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Date: 3/24/2021
HUNTINGTON – If Gateway Regional High School basketball never sees the St. Mary’s Saints again, it would be a blessing, of sorts, for the Gators.
St. Mary’s swept the week of hoops games against Gateway 4-0 with the Saints girls and Saints boys teams winning two games apiece.
It was the final week of the 2021 winter season for St. Mary’s and the first week of the “Fall II” season for Gateway’s after the Gators were sidelined all winter due to Covid-related protocols.
“Our goals for this season is just to get fundamentally stronger, work on the details of the game,” Gateway girls basketball coach Eli Robins said, following the team’s 52-17 opening night loss March 9 at Westfield Intermediate School.
In that game, St. Mary’s stifled Gateway with a full court press and used first half runs of 9-0 and 19-0 to establish an insurmountable lead. Saints sophomore Amelia Willenborg led all scorers with 14 points. Gators senior Peyton Bucko scored a team-high five.
“Being our first game of the year, only eight practices, and playing against a team that is at the end of their season and been playing for the last two months is a tough start for us,” coach Robins said. “It took us a little while to find our legs, but I think going forward we’re in a good place.”
In their second meeting of the week March 11, St. Mary’s got off to another fast start and held off a late Gateway rally to post a 32-25 victory and complete a 10-1 season. Saints sisters Allie and Emma Goodreau combined for 14 points.
Gateway’s defense arrived in a major way in the second half. The Gators held St. Mary’s to a mind-boggling two points in each of the final two quarters.
Gateway managed just two points of its own in the third quarter before exploded for 11 points in the fourth. Bucko scored five of her game-high 11 made the game close late.
“We’re a fairly young team with two seniors, one junior and one sophomore,” coach Robins explained. “We’re trying to develop them for the future and see what happens going down the road.
Boys basketball results
• March 9: St. Mary’s 58, Gateway 33
Brady Collins scored 21 points and St. Mary’s cruised to a convincing victory in Gateway’s season opener.
• March 11: St. Mary’s 58, Gateway 24
Three St. Mary’s players scored in double digits – Collins (18 points), Josh Baillargeon (10) and Tom Baillargeon (10) – to fuel a season sweep of Gateway. Gators’ Ryan Keach finished with a season-high 13.
"Everybody is trying to find their role,” Gateway first-year head coach Matt Collins said. “They’re trying everything we have asked of them. That’s a great way to learn, even in practice. They have accepted that.”
With the team significantly made up of young players, the Gateway coaching staff has been trying to give all of its players minutes on game days. Every player has already stepped on the floor for the Gators, receiving valuable playing time.
“You can’t teach experience,” coach Collins said. “We simulate things in practice. We’re identifying all the ways the team can grow. Collectively they have a ways to go, but we were playing against teams finishing up their seasons. Those teams were fairly polished. …We went right back to the basics.”
• March 18: Southwick 78, Gateway 12
Southwick exploded for a 23-0 first quarter run, got off to a blistering 48-9 first half lead and powered its way to a mind-blowing 78-12 win over a short-handed Gateway squad.
Southwick’s Grayson Poole led all scorers with 20 points.
Gateway finally halted Southwick’s early surge when Ryan Keach converted a lay-up with exactly 60 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
Southwick remained on fire in the second half, scorching Gateway for another big run, 17-0, to make it 42-4.
Gateway’s Jayden Santiago-Lopez broke up the second big Southwick run with a nice spin move in the lane, dropping in a bucket with 2:23 left in the half. He closed out the team’s scoring in the second quarter with a made 3.