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Raiders Upset Dreadnaughts

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By DAREK SHARP, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 23, 2008

PLANT CITY - A substantial turnout of Plant City supporters at the Lakeland High gym Tuesday included key figures in Raider basketball history.

They all got to witness the Raiders take a historic step.

Plant City put on a sensational display to upset No. 7-ranked Lakeland 77-68 in the second round of the 6A playoffs.

The Raiders (17-9) travel today to Orlando to play Evans High School, with the winner headed to the state semifinals in Lakeland. Tonight's game tips off at 7.

"It's exciting," first-year head coach Dale Chambers said. "It's great for these kids; they are a great group of kids."

On Tuesday, against a Lakeland team that had beaten them in all three of their meetings this season, the Raiders played at a high level.

Channing Woodall led the effort with 24 points, but all five Raider starters played a significant role. Denzel Drone and Steve Hardnett held their own against a physical Lakeland interior, and Drone had a rare double-figure scoring night with 10 points. Hardnett added 13. The forward pair made several awe-inspiring blocks of Dreadnaught shot attempts.

Rod Henderson, after a slow start, more than made up for it by scoring 16 points. Josh Thiebe, the team's 6-foot-2-inch center, made three critical three-pointers and scored 11.

"I think they all played not just well but extremely well," Chambers said.

Helping the Raider effort was an atmosphere at Lakeland that made it feel like a Raider home game. Plant City easily had more fans in attendance. Among them were former Raider head coaches Pete Weronik, Gary Brady and Lanness Robinson, and all-time Hillsborough County leading scorer Russell Evans, who was largely responsible for Plant City's last state semifinal trip in 1991.

"The crowd was our sixth man. It felt like a home game," Henderson said.
Woodall helped Plant City establish the lead in the second quarter, sparking a 7-0 run that the senior guard ended with a transition dunk for a 23-17 lead. It was 30-25 at the half.

Lakeland (24-6) came out strong in the third quarter but missed a wide-open lay-up that would have put the Dreadnaughts ahead. Plant City quickly took advantage of the miss by shooting to a 41-31 advantage. Hardnett had two buckets on the fast break, and Henderson made a three-pointer. Plant City was on fire in the quarter, scoring 24 points.

It was Thiebe's turn to hit the big buckets in the fourth. His first three gave the Raiders their largest lead at the time, 59-47, with 6:35 to go. A monster dunk by Drone brought the Raider crowd to its feet, and then the game turned into a parade to the free-throw line. Henderson and Woodall combined to attempt 20 foul shots in the second half, and made enough to hold off the Dreadnaughts.

Lakeland made it interesting. The team's 6-foot-7-inch standout, Richie Edwards, hit a three pointer, then after two Raider misses at the free-throw line Lakeland got a three-point play to pull to within 74-68 with 29 seconds left. Then Edwards attempted a three that would have cut the margin, but he missed and the Raider throng exploded in celebration.

"I could finally breathe then, and really turn around and notice how many fans we had there," Chambers said.

Tonight's opponent, Orlando Evans (23-7), did not win its district and had a 3-4 mark against its District 6A-5 opponents. Evans scored a major upset over Orlando's Freedom High School in the 6A-5 semifinal.

Evans lost to Edgewater by 20 points in the district finals. But, like Plant City's getting revenge on Lakeland, the Trojans did the same Tuesday in winning at Edgewater 54-42. Guard Kedrick Taylor led the way with 22 points.

Two years ago, the Trojans reached the region finals, having done the same in 2003. Other than that the last time the Trojans advanced past the second round of the playoffs was a final four trip in 1985. The school has one state championship, in 1975.

If the Raiders prevail tonight, they will play in the 6A state semis Thursday against the winner between No. 1-ranked Boyd Anderson and No. 8 Lantana Santaluces.

The other half of the 6A bracket has No. 3 Winter Springs playing fifth-ranked Orange Park in one region final tonight, and South Miami going up against No. 4 Norland in the other.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampa trib.com.

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