Seminole is 1-9 against Clearwater since January of 2016 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Seminole Warhawks will face off against the Clearwater Tornadoes at TBD. Seminole will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Florida Rankings (they are ranked 356th, while Clearwater is ranked 143rd).
It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Seminole had no problem doing just that on Wednesday. They breezed by the Warriors at home to the tune of 50-12. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Seminole.
Laney Pearson was her usual excellent self, scoring 21 points. That makes it four consecutive games in which she has scored at least a third of Seminole's points. Devon Swartz was another key contributor, scoring ten points along with three blocks.
Meanwhile, Clearwater stacked a tenth blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Wednesday. They really took it to Northeast for the full four quarters, racking up a 58-13 win at home. The score at the end of the third wound up being the final score as Clearwater just coasted through the last quarter.
Pink Sturdivant continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, almost dropping a double-double on 20 points and nine rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Quenya Turner, who scored 11 points along with eight rebounds and three blocks.
Seminole pushed their record up to 13-12 with that win, which was their fifth straight at home. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 51.4 points per game. As for Clearwater, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 14-6 record this season.
Friday's game will pit two of the most dominant guards against one another: Pearson and Allevia Williams. Pearson has been dynamite this season: she has averaged 15.3 points, 2.8 steals, and 7.2 rebounds. For her part, Williams has averaged 17.4 points, 2 steals, and 1.2 rebounds.
Seminole was taken down by Clearwater 64-27 in their previous meeting back in December of 2023. The match was all but decided by halftime, at which point Seminole was down 31-11.
