Gatewood’s Lady Gators basketball team ended its regular season with a pair of losses last week, at Westminster Christian Academy in Watkinsville on Tuesday, and at home in Eatonton Friday night against Brentwood.
The Westminster game remained close to the end, with the Lady Lions taking a 37-31 victory, while on Friday Brentwood took a 56-48 decision home to Sandersville.
“Tuesday night we played very well the first half and came out after halftime and just could not get going,” Gatewood head coach Jordan Walters said. “Sometimes you have bad shooting nights, but we also didn’t do the other little things to get back in the ball game. So, when we missed, we just weren’t fighting for rebounds as hard, kind of looking with a little bit of fear in our eyes, and ended up losing that ball game.”
On Friday, Gatewood fell behind early, trailing by as much as 16-2 in the first quarter, but rallied to outscore the visiting Lady Eagles in the second and third quarters while occasionally taking a lead.
“I was so proud of our girls and how hard they fought. We just missed some free throws and missed some assignments on defense. Ultimately, I felt like that ended up costing us the ball game,” Walters said. “But it was so close right up to the end. I mean, just going back and forth, nobody had more than about a three-point lead at any time in the fourth quarter until right in the last two minutes they kind of pulled away.
“I think we were down by four and we started fouling and they are great shooters,” she concluded. “They knocked down all their free throws at the end of the ball game and ended up with the win.”
For the GIAA Region 2-AA tournament game Tuesday night at Gatewood (after press time), the third-place Lady Gators (11-14, 1-5) play second-place Piedmont Academy (16-9, 5-1) to determine who will face first-place Brentwood (21-5, 5-1) on Friday night to decide the 2023-24 region champion.
Brentwood has a bye to Friday’s final since fourth-place Westminster is unable to participate in the region playoff due to a long-planned international school trip that several players are committed to attending.
If her team manages to get past Piedmont, Walters said she feels encouraged by her players’ effort against Brentwood last week.
“I know they surprised Brentwood. I know that Brentwood did not think the ball game was going to be like that, to come down to free throws at the end,” Walters said. “So, I’m very proud of them for how they did, how they showed up, how they fought back, especially getting down in the first, never giving up and sticking to the game plan and executing it. We just couldn’t pull it out.”
Still, for Walters, the focus remained on Tuesday night.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s by one or 20; it doesn’t matter,” she stressed. “All you have to do is win to advance at this point.”