MILTON — Rafael Rubel poured in a career-high 42 points, including 19 in a pair of overtime periods, to lead the Gainesville boys to a remarkable 98-88 comeback win over Cambridge Thursday night in the second round of the Class 6A playoffs.
The performance was not lost on Gainesville coach Chuck Graham.
“Raffy was impressive, especially in the fourth quarter and overtimes,” Graham said. “The only negative on the night was that we gave up 88 points. But Rafael was great tonight.”
Big Makius Scott also had a career-high pouring in 19 points to go with 10 rebounds to give Rubel some help inside. Walt Dixon added 14 points and Eli Pitts had 11 points off the bench as well.
“We also got some great minutes from some guys that don’t normally play as much as they did tonight,” Graham said. “Eli had a huge steal in the second overtime that helped give us a cushion. Just a great team effort.”
The Red Elephants (20-9) rallied from a 63-51 deficit at the end of the third quarter after the Bears (20-9) exploded for a 35-point third quarter to erase a 37-28 Gainesville halftime lead.
Rubel had just 6 points at halftime and just 13 heading into the fourth. Scott had just 7 points heading into the fourth. The pair combined for 19 of the team’s 22 points in the final period to send the game to overtime tied at 73. The two teams deadlocked at 80 after the first overtime and Rubel took over the game from there.
Gainesville had a whopping 42 field goals, 17 coming from Rubel, but just four 3-pointers as a team.
The Red Elephants now will play in their third consecutive quarterfinals traveling to Tucker for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off on Wednesday. Graham says they are still looking for that complete game.
“Offensively we played really well at times and defensively we need to be better, although despite giving up 88 points we did make some big defensive stops at the end,” he said. “Our best game is still out there I believe.”
