GAINESVILLE — The Gainesville boys sealed up the No. 2 seed with a 55-40 win over Denmark at home on Monday.
It didn't come easy for the Red Elephants (17-7, 8-3 Region 6-7A), however, as they had to fend off a feisty pack of Danes (14-9, 7-4 Region 6-7A) to clinch one of Region 6-7A's top two seeds, a first-round region tournament bye and an automatic bid to the Class 7A tournament.
"This is what we play for," Gainesville coach Chuck Graham said. "I thought our guys came out with energy. We answered the call and had to overcome a little bit of adversity. We just showed the signs of a team trying to turn the corner, and we're still trying to get there."
The Red Elephants have shown signs over the last couple of games of turning that corner. On Monday, they battled with Denmark in an opening quarter that saw four ties and six lead changes before Jimmie Jackson, Ced Nicely and Robert Reisman led Big Red on a 16-2 run to end the quarter up 10, 24-14.
Jackson swished back-to-back 3-pointers to close out the run, including one at the quarter horn.
"Midway through the first quarter, we found our rhythm offensively, got some stops on defense and was able to go up by 10," Graham said.
The region's top defensive team used its combination of different defense schemes to disrupt the Danes' offensive attack, holding Denmark to just seven points in the quarter. While Eli Pitts, Robert Reisman and Dylan Bobga helped pushed the Red Elephants ahead, 34-21, by halftime.
"In the second quarter, I thought our defense was really special," Graham said. "Even though we didn't score much, we stopped them."
Gainesville also established its presence on the boards, thanks to a team effort from Qua Coley, Bobga, Nicely, Robert Reisman and Eli Pitts, the Red Elephants outrebounded the Danes, 33-22.
"That was one of the things that won the ball game," Graham said. "We talked about that before the game tonight. I told them that we needed to hold them to just one shot. We just gang rebounded tonight. We're going to really need that moving forward."
In the third quarter, however, Denmark tried to mount a run, and did for a bit, cutting the Gainesville lead to 11 points off a Joseph Scott 3-pointer and could have let a technical foul with less than four minutes to go swing the momentum totally in the Danes' favor.
But the Gainesville defense forced a couple of turnovers and Coley hit a massive 3-pointer that turned the tide back to Big Red for good. Coley finished the night with 9 points and five rebounds.
"That kind of ended the run. It was such a big three because they tried to cheat the play and Qua was wide-open in the corner. He can actually shoot the basketball, so I was proud to see him knock one down. He was big for us on the boards and on defense tonight."
Robert Reisman led Gainesville with 11 points, while Jackson and Nicely chipped in 10 each.
Gainesville held the Danes' leading scorer, Scott, to 14 points. Jackson Jeter pitched in 11.
Gainesville travels to Lambert on Tuesday for its final regular-season game. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.
