All-around effort results in 61-51 win over New Smyrna Beach in regional final
Gateway's loud student section joined the Panthers defense in making it difficult for New Smyrna Beach in Friday's regional final. (Photo/Ken Jackson)
Gateway hoops fans, find your way to Jacksonville. You've got over a week.
The Lady Panthers did just that Friday.
Gateway punched its ticket to the Class 5A state championships for the second time in four seasons with a gutsy, gritty, physical 61-51 win over New Smyrna Beach in Friday's Region 2 championship.
The Class 5A state semifinals are Wednesday, March 11 at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, with the title game on March 13. Game times will be announced in the coming days. The Panthers (26-3) were one of four No. 1 regional seeds to earn berths Friday with Pensacola Washington (21-3), St. Petersburg (20-7) and Pompano Beach Ely (19-5). Among that group Gateway would likely be seeded third and play Ely in the semifinal.
Friday, Gateway got effort and big moments from everywhere, starting with a raucous student section that brought life to Bob Baker Gym and made things pretty miserable for the Barracudas (19-9).
"The crowd really stepped up," said GHS senior point guard Alyssa Marino, who scored nine points in her final Gateway home game. "Wish we could have had that every game!"
These two teams met in the District 5A-7 championship game three weeks ago, and Gateway won the rematch thanks to a number of things, the first being jumping out to a 14-2 lead six minutes into the game after Bella Davila drilled a three-pointer from the corner.
From there, the teams played tight defense that let the Barracudas stay within striking distance. The Panthers led 14-5 after one quarter and, despite only draining two field goals in the second quarter, led 26-16 at halftime.
NSB leading scorer Iniya Reddicks tried to keep the visitors in it, scoring 13 of her game-high 18 points in the second half, but the Panthers got answers and the separation they sought in the third quarter with the three-ball. Andrea Suazo came off the bench to nail three of them on kickouts from Ashlynn Day and Marino in a two-minute span, the last pushing the lead to double digits as Gateway took a 42-31 lead to the fourth quarter.
"Andrea gets streaky like that, she made eight in a game this year," Coach Justin Marino said.
From there the Panthers put the ball in Day's hands, and their leading scorer (17 on Friday, with 10 rebounds and five assists) scored seven points down the stretch as NSB never got closer than seven points.
"That was a challenging, intense game," Day said. "We were able to break their press when they were trying to come back, that's a big reason why we won tonight."
"Nobody was selfish and everyone stepped up," Alyssa Marino said, evidenced by Gateway's 14 assists on 21 field goals.“They tried to take me and Ashlynn away. They made a big mistake."
Senior Jalissa Yarbrough scored the first four points of the game, and fellow senior Evana Rivera, despite early foul trouble, chipped in 12 points, five rebounds and five assists.
"All week in practice, we said if we stepped up our defense and rebounded, we'd win," Rivera said. "And I didn't want my career to end so close to state."
Coach Marino said it wasn't a flawless victory, noting a few turnovers and shooting 43% from the free throw line.
"But the girls played defense and rebounded like a team that wanted to win and keep the season going," he said.
And they'll do that in Jacksonville in a mere 12 days.
St. Cloud (1994, Class 4A) and City of Life (2018, Class 2A) are the only Osceola County girls teams to win a state basketball title thus far. Harmony reached the Class 7A title game in 2014. Osceola (2001, '04) and St. Cloud (2019) have also won regional titles prior to Gateway's first one in 2023.
