Boca Ciega Girls Basketball Coach Hopes Signature Win Becomes Habit

Earlier this month, first-year Boca Ciega High School girls basketball coach Michael Hall was happy but slightly frustrated with his squad.

Sure, Hall knew he had a talented team, but Hall expects much more. Now that the Pirates have what Hall calls "a signature win," he hopes that will become more of a pattern.

"We're doing OK," Hall said before the win over Southeast. "We're struggling to find out where we are and who we are; we're struggling with consistency."

Consistency, Hall suggested, was on offense, not defense. It was on the defensive side of the ball that Hall said the Pirates were excelling.

"We are playing very good defensively," Hall said. "On our man-to-man coverage, we are playing pretty good, pretty good. For example against Clearwater, we lost 47-37. Now Clearwater is a very good team. We kept them [scoring] low. But we have to score offensively. Riverview, it was a five point game. We held them down on defense but offensively, we didn't score enough."

But that offense was there for a win over Southeast. Destiny Brown had 15 points, and Kenya Joseph had 10 to lead the Pirates.

"We're struggling to find an identity, with our halfcourt offense," Hall said of the Pirates offensive woes.

"We're holding teams down but not scoring enough."

Still, Hall likes how the Pirates are playing, for the most part, with an 11-6 record. Not great, but not bad either.

"We've lost to some very good teams. We are not quite where we want to be," Hall said. "I guess my expectations are pretty high."

Currently, Brown leads the team with 262 points and Olivia Hester has 163.