The third time was indeed the charm for the Gainesville Hurricanes in their Region 1-5A Quarterfinal matchup against the Columbia Tigers on Wednesday night.
Gainesville got 16 points apiece from brothers Cornelius and Cordarius White and beat Columbia, 64-51, at the Purple Palace as the Hurricanes beat Columbia for the third time this season.
Gainesville (21-7) advances to the region semifinal round on Monday at Ponte Vedra, who defeated Booker T. Washington (Pensacola), 67-57. Ponte Vedra eliminated the Hurricanes from the postseason in the region semifinals the last two years. This was the 14th consecutive opening-round playoff win for the Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes started out 5-for-5 from the floor and led Columbia early 12-0. But the Tigers (16-11) were able to stabilize and only trailed 21-16 after the opening quarter.
Cordarius White scored seven points, senior Brian Smith had six points on two treys, and sophomore Willie Brooks added five points in the opening quarter for Gainesville.
Columbia took its only lead of the game at 24-23 early in the second period, but Gainesville moved back ahead and stayed ahead the rest of the game.
“The first few minutes of the game wasn’t super difficult,” Gainesville coach Mike Barnes said. “We knew that we would make a run and they would also make a run and they were very aggressive and attacked the rim and hit some shots early. But we weathered the storm and kept that lead for most of the game.”
Cornelius White scored six points in the second period as the Hurricanes moved ahead 35-31 at halftime.
The third quarter saw Gainesville widen the lead. Cordarius and Cornelius combined for 10 of the Hurricanes’ 17 points, and Gainesville led 52-42 at the end of the third period.
The closest Columbia could get in the fourth quarter was five points, as Gainesville held the Tigers to only nine points in the final period.
“I thought down the stretch we played really well the last half of the fourth quarter,” Barnes said. “We talked about in our Leon game (district championship) we could have done a lot better closing out.”
Columbia was led by senior Zavian Douglas with 15 points, and sophomore Shaheed White added 10 points.
“They (GHS) are big,” Columbia coach Steve Faulkner said. “At one point they had three 6’5″ people on the floor at one time. I have a bunch of 5’10” kids. I had 5’10” kids guarding 6’5″ kids in the post. We did the best that we can, and I’m very proud of the effort.”
FHSAA Boys Basketball scores – Wednesday, Feb. 12
Area teams in bold
Regional Quarterfinals
Class 5A-Region 1
3 Gainesville 64, 6 Columbia (Lake City) 51
Class 4A-Region 2
4 Santa Fe (Alachua) 53, 5 Liberty (Kissimmee) 51
Class 3A-Region 1
2 Newberry 82, 7 Bolles (Jacksonville) 77
Class 2A-Region 1
2 Master’s Academy (Oviedo) 80, 7 P.K. Yonge 48
Regional Semifinals
Rural Class-Region 3
1 Hilliard 57, 4 Trenton 54
2 Fort White 46, 3 Madison County 44
Rural Class-Region 4
1 Hawthorne 54, 4 Moore Haven 32
2 Williston 75, 3 Wildwood 40
Monday, Feb. 17
Regional Semifinals
Class 5A-Region 1
3 Gainesville at 2 Ponte Vedra
Class 4A-Region 2
4 Santa Fe (Alachua) at 1 Eustis
Class 3A-Region 1
3 Florida High (Tallahassee) at 2 Newberry
Region Finals
Rural Class-Region 3
2 Fort White at 1 Hilliard
Rural Class-Region 4
2 Williston at 1 Hawthorne