1A State Tournament Preview

The FHSAA Girls Basketball State Finals start this Wednesday at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. All 7 classes are down to 4 teams who won their respective Regionals Finals. We will see some new faces, some teams who haven’t been in a while, and some of the usual suspects. Here is a breakdown of the Class 1A State Finals: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>February 23:</strong></em></span> <strong>Wildwood (1) vs. Port St. Joe (4) - <em>6 PM</em></strong> <strong>Ponce De Leon (2) vs. Madison County (3)  - <em>8 PM</em></strong> <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>February 25:</strong></em></span> <strong>State Championship - <em>7 PM</em></strong> MaxPreps Bracket Link - <a href="https://www.maxpreps.com/tournament/Vjowber0EeuAz5TgcHt2rg/XXQQWu4uEeuAz5TgcHt2rg/girls-basketball-21-22/2022-girls-basketball-state-tournament-1a.htm">2022 Girls Basketball State Tournament (1A) - MaxPreps</a> <hr /> <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><em>Wildwood (18-4)</em></span></span> The Wildcats have been reseeded the overall #1 seed after beating Newberry in their Regional Semifinal by a score of 61-22 and then beating Hawthorne in their Regional Final by a score of 60-26. Wildwood has been a powerhouse program, but they had to get revenge on Hawthorne who took them down one game before Lakeland the last two seasons which ended a 3-year streak of Hawthorne making it to State. The last time the Wildcats were playing in Lakeland was 2018 when they won it all. Wildwood has easily played the strongest schedule with their losses coming to teams that were some of the best in bigger classes. The Wildcats have a good mix of experience and youth to go along with size and a strong backcourt. <strong>Players to Watch: [player_tooltip player_id="91645" first="Kailani" last="Lindsey"] (2023) , Trinidy Harris (2025), [player_tooltip player_id="331720" first="Nataya" last="McGee"] (2022), Narjhani Harris (2026), Jayce Williams (2022)</strong> <hr /> <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><em>Ponce De Leon (21-3)</em></span></span> The Pirates are the only 20-win team in the field, and they have been reseeded as the #2 overall seed after defeating Holmes County (58-44) in their Regional Semifinal and Paxton (39-34) in the Regional Final. PDL will look to repeat at they won the State Championship against Hawthorne (40-37) last year. Ponce De Leon did lose a few key Seniors last year, but they reloaded and are another team with some height. Four of their top five players are 5’9" and above which is huge in 1A basketball. <strong>Players to Watch: Nevaeh McCoy (2022), Carmen Jones (2023), Lindy Motley (2022), Michaela Cruz-Findley (2024), Cadence Alford (2022)</strong> <hr /> <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><em>Madison County (19-6)</em></span></span> The Cowgirls return to Lakeland after a one year absence behind a top-heavy squad. They are the #3 overall seed with wins over Hilliard (44-41) in the Regional Semifinals and Lafayette (56-53) in the Regional Finals. They had the closest games with two 3-point wins to make their appearance at Lakeland. Madison County isn’t an undersized team by any means, so they shouldn’t struggle with the height of PDL in the first round. <strong>Players to Watch: Janiyah McKnight (2024), Nia Long (2023), Dakayla Hopkins (2022)</strong> <hr /> <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><em>Port St. Joe (18-7)</em></span></span> The Tiger Sharks are no stranger to Lakeland as they are back again, but they are looking to win the whole thing this time as the #4 overall seed. They knocked off Bozeman (55-24) in the Regional Semifinals and Chipley (54-45) in the Regional Finals. They’ll have the most Lakeland experience with the four below playing at The RP Funding Center multiple times together. It will be interesting to see how they do in the first round against the team who is considered the favorite as the Tiger Sharks have the talent and size to keep up with Wildwood. <strong>Players to Watch: Jae Lenox (2023), [player_tooltip player_id="353534" first="Amani" last="Jones"] (2022), [player_tooltip player_id="352554" first="Mari" last="Johnson"] (2023), [player_tooltip player_id="353524" first="Mimi" last="Larry"] (2022)</strong> <hr /> <div class="article-content"> Here are some Twitter opinions for the 1A class (first is from January, second is currently still being voted on): </div> <img class="alignnone wp-image-391356" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/02/1A-Jan-Poll-300x259.jpg" alt="" width="336" height="290" />  <img class="alignnone wp-image-391357" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/02/1A-Feb-Poll-300x279.jpg" alt="" width="313" height="291" /> <hr /> <div class="article-content"> &nbsp; <strong>Brandon Fisher</strong> is a Senior Scout for Prep Girls Hoops Florida and a Regional Scout for the PGH Circuit. If you have any information on players or teams, please email Brandon at brandonpghfl@gmail.com or DM him through Twitter/Instagram at @BrandonPGHFL. </div> &nbsp;