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Basketball: Lely, Naples stand in way of Cypress-South rematch in regional quarterfinals
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It’s a tasty temptation — penciling in South Fort Myers and Cypress Lake in the Class 4A regional semifinals, a potential rematch of the 4A-11 title game.
But a couple of things have to happen in order for that matchup to shake out, and one of them involves South’s trip south to face 4A-12 champ Lely in tonight’s regional quarterfinals.
The Wolfpack meet the Trojans in another rematch — albeit, less appealing than the South-Cypress possibility — looking to win their second playoff game in as many years. They’d need to do that to get another shot at the Panthers, who beat them, 49-42, for the 4A-11 championship.
Lely has other ideas.
“No one’s picking us to win,” said Lely coach Brandon Miller, who led the team to its first district championship since 1996 in his first year at the helm. “They’re all talking about South and Cypress Lake to get a rematch. But that’s fine — that’s what we want. Look at the Patriots and what happened to them in the Super Bowl. We like to fly under the radar.”
The Trojans have been flying that way for quite some time. That’s because they haven’t won a game in the state playoffs since Bill Clinton’s first term.
But this season has seen its share of breakthroughs, and Lely (19-6) seems more of a threat to South’s postseason wishes than last year.
The Wolfpack (22-5) beat Lely, 48-34, in the ‘07 regional quarterfinals, picking up the first playoff victory for South by any team in any sport.
The Trojans are back with the same core intact — and with homecourt advantage. They also have a much better record than last year’s 10-14 finish.
But Lely hadn’t closed the gap by Dec. 12, when it met South in the regular season for the only time. The Wolfpack won, 58-43, in their gym.
“We’ve been watching film of that all week,” Miller said of the December meeting. “It’s been a lot of X’s and O’s this week.”
He hopes it means a “W” by the end of the night. He hopes it is Lely — not South — that travels to Cypress next round, assuming the Panthers advance.
“They still have to come through us,” Miller said of the Wolfpack, who have won 43 games the last two years. “We’re a confident team.”
Girls basketball regional quarterfinals
Tonight at 7
Class 5A
Fort Lauderdale-Dillard at Barron Collier
Gulf Coast at Davie-Nova
Class 4A
Naples at Cypress Lake
South Fort Myers at Lely
Class 2A
Northside Christian at Community School
St. John Neumann at Keswick Christian

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