West Ports slips past Lecanto girls 59-48

By Justin Plante

OCALA — For the Lecanto girls basketball team, it was a bitter end to an otherwise great season.
The Panthers fell to West Port High School, 59-48, in the District 6A-6 tournament semifinals Thursday night at West Port.

The main weapon for West Port’s offense: senior R’kyiah Scott, who scored a game-high 33 points and forced five steals, most of which she turned into easy fast-break buckets.

“When West Port scored 25 points, she had 14 of them,” Lecanto head coach Brittany Szunko said of Scott. “She’s just a stud. She’s tough to defend, and we put some different looks together late in the year, and tried to use it against them tonight, and just fell short.”

Despite Scott’s overall presence, the Lady Panthers just wouldn’t go away.

After falling behind as much as 12 in the first quarter, the girls rallied back and pulled themselves within seven going into the second quarter. Senior AnnaMaria DiLascio, playing her last game for the Lady Panthers after missing a big chunk of the season due to injury, came up big with a team-high 21 points and seven rebounds.

DiLascio’s contribution didn’t go unnoticed.

“I have to give her a shout out,” Szunko said. “You know, she missed the majority of the season with an injury and came in and hit 21 points for us tonight. But more than the points though, she gave us hustle, heart and left it all on the court, for her being our only senior.”

Another bright side for Lecanto — they forced eight steals against a usually sure-handed West Port squad. During the pair of regular season meetings between the two, Lecanto could only swipe three total steals, while West Port forced multiple on its end.

After the first quarter, neither team could break away. Lecanto’s usually red-hot shooters were negated throughout the game. Junior Megan Straight, who finished with 13 points and  a pair of assists, was the only Panther able to find the net from behind the arc.

Lecanto’s defense, however, did its job for the majority of the game.

The teams were separated by just seven points going into the fourth quarter, with West Port leading 42-35. But it was only a matter of time for the Lady Panthers, as junior Marie Buckley led the charge with a big steal and lay-in at the other end, followed by another steal that led to a big three from Straight to fire up the Panther faithful.
But with the clock dwindling and Scott on fire, it was just too much for the Lady Panthers to overcome.

“This is one of those games that I will think about every day, and every night for a long time,” Szunko said. “And of course I’ll think about how things could’ve been different, but right now I’m pretty happy with how everything ended up.

Obviously, we would’ve liked to win, but next season starts tomorrow,” Szunko continued. “We’ve got kids coming back and we’re willing to put in the work this offseason to progress from here.”