Gatewood’s Lady Gators recently played a home-and-away series against Trinity Christian.
They won 47-40 at home in Eatonton on Jan. 24 and then narrowly defeated the Lady Crusaders 36-35 on Jan. 27 in Dublin.
At home, the Gatewood girls held an 8-4 lead after the first quarter but had boosted the score to 21-11 by halftime. Following the third quarter, Trinity had tightened the gap to 31-27, but the Lady Gators never trailed on their way to a 47-40 victory.
Head coach Ferdinand Farley said his team “came to play” on Friday night.
“We played hard on both sides of the basketball. And we did it together as a team,” he said. “We’ve still got some small stuff we got to clean up, less small turnovers, and do a better job on rebounding, but I think overall it was a pretty good game for us.”
Farley also praised team captain Natalie Sills, saying the junior guard has proven to be a true leader this season. She said Sills works hard on her game and helps her teammates perform as a unit on the court.
“She’s stepping up really, really well, making sure the girls know what they’re supposed to be doing and where they’re supposed to be,” Farley said. “She’s taking a lot of pressure off me, too, because now she really understands me and what we’re trying to accomplish as a team. That's really big, especially moving forward as we’re getting ready to go through the region before we get ready to go to the region tournament.”
On Monday, Farley said he knew going in that it would be tough to get a second win since a few girls were out sick. He only had seven players make the trip to Dublin, including freshmen Carly Hall and Braylee Atkinson.
“I think Carly, she had about three big steals for us and a lot of deflections, and that was a turning point in the game for us. We took the lead on that, and as I said, it’s a real team, all of them putting in their part, playing their part, and that paid off for us.”
Farley said that although it was a low-scoring affair, with just 16-12 in favor of Gatewood at halftime, the game in Dublin remained close throughout all four quarters. It was close right up to the final buzzer.
“Take a point here, lead there, and then they switch it back up, they take the lead, we go back up. So, it was a really, really good game,” he said. “They were really well coached, too.”
However, Farley admitted mistakes led to costly turnovers, too, and midway through the final quarter, the Lady Gators were down by four points.
“But we got back in check and started doing what we do: taking care of business and just playing defense, team defense," he said.
Farley credited Gatewood junior Riley Roberts for “knocking down some big free throws right there at the end” to put the Lady Gators on top by three points.
However, the Lady Crusaders didn’t quit, he added, and came back to hit a jump shot to close the gap to one, but there was just one second left.
“It was a really great game — for both teams,” he said. “We gave the fans their money’s worth.”
After playing at home against Westfield on Tuesday (after press time), the Lady Gators will host another region rival, Brentwood, at 6 p.m. on Friday.