High school girls basketball: No. 5 IMG Academy, No. 9 Montverde Academy advance to Chipotle Nationals semifinals

The semifinals of the season-ending Chipotle Nationals are set after No. 5 IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) beat Grace Christian (Sanford, N.C.) 74-68 in the first game Thursday while No. 9 Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) raced past No. 18 Sidwell Friends (Washington, D.C.) 65-49.

IMG Academy now draws No. 4 Grayson (Loganville), the Georgia Class AAAAAAA champion, on one side of the bracket while MaxPreps Top 25 No. 1 Long Island Lutheran (Brookville, N.Y.) plays Montverde Academy in the other semifinal.

Grayson beat IMG Academy 73-56 in January at the John Wall Invitational. The Long Island Lutheran-Montverde contest is a rematch of last year's final in which the Eagles outlasted the Crusaders 60-54 on their way to their second straight event title and national championship.

The semifinal games will be aired on ESPNU at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. ET. The winners will meet at 11 a.m. Saturday for the title.

The Ascenders weathered a 31-point effort from top-ranked Class of 2024 prospect Sarah Strong, using a 10-3 burst in the third period with Strong on the bench with an injury.

The uncommitted standout poured in 21 in the first half as the Crusaders built leads of 18-9 and 31-18 in the first half before IMG (24-3) finished the second quarter on a 9-2 run with seven of the nine coming from Tajianna Roberts. The Louisville commit finished with a team-high 24. 

Miami commit Leah Harmon added 18 for the Ascenders on 5 of 8 shooting and 7 of 8 from the free throw line. UConn commit Kelis Fisher was the other IMG player in double figures with 13.

Strong dominated the first half of action with 21 of the Crusaders' 39 points in the first 16 minutes. She hit three 3-pointers while also scoring in the paint and from the mid-range. But she appeared to tweak her knee and had to be taken to the locker room for a stretch in the third period.

During that time, IMG Academy, which had just taken a 46-44 lead on Roberts' bucket, stretched the advantage to 57-52 after three quarters on the strength of a 10-3 run.

Strong returned with just over 6:30 to play but Grace Christian wasn't able to chip away at the IMG lead. Strong finished with 19 rebounds.

Halisi Whitley and Miyah Campbell each finished with 12 for Grace Christian (30-1).

No. 9 Montverde Academy 65, No. 18 Sidwell Friends 49

The reigning event champions got 19 points from Ohio State commit Jaloni Cambridge and 16 from USC pledge Vivian Iwuchukwu to turn a six-point halftime deficit into a runaway victory.

And while the stars were out for Montverde, it was 6-foot freshman Finley Chastain, a Tennessee commit, who really broke the game open over the third and fourth quarters with a barrage of 3-pointers.

The Quakers took a 30-24 lead into intermission on the strength of a 15-9 second period in which UCLA commit Kendall Dudley scored eight of her team-high 22 points.

But Montverde quickly cut the edge at the start of the second half as Cambridge, Iwuchukwu, Eris Lester and Lourdes Da Silva Costa outscored Sidwell 16-4 over the first five minutes of the third quarter.

Then an onslaught of 3-pointers from the Eagles blew the game wide open. Chloe Sotell started with a triple from the wing for a 43-35 Montverde lead before Chastain hit on 4 of 5 3-pointers straddling the third and fourth quarters. Her final shot from distance opened the final period and gave the Eagles a 57-42 edge.

Sidwell went 3 of 12 from the field in the final quarter trying to shoot itself back in the game.

In addition to Dudley's 22 points, sophomore Jordyn Jackson was the other Quaker in double figures with 11 points.