FLEMING ISLAND – Bartram Trail coach Jake Teuscher likely celebrated his 31st birthday like he does every birthday with dinner, cake and ice cream with his family. Only this birthday was different, Teuscher celebrated a stunning 50-47 win over top seed and host Fleming Island in the 4-8A title game last night.
Being the third meeting of the season, you knew this was going to be another close one after the two previous meetings ended in two and three point margins, as both teams won on the others home court.
Down by as many nine points late in the second quarter, an 8-3 run in the final two minutes before half gave the Bears a lot of confidence down 24-20 at the half.
Bella Weary’s steal and driving layup and Dana Art’s back-to-back three pointers gave the Bears their first lead of the game at 28-24 minutes into the third quarter.
A see-saw third quarter saw the Eagles respond with a 10-0 run on Molly Ragde layup, Aubrey Burke three pointer and Skylar Baltezegar layup off an assist from Burke as the Eagles retook the lead 34-28 with three minutes left in the third.
Weary layup and free throw cut the lead to three and Tybor two free throws cut it to a two point deficit at 35-33; before Baltezegar layup extended the lead to 38-35 at the end of three quarters.
A rejuvenated Bears came out firing to start the fourth as Art nailed her third and fourth three pointers along with a Tia Singleton jumper giving the Bears a 43-38 lead.
However, the Eagles wouldn’t go away though as Robinson nailed a jumper cutting the lead to 46-45 bringing the home crowd back into it.
As the Eagles appeared to be slowly getting back into the game, Burke silenced the home crowd temporarily with two free throws extending the Bears lead to 48-45 with 43.2 seconds left.
After a timeout, the Eagles fired up a quick three and panicked on the rebound picking up a over the back call sending the Bears to the line again.
Wear nailed both free throws to increase the lead to 50-45 with 39.3 seconds left.
Robinson’s jumper cut the lead to 50-47 with 20 seconds left, but that was as close as they would get.
Bartram Trail (17-10) was paced by Grace Tybor, Bella Weary and Dana Art, who all lead the Bears in scoring with 14 points a piece. All three played vital roles in the game from different areas. Art nailed four three pointers and dominated the outside, while Weary dominated the front court with her quickness and ball handling skills and Tybor dominated the boards on both sides of the court and the post on offense as well.
Teuscher joked can we play here more often and hopefully in the second round of the playoffs next week.
Now the fun begins for Teuscher as he tries to find a gym to play their first round home playoff game Feb 15 against Lee, while Fleming Island (23-5) travels to First Coast.
Like the boys coached by older brother Jeremy Teuscher, both teams have been unable to practice or play at their own gym to ongoing gym renovations after the gym was damaged from Hurricane Irma in September.
Both coaches have had to schedule practices or games at nearby Liberty Pines Academy, Nease, Creekside and Flagler College.
For the girls coach Jake Teuscher, its a good problem to have though three more practices to schedule and finding a home gym for a playoff game definitely beats the alternative of having to go on the road again like they have done all season.
