Gilmer High was tasked with wrangling the Golden Tornadoes in the first round of the Class 3A state basketball tournament.
The GHS Bobcats made the 260-mile venture to Albany last Wednesday for their matchup against Monroe High. Both teams were led by their all-region players, and the hometown Tornadoes blew the Cats off the court in the first half. GHS fared better over the final two quarters, but the 27-point deficit was too much to overcome in the 68-43 loss.
“We had a slow start in the first half and only scored seven points in the first quarter with a buzzer-beater three,” said head coach Jordan Hice.
“The killer was that first quarter. I don’t know if it was the long trip. There’s no easy way to plan for something like that, a four-hour bus ride. We left early and stopped half way. I don’t know if that was an issue, but we just had a really slow start.”
The Cats were down early, and Monroe’s Lorenzo Still scored 10 of his 23 points in the opening quarter. MHS played a zone defense predominantly, and it kept Gilmer in check. Bobcats Keegen Bryant and J.D. Taylor both hit a three pointer in the first, but they were Gilmer’s only made field goals.
MHS led 22-7 to begin the second, and five Tornadoes scored to increase their lead. Cooper Farmer joined Taylor and Bryant in the scorebook, but GHS still struggled getting shots to fall.
By the third, Gilmer was down, 44-17. GHS fared better over the final two quarters, but never could make up enough ground.
“We outscored them in the second half. We beat them by two in the third quarter and by two in the fourth quarter,” Hice said.
Bryant totaled nine of his team-leading 16 points in the third. Monroe went outside and hit four three pointers to keep pace, and its lead stood at 60-35 with eight minutes to play.
Both offenses slowed in the fourth where GHS made just two shots from the field. Remaining points came from the free-throw line and the loss ended the Cats’ season.
“It wasn’t that we weren’t being aggressive, but I feel like the travel and all that took them a while to get going,” said Hice. “We played more aggressive in the second half and were less timid.”
Taylor ended his GHS career with 13 points, and was followed by fellow seniors Farmer (four), Mack Kiser (two) and Blane Banks (one). Douglas Callihan added three points while both Preston McVey and Boston Teague scored two.
GHS finished the regular season at 12-12 ahead of its final two losses. Even though the Bobcats lost in the first round of the region tournament, their playoff power ranking was strong enough to secure one of three available at-large bids. Gilmer’s trip to the state tournament was its fourth in a row.
“It was a big thing for us to get back to the postseason,” Hice said. “We played really well in the regular season, especially coming up with 12 wins. There were some games we should have won but didn’t. They were close, and it wasn’t like we were getting blown out. It came down to finding ways to finish and we did in 12 of them.
“We put ourselves in a really good spot for the postseason. We went into the region tournament playing LaFayette and lost in overtime. We fought hard that game, and while we didn’t meet all of our goals and expectations that we set forth, we were top four going into the region tournament. That’s something we wanted and we always had that hope of getting in with an at-large bid, which we did to make the state playoffs. All in all, it was a fairly good season.”