State Runner-Up

Megan Garriott was speechless.

Sitting alongside fellow teammates Heidi Miller and McKenzie Lantz at the press conference table with the Florida High School Athletic Association banner draped in the background, the Sarasota Christian junior guard gazed incredulously at roughly a half-dozen reporters.

She never imagined she would close out the season playing for the FHSAA Class 2A state championship, which took place Feb. 20 at the Lakeland Center.

“It’s exciting to make it here,” Garriott says. “I don’t know if any of us thought we would actually get all the way here to the final championship game.”

The Lady Blazers, who were making their first appearance in the state championship since 2008, did not know what to expect when they took the floor against a Grandview Prep team that had been to the Final Four each of the past three seasons.

After all, Lantz and Miller were in elementary school watching their older sisters play basketball the last time Sarasota Christian played for a state championship.

The opportunity was more than Sarasota Christian expected when the season began.

“We didn’t know the enormity of the opportunity to make it to the show,” coach Brett Morrow says. “This wasn’t on the to-do list, but I did make a voice recording to make sure we put it on the to-do list for next year.”

Sarasota Christian hung with Grandview Prep early on in the contest, as Garriott scored seven of the Lady Blazers’ 10 points in the first quarter.

The Lady Blazers thought they had a chance early in the second quarter when Grandview Prep center Vionise Pierre-Louis, who is headed to Oklahoma, suffered a knee injury while going up for a rebound. Pierre-Louis had to be helped off the court and watched the remainder of the game on the bench with ice on her knee.

At that point, without a dominant presence blocking inside, Sarasota Christian thought it had a chance — at least for a little while.

“You don’t want to see any child get injured. I pray there’s no knee injuries there,” Morrow says. “But it certainly brought everyone else to an equal playing field. The rest of us are under 6-foot and not as dominant.”

“I’m not sure (we had) a better chance, but I thought we could do a lot more with her out,” Garriott says. “Maybe just feed it to the post more.”

But Grandview Prep’s Neydja Petithomme, who is headed to Auburn, took over, scoring a team-high 20 points and leading Grandview Prep (25-2) to a 45-32 victory over Sarasota Christian (23-8).

It was the Lady Blazers’ lowest offensive production of the season — they shot just 26% from the field and turned the ball over 27 times.

“We made it to the big show and we got to play a fine group of kids representing Grandview Prep,” Morrow says. “We’ve got two good schools in our classification in FAMU and Grandview Prep, so I guess where we position ourselves that puts us as the best of the rest.”

Miller was the lone player to finish in double figures for the Lady Blazers. She had 13 points to go along with five steals and six rebounds; she was named the team’s Most Valuable Player following the game. Garriott added nine points. Annika Jensen hauled in a team-high nine rebounds.

“I just think we played with heart and we made it here and we were just shocked a little bit,” Garriott says. “It definitely took us by surprise. Hopefully we’ll be making it back here and hopefully win.”

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].