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Girls basketball Player of the Year Emily Lockey averaged 15.2 points and 5.3 rebounds this year and was instrumental in leading St. Cloud to a 22-7 record. PHOTO/ST. CLOUD HIGH SCHOOL
St. Cloud’s girls basketball team won a sixth straight Orange Belt Conference and added another district title and 20-win season to its resume, so perhaps it is no surprise that the Lady Bulldogs also dominated this year’s Osceola News Gazette’s All-County Girls Basketball Team with three selections, including Player of the Year Emily Lockey.
Bulldogs point guard Danigzy Mantilla and center Haley Collins join Lockey, who averaged 15.2 points and 5.3 rebounds this year and was instrumental in leading St. Cloud to a 22-7 record.
Behind her efforts, the Lady Bulldogs finished the regular season on a six-game winning streak and then blitzed through the District 6A-7 tournament, including a 58-27 win over New Smyrna Beach in the championship game.
The senior forward scored in double figures in 23 of 30 games, including five games of 20 or more,. She had a season-high 28 against Cocoa in an early season game. Lockey was a three-year starter and four-year letter winner for St. Cloud, finishing her career with 1,344 points (13.6 per game career average).
She is scheduled to play her college ball at Rochester Christian University in Michigan. Lockey, who currently is ranked first in her class and is in line to be valedictorian, has been a coach’s dream, according to her coach Chad Ansbaugh.
“Emily has not missed a day of practice or a voluntary workout in four years,” Ansbaugh said. “She’s always the first to get a ball off the rack at practice and after the workout is over, she is always staying to take extra shots. Never complained, never gave me dirty look at practice when things weren’t going well, she just worked her tail off to get better every day.”
Among Lockey’s teammates, a fireplug of a point guard, the diminutive Mantilla is a good outside shooter (8.3 ppg) and playmaker (5.5 assists per game) but was also not afraid to mix it up inside, where she averaged more than five rebounds per game. Collins battled injuries all season but still scored 11 points per game and lead the Bulldogs in rebounding (6.7).
Gateway looked for a repeat of the last two years (appearances in the regional finals and Class 5A Final Four), rode the shooting of sophomore Alyssa Marino and Evana Rivera to an 18-7 record and defended its District 5A-7 crown. Marino (14.5 ppg, 6.2 assists) and Rivera (11.1 ppg and 7.5 rpg) Sophomore Karina Rivera, who (7.4 ppg, 11.1 rpg) joins them, giving them three selections.
Makena Day, who led Tohopekaliga to a school record in wins (16-4) and its first district championship, led the Tigers in scoring (17.3 ppg) and was second in rebounding (8.4). She is joined on the first team by teammate Sanaa Charles (10.9 ppg, 9.2 rpg).
Rounding out the first unit is Celebration’s Evelyn Juden (12.9 ppg) and Harmony’s Ellah Husbands (10.3 ppg).
The second unit of the All-County team includes Natalia Calderon and Keyanna Stanley (Poinciana), Jayme Montanez and Emerson Aslan (Harmony), India Smith (Liberty), Jamylah Williams (Osceola),Valerie Martinez (Celebration), Malayna Stevenson (Gateway) and Sophia Delgado (Tohopekaliga).