Gators earn ‘statement’ win over Neighborhood Academy
Westley Burchianti
Geibel Catholic蘑菇视频 Jeffery Johnson puts in a layup against Neighborhood Academy during Saturday night蘑菇视频 game at Geibel. Johnson scored 19 points in the Gators鈥� 70-61 win.
Westley Burchianti
Geibel Catholic蘑菇视频 Kaiden Grady (25) blocks a Neighborhood Academy shot during Saturday night蘑菇视频 game at Geibel.
Geibel Catholic's Jaydis Kennedy attempts a free throw during Saturday night's game against Neighborhood Academy at Geibel. Kennedy scored a game-high 31 points in the Gators' 70-61 win.
Geibel Catholic coach Don Porter talks with Jaydis Kennedy during a timeout in Saturday night's game against Neighborhood Academy at Geibel.
Geibel Catholic's Kaiden Grady puts up a shot against Neighborhood Academy during Saturday night's game at Geibel.
Neighborhood Academy's Courtney Wallace attempts a 3-pointer as Geibel Catholic's Jaydis Kennedy defends during Saturday night's game at Geibel. Wallace led the Bulldogs with 24 points but the Gators won, 70-61.
Geibel Catholic's Tom Kolencik defends the basket against Neighborhood Academy during Saturday night's game at Geibel.
Geibel Catholic has a pair of 1,000-point boys basketball players and is coming off a WPIAL semifinal appearance a year ago.
Even so, the Gators haven鈥檛 felt like they鈥檝e gotten much notice in Class A this season.
That might change after Saturday night when Geibel built a huge lead then fought off a furious rally in knocking off highly regarded Neighborhood Academy, 70-61, in a non-section game at The Swamp.
Jaydis Kennedy poured in a game-high 31 points as the Gators improved to 9-6 overall on the season with their seventh win in a row.
鈥淭his is a statement win,鈥� said Kennedy, who along with teammate Trevon White went over the 1,000-point scoring mark earlier this season.聽
Gators coach Don Porter agreed.
鈥淗opefully we get the respect we deserve,鈥� Porter said. 鈥淭he first part of our schedule was all 5-A, 6-A schools and we did that to prepare for games such as this. So far it蘑菇视频 paying off.聽That蘑菇视频 the No. 4 team in the WPIAL and we鈥檙e happy and proud of what our kids were able to do tonight.鈥�
It was only the third loss of the season for the Bulldogs (11-3) with one of those coming by only seven points to No. 1 ranked Imani Christian.
Jeffrey Johnson added 19聽 points for Geibel which also got 16 points from White. The Gators鈥� only other scorer was Kaiden Grady with four points.
Courtney Wallace led Neighborhood Academy with 24 points, including the Bulldogs鈥� first 12. John Wilkins and Shamar Simpson followed with 19 and 12 points, respectively.
Kennedy scored the first five points of the game, including a 3-pointer, and the Gators never trailed again. They led 16-7 after the first quarter.
Johnson made a pair of 3-pointers in scoring 10 second-quarter points as Geibel took a 31-21 halftime lead.
鈥淲e really jumped on them quick,鈥� Porter said. 鈥淚 think our first-half defense spoke for itself. We only gave up 21 points.鈥�
Geibel used a 16-6 advantage in the third quarter to extend the gap to 20 points at 47-27, and a free throw by Kennedy early in the fourth quarter gave the Gators their biggest lead of 53-30.
Just when the game seemed to be getting out of its reach, Neighborhood Academy came storming back thanks to an effective full-court press.
The Bulldogs reeled off the next 13 points 鈥� eight by Wilkins 鈥� to pull within nine, then whittled the margin down to three, 62-59, when Simpson converted a three-point play with 1:15 left.
Geibel then righted the ship.
Kennedy scored with 58 seconds left to start a six-point run that also included a basket by Johnson and one free throw each from Kennedy and White. That gave the Gators a comfortable nine-point lead with 24.1 seconds remaining. Wilkins and Kennedy both made a pair of foul shots to close out the scoring.
鈥淚 think part of that was fatigue was starting to set in,鈥� Porter said. 鈥淲e had a pretty tough game (Friday) night with Mount Pleasant.
鈥淏ut they鈥檙e a really good team. We knew they were going to get their run and we were just able, luckily, to weather the storm there towards the end and make a couple big baskets and free throws down the stretch that we needed to close it out.鈥�
White made of eight of 11 free throws in the final frame to help the Gators maintain their lead, while Kennedy was seven of 12.
鈥淭hey made some adjustments at halftime and then when they extended the floor with the full-court press they got some easy baskets that way,鈥� Porter said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have to address that at practice this week and make sure that we get that fixed going into the playoffs.鈥�
The Bulldogs outscored Geibel 34-23 in the fourth quarter.
Kennedy said the keys for the Gators in the closing minutes were, 鈥淪taying calm, listen to our coaches and run our set offenses and just finish the game.鈥�
Geibel is home again Tuesday against St. Joseph in another non-section game before hosting first-place Monessen in a highly-anticipated Section 2-A rematch Friday. The Greyhounds won the first meeting at home on Jan. 3.
The Gators follow that up with a stiff test against Class AA Greensburg Central Catholic on Saturday night in the Shootout at Seton Hill.
(Westley Burchianti and Colton Burchianti contributed to this story.)