BASKETBALL PINELLAS COUNTY

Green Devils Run Out of Magic

Travis Bianco, St. Petersburg
Travis Bianco, St. Petersburg

8A – Semifinal
Hagerty 57, St. Petersburg 51

LAKELAND – Some may have doubted them, but no one in their program ever thought twice about being in this position. The St. Petersburg Boys Basketball season came to an end at The Lakeland Center on Thursday and the green in Green Devils could have easily described the feeling and looks on the faces of the players and coaches in the post-game presser–as in green with sickness from opportunities missed. The Green Devils went down by 12 after the first quarter and looked like they were on life support only to storm back to within a two-point margin by halftime. Junior Travis Bianco led three players in double-figures for St. Pete with 16 points while freshman Serrel Smith added 12 and Darius Banks contributed with 11 points. Hagerty’s Denzel Mahoney put the Huskies on his back, pouring in 24 points leading all scorers and leading three players in double-figures for a team making their third finals appearance in the last four seasons. The teams traded double-digit scoring runs in the first two quarters with Hagerty taking an 18-6 lead after the first eight minutes on the strength of 6-of-11 shooting from beyond the arc. St. Pete stormed back following a chilly opening to recover in the second quarter with a 16-6 run to bring the margin to just two points at 24-22 as the teams headed to the locker rooms for the break.

“The halftime talk was basically just keep doing what we were doing; we understand the game of basketball is about momentum and we talked about keeping it.” St. Petersburg Head Coach Chris Blackwell stated.

Following an even third quarter, Hagerty led 39-37 and the final eight minutes for the right to play for a championship on Saturday night seemed anybody’s for the taking. That’s when the Huskies went on a quick 8-0 run to push their lead to 49-41 with just under three minutes to play, however that didn’t change the approach as Blackwell reiterated following the game. “I thought (at that point) we were still playing good basketball, but they [Hagerty] had such great spacing in their half-court offense. That got us away from our defensive approach; we couldn’t get into our half court trapping like we wanted to; so take your hats off to them.”

St. Petersburg finishes the season at 21-10 with many accomplishments under their belts having avenged a 41-point loss to Wharton at the beginning of the season knocking three Top-10 teams (Newsome, Wharton and Oak Ridge) and winning the Consolation Championship of the illustrious Kingdom of the Sun Tournament in Ocala during the Christmas Break. That’s where Blackwell believes the season came into a much clearer view for his team and their outlook. Even though St. Pete lost to then #1-ranked Evans in OT, they went on to defeat Winter Haven, Fort Myers and Ocala Vanguard to take home consolation honors.

“The Kingdom of the Sun Tournament really defined who we were and gave us the confidence to move forward,” said Blackwell. Junior shooting guard Travis Bianco and his teammates echoed their feelings that those in the media and beyond doubting the Green Devils were not considered to be in-line with their own expectations; even before the season began and even when the Green Devils were sputtering at the start of the season. “We felt like we knew we were going to states this season; we knew what we had and we had to fight through so much adversity this season with losing our two seniors so it took a lot of growing for us to do, but without a doubt coming back to Lakeland next year is what we expect; today’s game was just additional motivation to work that much harder in the offseason.” Bianco said. The Green Devils will return their entire starting five for the 2015-16 season.

Hagerty (24-8) will now face #2-ranked Wellington (28-3) in the 8A Finals on Saturday at 8:30pm. The Wolverines were 76-69 winners over McArthur (Hollywood) in the final game of the evening. The game can be seen on BHSN, Channel 1147.