TUCKER — Only time, and folklore, will tell whether the Gainesville boys 2018-19 season will be remembered as one of overachieving, underachieving, or just right.
But after the Red Elephants’ 65-58 loss to Tucker in the quarterfinals of the Class 6A playoffs Wednesday night, senior Maurice Hector chimed in with his opinion.
“Definitely underachieved,” he said. “I feel like we could’ve won it all. It’s tough. But we had a bad three or four-minute stretch and you can’t do that in the playoffs.”
The Red Elephants came into the season as an unknown after losing six Division I-caliber players off last year's team that lost in the Class 6A state champion game.
“I would like to say we overachieved,” Gainesville coach Chuck Graham said. “But this was a very winnable game so I feel like we also could still be playing. (Tucker) got after us in the second half and we missed some shots we normally make.”
What will probably be remembered most will be Tucker’s Jemontae Hall scoring 18 consecutive points in the second half after the Tigers had fallen behind 48-40 in the third quarter. Those at the Tucker gym also will remember Gainesville hitting just 2-of-10 free throws in the final period to help the Tigers get back in the game and take the lead for good, 59-58, on a Raylon Barrion basket with 1:58 left.
Hall finished with 29 points, 14 over his season average.
“The free throws reared their ugly head again. It’s just one of those things,” Graham said. “I thought the kids played their hearts out. I thought we played defense on Hill just the way we wanted to. We wanted him to take jumpers, and he did. But he made the shots. You have to give him credit.”
Even after Barrion’s go-ahead basket, Gainesville had three golden opportunities to take the lead and extend it in the final 1:11. Walt Dixon missed a pair of free throws but moments later Julio Santana stole a Tigers pass and was fouled with 1:08 left. Santana missed both attempts but got the offensive rebound. His put-back layup attempt, however, rolled off the rim.
The Tigers hit 6-of-8 free throws in the final 1:06 while Gainesville missed three 3-point attempts to seal it.
“Tucker played well and we had a couple of spots where we didn’t play very well and that was the difference,” Hector said. “But you need to make free throws and we didn’t.”
Gainesville finished 4-of-14 for the game from the free throw line. After hitting 5-of-10 3-pointers in the first half the Red Elephants went just 1-of-10 from 3-point range in the second half.
The first half was back-and-forth with both teams pushing the ball at every opportunity. They exchanged eight lead changes.
The Red Elephants came out on fire to open the game hitting their first three 3-pointers, including two by Hector, and getting a stickback basket from Makius Scott for an 11-5 lead.
Tucker closed the gap with a 9-4 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Barrion, to trail 15-14. A Rafael Rubel basket gave Gainesville a 17-14 lead but the Tigers responded with a 13-2 spurt, capped by a pair of 3-pointers from Nick Watson.
After a Gainesville timeout, the Red Elephants answered that with a 9-0 run highlighted by five straight points from Hector for a 28-27 lead. Gainesville eventually took a 33-31 halftime lead on a pair of Robert Reissman free throws with 16 seconds left.
Hector finished with 14 points to lead Gainesville in his final high school game. Rubel had just 12 after pouring in 42 points against Cambridge in the second round. Santana and Scott each had 6 points for the Red Elephants.
Barrion had 15 points, more than double his season average, for Tucker.
