WINTER HAVEN — Winter Haven all-county point guard Quin’Nya Gray de Sanders knew what was coming. But when she officially learned the news that she wasn’t going to play in the Class 7A regional semifinals due to the program suspending her for a game for conduct detrimental to the team, she did what she always did.
She learned fast from the situation, supported her teammates the best way she could and looked forward to balling out in case Winter Haven outlasted Sarasota Riverview, which, of course, happened. Fast forward to the regional final game Friday, Feb. 27, at Winter Haven High School against Sumner — a team that Winter Haven blew out earlier in the year — and Sanders came out like gangbusters and made it a point that this was her team despite junior guard Alyse Mercredi going off for 30 in the regional semifinals.
In the regional final, she posted a game-high 27 points and 11 steals with much of her production coming in the first half — Mercredi put up 17, four assists and four steals in the game — lifting Winter Haven (19-6) to its 17th regional finals championship since head coach Johnnie Lawson has been the coach thanks to a 59-29 blowout and a bid to the FHSAA 2026 Girls Basketball State Championships, which is slated for March 13 in Jacksonville.
“I just knew I had to come and ball out, because last week I wasn’t able to play so I know this game I had to come out and help my teammates more,” Sanders said.
Lawson said this team is the definition of resilient, especially since The Ledger’s Player of the Year in Serenity Hardy has been gone since the end of the regular season due to a torn Achilles.
“That’s what I would call this team, just resilient. They just fight. … I think people just think we just roll the ball out (and) we create stuff. But it’s not like that. There’s a lot of hard work, and it’s emotional because I don’t think people really understand (what goes into this),” Lawson said after the game.
A fast start downs Sumner early
Sanders knew exactly what goes into all of this. From the get-go, she made it a point to be a aggressive with her dribble-drive crossovers and hesitations that left Sumner defenders in their dust. There wasn’t anybody who could stay in front of Sanders with her Kyrie Irving-like style of play, which often ended up with her laying the ball up with ease or dropping off easy passes for her teammates to lay it up.
The all-county player racked up 21 in that first half despite Sumner switching between a 1-2-2 or a 2-3 zone defense, though they did their best to focus on Sanders despite going down 9-2, 11-3 and 20-6 early on.
Still, there wasn’t any inspiration needed from Lawson, as Sanders, who trained with boys at a very early age and has internalized the coaching of Lawson, turned offense to defense in the full-court press, which stifled and flustered the smaller Sumner team. Sumner was noticeably hesitant and unsure once that Winter Haven defense was on the attack all night.
“I just wanted to show that we could get back to state,” Sanders said. “(It) feels great.”
New postseason format helps Winter Haven
Helping Winter Haven get back to state is the new format. The FHSAA this year (2026) implemented a new girls’ basketball postseason format in which there is one game per week for the three regional rounds, which helps reduce missed class time thanks to those games held on Fridays.
Well, this new format helped rest Winter Haven, which looked exhausted in that game against Riverview — a game that Winter Haven didn’t even take the lead until late in the fourth quarter. In the regional finals, though, that Winter Haven press held Sumner to under 30 points for the eighth time this season.
Victoria Hall imposes will
Defense often turns to offense with Winter Haven, and with the leading scorer out for the year, this new version of the usuals stepped up with Sanders and Mercredi. But junior center Victoria Hall was a beast all night, imposing her height advantage defensively, tallying a whopping 14 blocks — a career high — five rebounds and three steals. She’s been doing this all year, and there’s no reason to believe she won’t do this in state for the No. 5 team in all of Florida.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Winter Haven girls basketball stifles Sumner, advance to state
Reporting by Robert Magobet, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
