Girls basketball: No. 3 Palm Beach Central tops No. 1 Dwyer in overtime

Saturday, February 04, 2012
by Matt Porter

PALM BEACH GARDENS -- Palm Beach Central coach Bruce Gaffney put his arms over his head and shouted "That's a three!" The Broncos' bench and their fans erupted.

Senior guard Ashante Doby had banked in a leaning three as time ran out, tying the District 9-8A championship at 52 on Saturday night.

The Broncos weren't done. In overtime, freshman wing Crystal Primm hit 8-of-10 free throws to lift the third-ranked Broncos to their first district title in school history, a 67-58 win over No. 1 Dwyer.

The Broncos, in their eighth season as a program, made their first district final last year and lost. They then were eliminated in the first round of regionals.

"We've been waiting a while," Gaffney said. "To win against a team like Dwyer, that makes it even better. That's a great team."

Dwyer, which won both games against Central during the regular season, will play at Boca Raton in Tuesday's Class 8A regional quarterfinals. Central will host Park Vista.

"I was thinking, we lost to (Dwyer) twice. We weren't going to lose to them again," said Primm, who scored a game-high 26 points with 11 rebounds and five assists.

The Broncos won with one of their best efforts of the season. They picked up more floor burns. They stole more passes, jumped higher and drove the lane harder. Senior Lexus Love had a game-high 14 rebounds. Dwyer's Sam Glodis had 10 boards.

"We played a little bit too passive," Dwyer coach Jeryl Akins said. "They wanted it more than we did."

The teams combined for just 15 points in the first quarter and Dwyer led 22-20 at the half. It was 34-all after three. In such a physical game, every point was earned.

Junior Kiandra Bowers (team-high 16 points) put Dwyer up 52-46 with less than a minute left.

Central's Doby laid one in and made a foul shot to make it 52-49. Teammate Kesha'dra Smith stole the inbounds pass at midcourt. She drove, but Dwyer's Kai James took a charge. After a tussle for the ball at the other end, it went out of bounds off Dwyer with 10.3 seconds left.

Then came Doby's shot, Primm's free-throws and Central's celebration.

After the gym cleared out, Akins said his team won't waver from its goal: a state championship.

"Now we're hungry again," he said.