The Gainesville girls basketball team is playing its best basketball.
On Tuesday night at The Purple Palace the No. 2 seed Lady Hurricanes used a team effort to get past No. 3 seed Beachside (St. Johns), 61-38, in an FHSAA Class 5A-Region 1 Semifinal.
“I think they played together, and that’s the biggest thing,” said GHS coach Jazlynd Rollins. “We’re coming together at the right time.”
GHS (15-8), which had four players score in double figures, advances to Friday’s region final. They will travel to No. 1 seed Booker T. Washington (Pensacola) with the winner advancing to the final four.
“It feels great,” said senior guard Kendall Ruise. “Our practice wasn’t so good the day before, so we knew we had to come out here and put it all on the floor and give all our heart because us seniors, we didn’t want it to be our last game.”
Both teams were aggressive in the opening quarter.
There were six lead changes in the first four minutes of the contest.
Beachside scored its first six points on layups, and that opened up the outside.
Senior guard Kendall Kane hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to bring the Barracudas (14-10) within one, 14-13, with 2:11 to play in the first quarter.
GHS senior shooting guard Mayah Gordon (14 points) answered with a 3-ball from the left wing with 1:17 remaining for a 17-13 lead, matching their largest lead in the opening quarter.
However, Kane (13 points) made another 3-pointer from the top of the key with 59 seconds left as GHS only led by one, 17-16, at the end of the first quarter.
“We did not execute in the first quarter, but we made some adjustments,” Rollins said. “I don’t think they expected them to cut so quickly coming off those screens, but we made adjustments, and it worked out.”
A layup by Ruise (14 points)on an assist by senior guard Jamison Cardwell pushed the lead to three to start the second quarter, followed by a layup by Beachside junior point guard Morgan Cremen (team-high 14 points) to cut the deficit to one at 19-18.
Then, with 4:27 remaining in the half, the Hurricanes went on an 8-0 run for a 30-21 lead with 2:45 remaining until intermission.
Gordon started the run with a free throw, and Louisiana Tech signee Jayden Terry (13 points) had consecutive layups, including another assist by Cardwell.
Cardwell (game-high 16 points) hit a jumper from the left elbow with 1:02 left as GHS led by eight, 34-26, at the half.
“I feel like at the beginning we were playing more of their game instead of playing our game, so we really just had to control the pace of the game and, as a point guard, I know that’s my job, so I try my best to do that,” Terry said. “But once we started really turning it up and playing our own game is when we took the lead.”
And it’s a lead they would never give up.
The Barracudas got as close as seven, 42-35, on a putback by junior Anni Ament (7 points) with 14 seconds left in the quarter.
However, Cardwell answered with a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer for a 45-35 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
She added consecutive layups to start the GHS scoring in the fourth quarter, including one play where she had the ball stolen from her underneath the basket, but she stole it right back and laid it in.
“That’s just heart,” she said. “I wanted it. Like I said last time, nobody wants it more than us and that’s just the little heart plays, diving on the floor, the extra rebounding, the extra pass. That’s all heart and we wanted it more,” she said. “That’s why we won this game.”
The ‘Canes held the Barracudas to just one field goal the entire fourth quarter and finished the game on a 14-0 run.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
FHSAA Regional Semifinals
(area teams in bold)
Tuesday, Feb. 18
Class 5A-Region 1
2 Gainesville 61, 3 Beachside (St. Johns) 38
Class 3A-Region 1
2 Rutherford (Panama City) 56, 3 Newberry 46
Regional Finals
Rural Class-Region 3
1 Hilliard 67, 2 Fort White 64 (OT)
Rural Class-Region 4
1 Wildwood 60, 2 Williston 45
Rural Class-Region 3 Final
2 Fort White 54 1 Hilliard 51
