Lady Hornets Experience Frigid Loss to River Ridge

NEW PORT RICHEY — Perhaps the only thing more frigid than the River Ridge High School gymnasium on Saturday afternoon was the Weeki Wachee girls basketball team’s offense.

For a large stretch of the second half, the Hornets went ice cold and simply couldn’t buy a basket. Even with a horrid stretch that lasted the entire third quarter and much of the fourth quarter, Weeki Wachee somehow managed to force the game to double overtime before losing 50-46 to Tampa Berkeley Prep in A Royal 2025 New Year’s Tournament hosted by River Ridge.

But the close loss to a good team from a big city was little consolation to Weeki Wachee coach Billy Hughes and the Hornets. If Weeki Wachee had produced even a tiny bit more offense in the second half, the Hornets (10-4) might have won in regulation.

“It never should have gotten to (double overtime),” Hughes said. “That’s been our Kryptonite all season. We play very well in stretches when we have intensity, energy and effort. But we don’t do it all the time and we certainly didn’t do it for most of the second half.”

In a gymnasium that was so cold it felt more like a hockey arena and spectators bundled up in winter jackets indoors, Weeki Wachee squandered a five-point first-half lead by managing just two points in a disastrous third quarter. Things didn’t get much better for much of the fourth quarter. In the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, Weeki Wachee scored precisely one point before the Hornets had a late surge and sophomore point guard Joelys Rodriguez brought the score to 32-32 by making two clutch free throws with 7.9 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime.

Those two free throws seemed to heat up Rodriguez, who came into the game averaging a team-high 15.8 points. Although Rodriguez finished with a team-high 15 points, she struggled through most of regulation. Her shots simply weren’t falling as the Berkeley Prep defense made slowing Rodriguez its top priority. But Rodriguez scored five points in the first overtime and junior forward Rashell Nelles scored a clutch basket in the first extra period to send a 42-42 tie into a second overtime.

But Berkely Prep (4-7) simply outlasted and wore down a suddenly-depleted Weeki Wachee team in the second overtime. Senior forward Reese Halter, one of Weeki Wachee’s top defenders and rebounders, already had fouled out in regulation. Fifteen seconds into the second overtime, Rodriguez, Weeki Wachee’s unquestioned leader, had to take a seat after picking up her fifth personal foul.

Injury came on top of insult exactly 30 seconds later when senior center Nevaeh Clark, who had been a bright spot in Weeki Wachee’s strong first half, went down with an ankle injury. The Hornets had to play the final 3:15 without arguably their three best players. Still, the Hornets hung on as best they could. Only moments after Clark went down, Nelles hit only her second basket off the game to tie it, 44-44.

But, after that, Berkely Prep’s two top players took over and put the game away. Lila grace Strain, who finished with 16 points, hit a three-point shot to give the Buccaneers a 47-44 lead with 2:05 left in the second overtime. Berkely Prep’s Madeline Dean, who scored a game-high 19 points, then added a free throw and a layup to give the Buccaneers a 50-44 lead with 15 seconds remaining.

Weeki Wachee junior forward Genesis Beal hit a jump shot at the buzzer to cut the final margin to four points, but it was too little too late.

Hughes and the Hornets certainly weren’t overjoyed by going 1-2 in the three-day round-robin tournament that included teams from the Greater Tampa Bay region as well as teams from as far away as Orlando and Naples. Weeki Wachee defeated Tampa Gaither 33-26 in their tournament opener on Thursday and lost to Naples Neumann High, 44-26, in Friday’s second round.

But Hughes still said the tournament experience was nothing but a positive for the Hornets.

“This is why we come here each year,” Hughes said. “There’s a lot of talent in this tournament with some of the better teams in the state. In the long run, we’ll be a better team because of it. We have a jam-packed January and I always say you want to be playing your best basketball when you get into February and start hitting the district playoffs.”

The Hornets, who already are 2-0 in Class 4A-District 9, won’t have much time to rest up and it’s too early to tell if Clark’s injury will impact the rest of her season. Weeki Wachee will be back in action Tuesday night with a tough road game at Lecanto, which is 8-6 after a strong display of three-point shooting in an easy win against Land O’ Lakes in the Saturday tournament game that immediately preceded the Weeki Wachee/Berkeley Prep matchup.