LAKELAND- It was a classic tail of David and Goliath in the Class 6A Girls Basketball State Championship Game between Ponte Vedra and American Heritage.
All year, the ladies from Ponte Vedra surprised everyone with their play on the court even when many did not give them a chance to return to the Final Four. But not only did Ponte Vedra return to the Final four, they advanced to the championship game.
It was truly a David-like feat for a team whose star player is 5 foot 5 inch Channing Chappell. Yet no one told Chappell and company that standing on the other side of the valley would be not one giant, but two in the form of American Heritage’s stars Femi-Funeus (6’1) and Tyaliah Willis (6’1).
In fact, American Heritage had four players over six feet tall while Ponte Vedra boasted just one.
Height versus heart seems to always end with heart as the victor. Yet in this case, American Heritage complimented their heart with height proving too giant of a team for Ponte Vedra to take down.
Femi-Funeus led all scores with 19 points, while the other twin tower Willis chipped in with 14 points; while guards Tiana Stubbs and December Stubbs added 9 and 7 points respectively, to propel the Patriots offense.
The offense saw its most impressive production thanks to the American Heritage defense toward the end of the first period. The Patriots went on a 10-0 run, ballooning an early 10-7 lead to a 20-7 lead in a span of just six minutes.
They harassed the Sharks deflecting balls and contesting shots. Ponte Vedra would settle down and respond, scoring seven points to bring the score closer at 22-14.
Unfortunately for Ponte Vedra, this would be the closest the Sharks would get to American Heritage on the afternoon.
Riley Mayer’s 10 points, and Tess Tibbits 10 points just weren’t enough for Ponte Vedra as Chappell’s 6 points were well below the 25 point performance she posted the night before in the semifinals.
The team found it hard to keep up with the fast and furious pace of the Patriots who scored several times on fast break points.
A steal by December Stubbs led to a fast break score by Funeus in the third period increasing the American Heritage lead to 46-26.
The end result yielded a 59-33 score and crowned Coach Greg Farias and American Heritage FHSAA 6A Champions.
Ponte Vedra’s Head Coach Jim Piggott knows he truly has something special in his team.
“The credit goes to the players and the coaches I have. It’s taken two or three years for the girls to get used to the offense, but we believe they are really gelling,” Piggot said.
Coach Piggott specializes in defense and will most certainly spend this off-season game planning on how to stop some of the top projected teams next year in the playoffs.
Tess’s dad Coach Tibbits their associate coach, brought the offense down from Virginia and players like Chappell, McCarthy, Mayer, and Oats are all coming back to get better in it and make another run at it.
For Tess Tibbits, she is the lone senior starter who left it all on the court in Lakeland. The team will surely look to pick up where she left off next year, in their quest to win a state championship.
