MIA Tops Everglades City in Physical Conference Championship

Playing an opponent five times in one season breeds familiarity. On Thursday night, January 27, in front of a revved-up crowd in the Everglades City gym, that familiarity produced a physical battle between Marco Island Academy and the hometown Gators. When all was said and done, it was the Rays who lifted the conference championship trophy after a hard fought 42-33 win. The game was tied after the first quarter and at halftime. 

"I want to hand it to Everglades,” MIA head coach, Travis Barry said,  "because that team beat us three times this year."

Everglades City, the top team in the Paradise Coast Athletic Conference during the regular season, held home court advantage throughout the tournament. They beat the Rays in all three of their conference games this season. A fourth game was added outside of conference play, where the Rays picked up their only regular season win over the Gators.

The Rays (11-8) finished behind both Everglades City (7-5) and Donahue Catholic (11-5) in regular season conference play. Accordingly, MIA was on the road for both tournament games. On Tuesday, the Rays traveled to Donahue Catholic for their tournament opener and escaped with a 40-38 win to advance to Thursday’s championship game with Everglades City.

The championship game between the Rays and Gators started with some elbows swinging and plenty of banging going on underneath the basket. Willing bodies were hitting the floor for every loose ball. Fans from both schools were totally engrossed, cheering enthusiastically. Everglades City fans outnumbered the MIA fans in attendance, although there was a good showing by the Marco faithful. 

One Everglades City attendee described the crowd thusly:

“Marco's principal and assistant principal are here, parents and students,” the Everglades City fan said. "About two-thirds of the crowd is from Everglades City.”

The Everglades City crowd filled their section and the balcony section above the court. In typical Everglades City fashion, their crowd seemed to include the entire community. A string of fans stood along the balcony railing for the entire game.

Both teams struggled to score early, with Everglades City leading 6-2 with 3:50 left in the first quarter. A Kathryn Barry free throw and a three-pointer by Jocelyn Snover with 2:20 left in the quarter left the score tied at 6-6 at the end of the first quarter.

The game was tied again at 13-13 with 2:43 left in the half. It was 15-15 at halftime.

“I went in at halftime and told them, ’The game’s just starting,’” Barry said. 

Barry was proud of the way his team played Thursday night.

"Our girls had a calm about them tonight," Barry said. "They played harder on defense and they played smarter on offense. I was very proud of our girls to come back and figure it out. They played very unselfishly. They threw one more pass a lot of times. That’s worked out our last four games. We won our last four. That’s a great way to end the season.”

Everglades City coach Dale Patt, while disappointed in the loss, was nonetheless pleased with his team.

“We beat ourselves,” Patt said, "we played sloppy tonight. Not one of our better games, that’s for sure. Our girls are very tough. Our three seniors, I’m going to miss them next year. They played their hearts out all season long. I’ve had ‘em since they were in sixth grade. I’m going to miss ‘em, that’s for sure.”

Patt’s three seniors are Taylor Dahlke, Morgan Herrin and Alycia Kibodeaux.

"Marco played great,” Patt said. "They figured a defense out to stop us. And they succeeded with it. We had some bad turnovers there. Bad part on mine, trying to get that girl in there near the end, took the technical. Took the wind out of sails.”

The technical foul call came with 28 seconds left in the third quarter and the score 27-25 in Marco’s favor. Kathryn made both technical foul shots. The Rays added a three-pointer by Jocelyn Snover to stretch the lead 30-25. Everglades City trimmed the lead to 30-28 with 5:47 left, but another three-pointer by Jocelyn Snover with 4:56 put MIA up 33-28. From there on the Rays were able to keep the Gators at bay.

The physical play early led to foul trouble for the Gators as the game wore on.

“All season long we always get in foul trouble it seems like,” Patt said philosophically. "Usually, we work through it. Tonight, we couldn’t. We had. back off and play a little lighter.”

Barry also cites an unusual offensive strategy that has served the Rays well in recent games. He put his smallest player, Michelle Armas, on the low block.

"We occupied the blocks,” Barry said. "I put a 4’10”, 79-pound player on my low post. And she’s quick. When our girls would drive and they’d double cover, we’d dump it down to her. We tried it the last three games and it just kept working.”

The low blocks on a basketball court are two rectangles on the court located on the sides of the painted area near the basket. They are used as reference points for player placement. The low blocks are normally occupied with a team’s taller players.

"She’s doing a really great job,” Barry said of Armas, a senior. "She really got better all season. She’s seen great improvement from the beginning of the season until the end. I’m really proud of her. We’re really proud of everybody.”

Everglades City’s Taylor Dahlke led all scorers with 20 points. Morgan Herrin had seven for the Gators. For MIA, Jocelyn Snover led the way with 14 points, including four three-pointers. Kathryn Barry totaled 13, with two three-pointers. Cadence Snover had six points for the Rays, Armas five and Rice four.

The MIA girls won the PCAC championship for the first time last season against this same Everglades City team.