PORT ORANGE — Early in Saturday’s Five Star Conference Tournament quarterfinal against Flagler Palm Coast, the Deltona Wolves called a timeout.

“We started off real slow, and I know it’s our fourth game of the week, so that was probably one of the reasons,” coach Hjalmar Suarez said. “The girls were a little tired.”

With Deltona, its style of play makes it easy to tell. The Wolves rely on quickly turning stifling defense into offense.

Soon after the timeout, they were back in transition and raced past the Bulldogs 61-29 at Atlantic High School. They, as the third seed, will take on No. 2 Mainland in the semifinals Wednesday.

At multiple points Saturday, senior Calise Chishom secured a rebound or loose ball and launched long outlet passes that led to teammate buckets. She said it’s like throwing a touchdown pass. At other times, she flipped roles, becoming the transition scorer. She tops the Wolves with 14.5 points per contest.

“It’s adrenaline,” Chisholm said. “You go get the ball. You see the ball in the basket, and it’s just continuous, continuous, keep going.”

Suarez teaches that system. Deltona practices its transition game and installs fast-break plays. With Chisholm, freshman Iniya Reddicks (14.4 points per game), senior Shenell White and others, they have the athletes to do it at a high level.

The Wolves hold a 12-4 record. Between Dec. 1 and Jan. 18, they embarked on a nine-game win streak before falling to Menendez 46-42 Thursday. They’ve claimed both games since.

“We were lit,” Chisholm said of the stretch. “We were having fun.”

Suarez saw an evolution during those nine games. His roster, split between seniors and freshmen without many in the between, matured.

As the young players gained more experience, Deltona could do more. It made in-game adjustments Saturday, switching between the 3-2 zone, diamond-and-one and 1-3-1 zone on defense. Its success in those different looks resulted in more opportunities to sprint in transition.

But Suarez has already identified the next step for this group.

“We just have to execute better in the half court,” he said. “We just have to if we want to beat Mainland, if we want to beat Spruce Creek, if we want to beat teams like that.”

And the Wolves will have to do that to get where they want to go. Their district features St. Augustine (14-2), Menendez (11-6) and Mainland (7-11 but ranked 31st in the state).

“I know our defense is going to do its job,” Suarez said. “I know our transition is going to do its job. But if we can move the ball and execute in the half court, that’s what’s going to take us to the next level.”

New Smyrna Beach girls walk off in wild fashion

Maybe it was simply good fortune.

“I think the whole shot was really just luck,” senior Hailee Mokwe said.

But sometimes it pays to be lucky.

New Smyrna Beach had possession down 42-40 to DeLand in the final seconds of the Five Star quarterfinals Saturday. The Barracudas missed their first attempt, but Mokwe muscled an offensive rebound and flipped the ball up toward the rim, drawing a foul with 0.3 seconds left.

The ball also dropped through the net.

Mokwe stepped to the free-throw line with one chance to avoid overtime and send her team home happy.

“At that moment, I didn’t want to give her too much eye contact because I already was on her the entire game, so I felt like it would discourage her if I looked at her,” coach Aisha Patrick said. “So I just wanted to let her know, ‘You’ve got this,’ and I looked away and let everything else take care of itself.”

Yep. Mokwe converted the foul shot to give the fifth-seeded Barracudas a 43-42 lead. No. 4 DeLand called a timeout and inbounded the ball but couldn’t get a halfcourt shot off before the buzzer.

So maybe the layup through contact was luck. Maybe. But the free throw was not. And Patrick’s squad had been in similar positions before, almost with the same score.

Two weeks ago, New Smyrna Beach (10-5) edged Space Coast 44-40 on the road. In December, it lost to Spruce Creek 45-43 and Deltona 49-48, and tackled Spoto 38-37.

“This has been that type of year,” Patrick said. “It’s been close games all year, especially in Volusia. There’s a lot of talent down here.”

Against DeLand, junior Corrin Austell and sophomore Sariah Ammons shared the Barracudas’ lead with 10 points apiece. Freshman Mimi Ross tallied a game-best 20 to pace the upstart Bulldogs, already winners of 12 games under coach Joel Vega.

For New Smyrna Beach, Mokwe finished with nine points. Senior Paris Thompson added eight. The Barracudas have stayed balanced all year.

Their roster includes only eight players, so they don’t employ a deep bench. Mokwe thinks that is the only advantage opponents have.

“At the same time, I feel like we have more heart,” she said. “That always pushes us.”

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The Barracudas set a goal before the season to win the district championship. Battles like Saturday help to prepare them for the upcoming postseason grind.

“For us to be able to close out in this game, that’s major for them,” Patrick said. “I think that’s a confidence boost going into districts.”

New Smyrna Beach boys also win with heroics

Just hours before Mokwe’s clutch shots, the New Smyrna Beach boys team hit one of its own.

In the waning seconds of the Five Star quarterfinal, with the score tied against No. 6 DeLand, senior Josh Reik took his defender off the dribble and pulled up for a jumper at the left elbow. He knocked it down to give the third-seeded Barracudas a 55-53 lead, which held as the final score at University.

Reik put up 21 points and drained five of his seven 3-pointers. New Smyrna Beach will take on second-seeded Deltona, who handled Spruce Creek Saturday, in Wednesday’s semifinals.

Other boys quarterfinals results

• No. 5 Atlantic beat No. 4 Flagler Palm Coast 68-62

• No. 1 Mainland beat No. 8 Pine Ridge 74-37

• No. 2 Deltona beat No. 7 Spruce Creek 68-60

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Other girls quarterfinals results

• No. 2 Mainland beat No. 7 Atlantic 62-25

• The first-round game between No. 1 Spruce Creek and No. 8 Pine Ridge was canceled due to transportation issues for the Panthers. Spruce Creek advanced to the semifinals.

Five Star semifinals and finals bracket

Boys semifinals at University High School

• No. 2 Deltona vs. No. 3 New Smyrna Beach, 5 p.m. Wednesday

• No. 1 Mainland vs. No. 5 Atlantic, 7 p.m. Wednesday

Girls semifinals at Atlantic High School

• No. 1 Spruce Creek vs. No. 5 New Smyrna Beach, 6 p.m. Wednesday

• No. 2 Mainland vs. No. 3 Deltona, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

Finals at Atlantic High School

• Girls: 6 p.m. Friday

• Boys: 7:30 p.m. Friday

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: High school basketball: Five Star Conference tournament notebook