The Gatewood Gators took care of business last Friday night in Eatonton, beating the visiting Brentwood War Eagles 89-59 to secure the GIAA Region 2-AA regular season championship.
Coming on the heels of Gators’ head coach Don Keiser being named Region Coach of the Year just a couple of days earlier, it was a doubly sweet victory for the home team.
“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys,” Keiser said shortly after making the final snips to cut down the net in celebration after his players each took a turn at one of the hoops in the Gatewood gym. “They did what I asked them to, so what more could I ask for?”
Just three days earlier, the Gators also dropped 89 points on the visiting Piedmont Cougars, who managed 51 points in a losing cause. Together, those wins left Gatewood with a 23-2 overall record (including 11 wins in a row to finish the schedule) and a perfect 6-0 in region play for the 2023-24 season.
Against Piedmont, sophomore Matt Allen once more led the Gators in scoring with 37 points and had a team-high nine steals, plus five total rebounds.
Kaden Keiser scored 16 points with six rebounds and four steals, while fellow junior JT Gregory and 8th grader Brady Haley each added 10 points to the total. Senior Trey Wiggins just missed a double-double with 12 rebounds and nine points to his credit.
Blake Callaway, another senior, did get a double-double against Brentwood, though, putting 11 points on the board with 17 total rebounds. Allen again led scoring for the Gators with 40 points, plus a team-leading six steals, with Keiser contributing 15 points, eight rebounds, and a team-best seven assists, while Wiggins added 12 points and eight total rebounds.
With the score 48-30 for Gatewood at halftime, including a 31-point second quarter, the Gators received a warning from the referee for excessive celebrating spurred on by their rabid student section in the stands.
“So I told my boys, stop with all the celebrating and just play basketball,” Keiser recalled of his halftime speech. “And then they came out and that’s what they did. And really, it was just another great team effort.”
The Gators added another 20 points to Brentwood’s 13 in the third quarter, then won the fourth quarter 21-16 to reach the final score.
Afterward, Brentwood head coach Tucker Shull called Gatewood “a very well-coached team” that exploits any defensive weaknesses it finds.
“Gatewood is a team that’s going to score a bunch of points. So you have to try and limit them and on the offensive end you’re going to have to try and match them the best you can,” he added. “Obviously, we’d love to have had a few more shots fall, but I thought turnovers were a big problem for us today as well.”
Despite placing first in Region 2-AA, Gatewood finished third overall in the Class AA rankings heading into the playoffs.
The Gators were scheduled to face No. 14 Edmund Burke Academy (EBA) on Feb. 21 (after press time) in Eatonton. Top-ranked Furtah Prep out of Acworth and No. 2 Trinity Christian from Dublin each received first-round byes.
If Gatewood gets past EBA, it will face the winner of No. 6 Brentwood versus No. 11 Windsor Academy in the Elite Eight on Feb. 24 at Tatnall Square Academy in Macon.
The final four will be held Feb. 29 at Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon, and the championship pairing is scheduled for March 3 at Columbus State University in Columbus.