The Gatewood Gators played three times last week, winning 74-64 at home on Tuesday over Windsor Academy, dropping an 81-67 decision at Brentwood on Thursday, and getting back on the right track with an 84-66 decision over Augusta Prep Day (APD) on Saturday afternoon in Eatonton.
The Gators currently have a 12-3 overall record and are 1-1 in region play, ranking third.
Head coach Don Keiser said he was pleased to score a region win against Windsor Academy but was less impressed by his team’s failure to keep the visiting Knights in the game until the final minutes.
“We get up by 18, then we let them cut it back to 10; get up to 20 and let them come back again. They (Windsor) were hitting everything tonight, throwing up threes all night long. And those threes will get you back in it every time,” Keiser said. “We just couldn’t finish it, but I’m still happy. It was a region win, so extra important.”
To Keiser’s point, the Knights attempted 45 three-pointers, scoring on 16 of them for 42 points at a 35.6 percent success rate. In contrast, the Gators made 17 three-point attempts and scored on just three for 9 points with a 17.6 percent success rate.
The Gators were led once more by the scoring prowess of junior Matt Allen, who totaled 52 points while hauling in six offensive rebounds and seven defensive boards to lead those columns, too. Seniors JT Gregory and Kaden Keiser followed on the scoresheet with 10 and 8 points, respectively.
After the game, Keiser was still smarting from how close it got at times. He suggested that letting teams hang around longer than they should will eventually catch up with you.
“We’ve just got to grow up, just grow up and play smart basketball,” the coach said. “Sometimes we just get a little wild when we get a lead, thinking we’ve got it made, and we let teams back in.
“But we did a lot of good things, too. Matt had a good night, and I thought Jake (Rich) had a really good night rebounding and blocking, affecting shots. Everybody contributed. It’s just that we got lazy when we got the lead and can’t do that.”
In Gatewood’s second-straight region game, undefeated Brentwood established control on its home court in Sandersville Thursday night with a 23-19 lead after the first quarter and maintained the gap with a 38-34 advantage at the half.
Still, at 60-54 going into the final quarter, Keiser felt the win remained within the Gators' reach.
“It stayed really close until the end,” he stated. “They ended up beating us 81 to 67, but it was a lot closer than that. They pulled away at the end. They hit some dagger threes in the fourth quarter.”
Again, Allen led the way for Gatewood with 43 points, followed by sophomore Landon Moreno with 8, including both free throws he was awarded. Ames Johnson led the team in rebounds, with six split evenly between offense and defense.
“We didn’t box out, we didn’t rebound very good [against Brentwood],” Keiser said. “We’re going to have to work on rebounding when they come here. We just didn’t box out and let a guy who’s only averaging six points score 21 points off rebounds. That won’t work. So, we have got to shore that up.”
The team took the coach’s comments to heart Saturday afternoon back home in Gatewood. By halftime, it had jumped out to a 44-34 lead over Augusta Prep Day before extending it to the 84-66 final.
Once more, Allen led the team with 52 points, leaving him just 14 points shy of 2,000 for his high school career so far. Kaden Keiser added 12 with 10 rebounds for a double-double, and Rich also reached double digits with 10 points and eight rebounds.
Next up for Gatewood is a trip on Tuesday (past press time) to Dublin to face the so-far winless region rival Trinity Christian Crusaders, followed by another region tilt on Friday in Macon against Central Fellowship Christian Academy. A third straight in-region match follows next Tuesday in Macon against Windsor Academy, which Gatewood beat 74-64 early this month in Eatonton.
The Gators will close out its 2024-25 regular season with five straight home games, beginning Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m. against Trinity Christian.