Lely can’t reproduce magic vs. Cypress Lake

No Trojan horse here in this Class 4A Region 3 quarterfinal, not like the one Lely unloaded on Cypress Lake the first time these girls basketball teams met.

That was Jan. 27, when the Trojans stunned Cypress Lake, 67-59, in the Naples Dodge Shootout.

Thursday night, District 11 champ Cypress Lake shook off early jitters and defeated young but game District 12 runner-up Lely, 49-43, in front of a rowdy, half-full Elmer Tremont Gymnasium crowd.

“We’re so young, we don’t know anything about pressure,” said a sweaty Lely coach Nick Young. “We just go play ball.

“That was an excellent high school basketball game. I’m very proud of my young team. Very proud.”

Cypress Lake coach Andy Baker said Lely brings out the worst in his team and his team brings out the best in the Trojans.

Matter of fact, he wanted to pull his hair out, but since he shaves his head, it was too late.

“If I had some, it would be gone,” he said.

The Panthers scratched this out with a late 12-0 run that turned a 41-37 deficit with 3:14 remaining into a 49-41 lead with 35 seconds left.

“It looked like they had a little more left at the end than we did,” Young said. “They looked a little quicker than we did at the end, and that pulled it out for them.”

Driven by the animated, towel- waving Young and stronger inside play, Lely (10-12) came close to another shocker, thanks most ly to forwards Manolitha Joseph (11 points) and Victoria Howard (10).

With a short bench — three starters and a key reserve are injured — Baker could not throw the usual full-court pressure at Lely until near the end, and it resulted in the late run.

“We would’ve loved to have pressed the whole game,” Baker said. “Basically, I played six kids tonight.”

Cypress Lake (22-7) advances to travel to Tuesday night’s semifinal round at Haines City, which defeated Palmetto.