Seven Leon County Teams Win Basketball District Titles

Last week seven district final basketball games took place resulting in NFC (girls and boys), Maclay (boys), Florida High (girls and boys), Rickards (girls) and Godby (boys) all claiming titles in their respected classifications.

1A District 1

The NFC boys basketball team (10-14) faced off against JPII (9-14) on Feb. 7 in the district championship. The Eagles came into this game as the underdog as they were seeded 2nd in the tournament and JPII was seeded 1st. These two teams met up once earlier in the regular season with NFC winning in a tight game 55-50. This time around the Eagles found the same result beating the Panthers 68-59 and claiming the 1A District title.

After receiving two byes in the district tournament, the NFC girls basketball team (11-8) played against the FAMU DRS Baby Rattlers (3-19) in the final on Feb. 7. After beating JPII 36-17 in the district semi-finals, FAMU looked to get their revenge on the Eagles as they lost to them earlier in the regular season 63-48. NFC had other plans as their fast-paced offense and strong defense helped them secure the district title with a 59-42 win over the Baby Rattlers.

2A District 1

Although the Maclay boys basketball team had a rough start in the beginning of the regular season, they had momentum going into the district tournament winning their last three regular season games against NFC, JPII and Marianna. The Marauders (10-13) faced off against Rocky Bayou Christian (7-16) on Feb. 7 in the 2A District 1 championship.

Maclay got off to a good start outscoring their opponent 16-8 in the first quarter. The Marauders then found an offensive rhythm in the second quarter putting up 29 points to go up 45-22 heading into halftime. Rocky Bayou Christian could not find a way through the Marauders defense in the second half resulting in Maclay claiming the 2A District 1 title. Maclay had three players that finished with double digit points including, Zeke Podgorski (Sr.) with 10, Sebastian Aleksander (Sr.) with 10, and Nash Beshears (Sr.) leading the team with 16.

3A District 2

After receiving a bye in the first round and convincingly beating Suwannee in the semifinals, the one seeded Florida High boys basketball team (19-5) faced off against Marianna (20-5) on Feb. 7. Both teams had a successful regular season and relied on their dynamic offenses as a large part of their success. The Seminoles ended up beating Marianna 73-58 claiming the 3A District 2 title.

The Florida High girls basketball team (16-9) also matched up against Marianna (9-15) in the district finals on Feb. 7. The Seminoles dominated the Bulldogs on both sides of the ball for most of the game resulting in a final score of 52-26 and a district title for Florida High. Notable performances from the Seminoles include Makiyah McHenry (Jr.) with 16 points and Tori Davis (Sr.) with 17 points. Both players made 4 threes each with McHenry shooting 50% behind the arc and Davis shooting 25%.

4A District 2

Coming into the district final matchup against Rickards (15-10) on Feb. 7, the Godby (17-6) boys basketball team was 0-2 against the Raiders on the year with both losses occurring in the regular season. Because of this and the district tournament seeding, Godby entered the game as an underdog. The Cougars were able to keep it a relatively low scoring game holding Rickards to only 39 points. Godby pulled off the upset putting up 47 points on offense bringing home the 4A District 2 title with a final score of 47-39.

On Feb. 8, the Rickards (17-3) girls basketball team took on Godby (16-7) for the 4A District 2 title. Rickards’ offense looked unstoppable in the first half led by senior guard Genesis Henry. Henry led the team with 20 points followed by teammate Kindal Harrell (So.) who put up 13 points. The cougars could not find a way to slow down the Rickards offense resulting in a 70-36 win for the Raiders claiming the district title.