After winning four straight games, the Gatewood girls’ basketball team dropped two in a row last week against Piedmont Academy and Brentwood Academy to start region play.
The Lady Gators faced Piedmont Academy on Tuesday in Monticello, where the Lady Cougars were able to come away with a 48-38 win behind the play of Marissa Holder.
The sophomore forward had a double-double totaling a game-high 18 points and 11 rebounds. She also had eight assists, four steals and two blocks in the region opener.
Regardless, Gatewood head coach Jordan Walters felt Tuesday’s game against Piedmont represented a missed opportunity.
“I thought we could have won the game,” Walters said. “We missed some key opportunities early and late. We got down by 10 points in the first quarter and had to start fighting back.”
The Lady Cougars held a 26-23 lead at halftime, but the Lady Gators were able to come out in the third quarter and limit Piedmont to just nine points. Still, they trailed the Lady Cougars by one point heading into the final eight minutes of regulation.
Walters highlighted her players were trying to do “too much” in the fourth quarter.
“It was tied with a few minutes (to go). I thought there were some chances at the end, but we were trying to force things and do too much,” Walters said. “We went away from what we had worked on over the last couple of weeks. We also didn’t shoot very well.”
Gatewood then faced defending Class AA state champion Brentwood on Friday at home, where the Lady Eagles dominated the Lady Gators, handing them their second-straight loss. They prevailed 75-25 over Gatewood in the first of two meetings this season.
Brentwood had three players score double figures on Friday night. A pair of freshmen shined in Bailey Barron (20 pts and nine rbs) and Cadence English (15 pts and 14 rbs). Junior Faith Archer was productive, too, adding 13 points. She also totaled four rebounds, five assists and three steals. Senior Isabel Ahrens added eight points to the win.
Walters again acknowledged she was disappointed with the result on Friday.
“I thought we played intimidated and scared from the get-go. I think that contributed to the whole ball game,” she said. “We got so far behind in the first quarter that we couldn’t catch up. It didn’t matter what we did. We were down like 25-1.”
Gatewood, which entered this week 14-6 overall, is a young basketball team, with most of its roster being underclassmen and only one senior on the roster.
Walters suggested her younger players must have been frightened entering the game.
“I feel like we had some of our younger ones just being hesitant and intimidated against the name Brentwood,” Walters said. “They have had a great ball program over the past four, five, six years. It was a big ball game for us and I think when things didn’t go our way we withdrew back more instead of stepping up to the plate.”
The Lady Gators have region games this week against Westminster Christian (14-6, 0-2) on the road on Tuesday, plus a rematch with Piedmont Academy at home on Friday.
Walters hopes her girls can bounce back after last week’s two tough losses.
“The biggest thing is to remind them that we aren’t out (of it), we aren’t done,” she said. “We can still accomplish what they (the team) want to accomplish, but they’ve got to accomplish those types of things sooner in ball games, especially in the fourth quarter. We’ve got to come out of the gate swinging more, and I don’t think we’ve done a great job of that this year. There’s been a lot of times where we’ve had to fight back this year.”
Gatewood will close out the regular season next week with a home game against Westminster on Tuesday, which is Senior Night. The finale will be at Brentwood on Friday.