{"id":179820,"date":"2026-03-05T21:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179820\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T21:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:28:08","slug":"ocp-girls-shoot-54-in-fhsaa-1a-girls-basketball-semifinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179820\/","title":{"rendered":"OCP girls shoot 54% in FHSAA 1A girls basketball semifinal"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE \u2013 Orlando Christian Prep coach Stephanee Velez said her team was not at its offensive best in a FHSAA Class 1A girls basketball semifinal<\/a> game on Thursday.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not surprising considering the Warriors are playing without senior Rosemarie Lisojo, the team\u2019s leader in scoring (12.7 points per game), assists (5.9) and steals (3.6).<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was our everything,\u201d Velez said.<\/p>\n

But even with Lisojo sitting on the bench with a cast and crutches, out for the fourth game in a row, OCP managed to win convincingly, 57-49. The Warriors dominated\u00a0 the boards, outrebounding the Stingrays 38-23, and used second chances to produce the points they needed in the opening game of Week 2 of the FHSAA state tournament at the University of North Florida.<\/p>\n

OCP (21-7), in its first state tournament since 2019, will play for the state championship on Saturday at noon. They will face the winner of the second semifinal, which pitted No. 1 ranked Grandview Prep (24-4) against a hometown favorite, North Florida Educational Institute (16-14) of Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

The Warriors shot a torrid 54.1% from the floor (20-of-37) with second chance points boosting those numbers. They were 16-of-21 on free throws and scored 38 points in the paint. That included most of the 25 points OCP scored on fastbreak opportunities.<\/p>\n

The Warriors pushed the ball upcourt after misses, makes or miscues by Seacrest. That transition train and ball movement led to a slew of baskets at close range.<\/p>\n

And their tenacity on the other end of the floor was crucial. Seacrest (21-7) was held to 28.6% shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest thing for us is sharing the ball and defense,\u201d Velez said. \u201cToday, defense is what made the difference for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breyanna Blount, a 6-foot-3 senior, scored 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting. She was 4-of-5 on free throws and collected 13 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Blount said afterward that her team was unselfish with the guards feeding the post and the bigs kicking the ball back out to give guards shots.<\/p>\n

Brakayla Anderson scored 16 points for OCP. Boniyha Simpson added 13 and ninth grader Bianna Nolan added 10 points and 4 assists.<\/p>\n

\"BoniyahBoniyah Simpson of Orlando Christian Prep had 13 points and 6 rebounds in the Warriors’ state semifinal victory. (Stephen M. Dowell\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

OCP led for three and half quarters, by as much as 15, but had to stave off several threats.<\/p>\n

The last of those came after the Warriors built the 38-23 advantage in the final minute of the third period. Seacrest went to its chase defense and managed to cut the difference to 47-41 with 2:18 remaining. The Warriors held on with Anderson and Nolan combined to go 6-for-6\u00a0 on free throws in the final 34.5 seconds.<\/p>\n

OCP was credited with eight first half assists compared to just one by Seacrest. The Warriors took charge with a 16-3 run that gave it a 22-10 lead just before halftime. Blount scored 11 of those points. She had 13 in the first half.<\/p>\n

The second quarter was a different story with OCP scoring only four points as its lead dwindled to 24-18. The Warriors defense prevented any further damage with defensive effort that limited Seacrest to only six points in the period.<\/p>\n

OCP will be in its fifth girls state final game. The Warriors won the 1A state championship in 2005. They lost semifinal games in 2004, 2006 and 2019.<\/p>\n

OCP, CFCA open bids for basketball state championships in Jacksonville<\/a><\/p>\n

Varsity content editor Buddy Collings can be contacted by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE \u2013 Orlando Christian Prep coach Stephanee Velez said her team was not at its offensive best in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3745,139,141,140,76046,76642,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-179820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-high-school-sports","9":"tag-orlando","10":"tag-orlando-headlines","11":"tag-orlando-news","12":"tag-social-sports","13":"tag-social-varsity-sports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}