The Gatewood Gators (17-4, 5-2) earned a little payback Friday night in Eatonton with a 77-70 win over the Brentwood War Eagles (17-3, 4-3).
Early last month, Gatewood fell 81-67 to Brentwood in Sandersville.
The Gators are now 10-0 this season at home. They are now one spot ahead of Brentwood at No. 2 in the Class 2A rankings.
“That doesn’t really matter, though, because No. 2 and No. 3 will meet in the playoffs,” Gatewood head coach Don Keiser pointed out. “But I’m still glad we beat them. That’s a tough team out there (Brentwood), so it’s always good to know we can get it done.”
True to form, junior Matt Allen continued his torrid points streak, putting up 47 against the visitors, including seven 3-pointers and sinking 8-of-11 attempted free throws.
Senior Kaden Keiser was the lone other Gator to reach double digits with 14 points.
Regardless, Coach Keiser said the night's MVPs may have been in the packed stands behind his bench.
“Our fans were awesome. We’ve got just a great student section, great fans,” Keiser said. “The Gatewood fans have just supported us all year. Especially that student section; they’ve been awesome.”
Still, the coach wasn’t happy with everything he saw on the night. He pointed out that with 40 seconds left in the game and a 74-70 lead, he told his team to run out the clock as much as possible.
Soon after, one of his players hauled in a rebound and then went for a 3-pointer —and hit it —but Keiser wanted his team to play it safe.
“We could have run it down to 10 seconds,” the coach pointed out. “So, that agitated me that we didn’t hold on to the ball when we had the chance. Sometimes, it’s smarter not to shoot, even when it does go in.”
Gatewood’s final regular season game was scheduled for Tuesday (after press time) against region leader Central Fellowship Christian Academy (17-3, 5-1), which defeated the Gators 71-59 last month in Macon.