Gateway shoots lights-out in 69-40 regional final win over River Ridge
A year after falling just short with a two-point loss to Bishop Moore in a regional final, the Gateway Panthers are headed to the Final Four, where they will play for the Class 5A state girls basketball championship in Lakeland next week.
The Panthers, 24-6, earned that right Friday with a 69-40 dismantling of River Ridge in the Region 5A-2 championship. Vanessa Diaz, the Panthers’ lone senior, led the way with a 29-point effort.
Diaz was sensational from both three-point range -- where she made 6-of-8 attempts – and from the free throw line, where she was 11-for-12.
“A perfect home ending to my career,” Diaz said. “We have worked so hard to get to this point and now we are going to play in a Final Four. We all hit some threes early and that really gave us a lot of confidence.”
“She followed me over from Neptune Middle School and has been the backbone of our program for the last four years,” Coach Justin Marino said of his star shooting guard who has scored more than 2,000 points in her career. “She is not the biggest player on the floor but she is always the hardest worker. She is a great leader, tough as nails and her basketball IQ is off the charts.
“It’s a tough thing to say when your own kid plays for your team, but Vanessa is my favorite player ever,” Marino jokingly added with a smile.
While Justin’s daughter, freshman Alyssa Marino, may not be her dad’s favorite player, she also played a huge role in the win. Her four three-pointers in the first half helped the Panthers build a 20-9 first quarter lead and extend it to 28-10 halfway through the second.
Two incidents, one of which occurred on the court and one in the stands, could have derailed Gateway’s momentum. With 2:21 to go in the first half, Panther forward Karli Cole was knocked down hard under the basket. She injured her knee and would not return. Then with 15 seconds left in the half, a large contingent of students from both schools got into a shoving match in the stands, which caused an eight minute delay while teachers and administrators from both sides separated the students.
The Cole injury was especially concerning, as the Panthers only have eight players on their roster, with only six seeing significant playing time. But neither issue proved troublesome for the Panthers, who took a 16-point lead into the half.
Diaz would thwart any hopes of a visitor comeback by nailing four three-pointers in the third period, and Malayna Stevenson added six more as the Panthers took an insurmountable 30-point lead after three quarters.
Stevenson, who scored 16, was another pivotal Panther player. Through three periods, she would drive the lane and either get a layup or kick the ball out to an open opponent for an open three.
“We have a reputation of being a three-point shooting team and that sometimes works to our advantage,” Marino said. “Teams tend to try to play a lot of tight man-to-man coverage on us. When they do that, we are not afraid to take the ball inside. Because teams have to switch a lot, that creates potential mismatches. When that happens, Malayna is unstoppable because smaller players on a switch simply can’t cover her inside.”
The Panthers were red hot in the game, shooting 54% for the game – including a blistering 63% from beyond the three-point arc (12-of-19). Despite the success, Marino hesitated to call it his team’s best effort. “It’s up there, but the thing I like about this team is they always think they can do better,” Marino said. “This group is never satisfied and that’s a good thing.”
With the win, the first regional title in school history, the Panthers will now play Daytona Beach Mainland in Thursday’s state semifinal at Lakeland’s RP Funding Center. The winners will play for the 5A championship on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Mainland (19-8), a top-seed, won its Region 2 final against Riverview, 47-43. The two teams have not met in the regular season but have played four common opponents this year in Rockledge, Eau Gallie, Lake Mary, and Deltona. Mainland has gone 4-0 against those opponents, while the Panthers have gone 5-0 -- including two wins over Eau Gallie.
The injury to Cole was not overly alarming to Marino. “She an important part of our team and it looks like it is only a bruise,” he said. “But if she can’t go, it’s next man up and we will come up with a game plan.”
