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Columbia forward Justice Kelly has his shot blocked by Rickards' Travis Morris in the second half of Saturday's District 2-5A championship. (MORGAN MCMULLEN/Lake City Reporter)
TALLAHASSEE — If Columbia’s season is indeed over, head coach Steve Faulkner can pinpoint the moment it ended.
A poor first-half showing in Saturday’s District 2-5A championship at Rickards doomed the No. 2 seed Tigers from the start as the top-seeded Raiders held them scoreless through the first five minutes on their way to a 49-33 win. It’s been a bit of a running theme lately for CHS, which has slow starts to blame for several losses down the stretch of the regular season.
“When you dig yourself a 13-point hole going into halftime, it’s hard to fight back from that,” Faulkner said afterward. “They learned a valuable lesson.”
Despite the early scoring drought, the Tigers were still very much in contention after trailing by just three at the end of the first quarter. That came mostly from the effort of Jalen Gaskins, who reeled in four rebounds in the opening eight minutes to go along with one of two Tigers field goal, with forward Justice Kelly draining a 3-pointer to wrap up the first-quarter scoring.
While Gaskins tried to bully defenders inside, the Raiders took advantage on other matchups, with guard Randall Pompey putting in six conesecutive paints to start the second quarter. Pompey had a game-high 15 points, while Benjamin Plummer had nine, and Romie Cosby and Travis Morris each had six.
From there, the Raiders (21-6) never led by fewer than seven the rest of the way. After Gaskins got a layup to fall through a pair of defenders under the bucket, another Kelly 3-pointer in the middle of the third quarter once again cut the deficit to seven. That’s when things started to get chippy between the two teams, with each side picking up technical fouls through the third and fourth quarters, though nobody was ejected.
Faulkner said he sort of expected that kind of fight from each side considering the stakes.
“Games like this are supposed to be that way,” Faulkner said. “He (Gaskins) didn’t back away from it, but I felt like my other guys did, The other guys just weren’t prepared for the physicality of a game of this level.”
It showed in the box score. Kelly led all Tigers (15-12) scorers with 12 points, coming on four 3s, with Gaskins right behind with nine points, nine rebounds and a pair of blocks. Zavian Douglas put in six with a few other Tigers netting just two points each.
“He gave us everything he had,” Faulkner said of Gaskins. “I thought in the first half that he was the only one that was ready to play.”
Now, the Tigers play the waiting game, with regional tournament seeds getting announced Sunday afternoon. Columbia entered the night with the No. 6 seed in the region, though Pine Forest managed to steal a regional playoff spot with an upset over Booker T. Washington in their district final.
But Faulkner said he believes he knows exactly where to point toward should the Tigers come up short and miss out on the postseason berth.
“We did not come in the first half with a sense of urgency or understanding the magnitude of a district final, with all the ramifications that can occur from that if you win it,” Faulkner said. “I thought we got punked in the first half.
“We can hope and pray that we get an opportunity next week.”