Gallery: Forest Defeats Lake Weir 49-46

Forest Wildcats guard Taleah Jones made multiple clutch shots in the final minutes to lead Forest to a scintillating 49-46 win over the Lake Weir Hurricanes on Thursday night.

The win puts Forest at 11-7 on the season as they prep for district play in the coming days.
The matchup featured two of the best teams in the county and Forest head coach Brandon Cave was ecstatic with the win.

“I’m very excited for our program, I’m excited for the student body because we opened the gates for them to come in for free with their student ID and it’s the first time they really got to see us in action. I’m just excited for the whole school general with this win,” Cave said.
With the loss, Lake Weir falls to 9-4 under first year head coach Brianna Smith. Despite the loss, Smith was pleased with the way her team handled the pressure of a close game in a tough environment.

“The outcome wasn’t what we were looking for, but I like how we competed. It was nice, healthy competition between two teams and we knew it was going to be a hard game to win. I appreciate that we played hard from start to finish. We’re going to take the mistakes we made from tonight and learn to grow from it to get ready for next week,” Smith said.

Lake Weir came charging out of the gates with a 15-5 lead by the end of the first quarter. Senior point guard Erilynn Beltre was on fire in the opening period with seven points, including a three-point dagger from the left wing.

Forest would stop the bleeding and cut the deficit down to 24-21 by the end of the second quarter as Jones racked up four points and freshman guard Ja’Niyah McCoy scored five consecutive points in the final 30 seconds of the first half.

The third quarter was a back-and-forth heavyweight battle as the two teams combined for 30 points. Lake Weir scored by committee as Tatum Lake, Shanice Brown, Beltre, Ford and Morgan Cummings each scored points.

Jones continued to play lead role for Forest with six points in the period while McCoy, Maleah Flagler and Olivia Johns pitched in with a combined seven points.

Things looked dire for Forest midway through the third period as they fell behind by as much as 10. Cave had to make a change with his defense and leaned on a motivational phrase as Forest got back to within five points heading into the fourth quarter.

“Our word of the week is finish strong. I continued to preach what the word of the week is and to trust each other. That’s how we fought our way back into it and we’ve been fighting and clawing all year, that’s all you can do is fight,” Cave said.

A steal and transition layup by Flagler in the opening minute of the fourth quarter put the pressure on Lake Weir and Jones would follow with a sweet 13-foot jumper to trim the deficit down to one point.

After four missed free throws by Forest, Lake Weir took a three-point lead on a smooth left-handed layup by Shanice Brown. Beltre would follow up the next possession with a layup of her own to put Lake Weir up by four.

Forest had to go into attack mode and Jones did just that with a 10-foot jumper and on the ensuing possession for Lake Weir, Flagler came up with a steal at half court. The junior guard found a wide-open Dasanni Bentley near the hoop for an uncontested layup to tie the game with 53 seconds left.

Lake Weir had the chance to go up by two, but Ford missed the back end of a pair free throws. Forest drove down the court and Jones would sink a hotly-contested layup from the right side while drawing a foul.

Jones nailed the free throw to give Forest a two-point lead with 22 seconds left. Lake Weir had multiple opportunities to tie the game or take the lead with three shot attempts in the final 20 seconds, but none fell before Jones came up with a rebound to clinch the win.

The loss for Lake Weir was a tough pill to swallow but Smith was happy to see her team not be phased by a large crowd. Brown led Lake Weir with 10 points and nabbed seven rebounds, Ford finished with nine points, 10 rebounds and three steals. Beltre scored 10 points with three rebounds and Lake pitched in with seven points.

“The hard-fought losses sting the most but we will watch film and see what we can do to fix our mistakes. I want them to view from a standpoint of not letting the mistakes define them as players and instead using them as fuel to get better and not make them again.” Smith said.
As for Forest, a tough win against a good team could be the beginning of a late-season run that pushes his team deep into the playoffs.

“We look at every game as a momentum booster to push us up the mountain. Even when we get to the top of the mountain, there is still another one to climb. We’re using every win and loss to go back and build on it by fixing our mistakes. We’re using this to propel us into district play,” Cave said.

Lake Weir will be back in action next Tuesday when they host Belleview. Forest returns to the hardwood when they host Vanguard next Thursday.