused on what our gameplan was,” Eagles head coach Jesse Stewart said. “I reminded them that we’ve been through so much more adversity than this game had presented. We technically lost one quarter, so there’s no reason to hang our heads.”
Williams and Gabriel were the only two players on the Eagles to score in double figures. Williams poured in 14 of her game-high 18 points in the second half. Gabriel chipped in 13 points.
Justice Alexis had 14 points to lead the Titans. Flynn and Burns added 12 and 10 points, respectively.
“I’m so proud of our kids, nobody expected us to do anything,” Treasure Coast head coach Robin Potera-Haskins said. “We just had one quarter where we played bad, but you can’t do that in these kinds of games.”
This story will be updated.
Patrick Bernadeau is a sports reporter for Treasure Coast Newspapers. He can be reached at 772-985-9692, on X at @PatBernadeau or via email at pbernadeau@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: St. Lucie West Centennial girls basketball ends 24-year region title drought
Reporting by Patrick Bernadeau, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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