Columbia gets rematch with Rickards, Fort White to face Hawthorne again
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Columbia forward Jalen Gaskins looks for a lane to the basket while being defended by Rickards forward Travell Gallon during Saturday's District 2-5A championship. (MORGAN MCMULLEN/Lake City Reporter)
When Pine Forest pulled off an upset Saturday night to win District 1 and steal a playoff bid in Region 1-5A, Columbia head coach Steve Faulkner admits he was nervous.
After all, the Tigers had lost three of their final four games, including a 49-33 loss in the District 2 championship to Rickards. But as the FHSAA released the regional bracket Sunday afternoon, Faulkner breathed a sigh of relief when Columbia was called as the last team in.
The Tigers are back in the playoffs for the second consecutive season as the No. 7 seed in Region 1-5A, earning a rematch on Thursday with No. 2 seed Rickards in Tallahassee. The final rankings were tight, with Columbia (15-12) finishing with a 7.075 rating that was less than a point ahead of St. Augustine (14-11) at 6.098.
Pine Forest (15-13) finished ninth at 4.846 but stole a bid by knocking off Booker T. Washington — the region’s No. 4 seed — for a district title. Faulkner knew since then that it would come down between his team and St. Augustine, especially after Columbia suffered a bad loss to 4-win Kathleen a week ago.
“I was very nervous,” Faulkner said. “I knew it was between us and St. Augustine, that one of the two was not going to be in. I kind of got myself OK already if we weren’t in. A loss to Kathleen last week would’ve been the reason why. I guess we’re fortunate enough.”
St. Augustine was close to stealing an automatic bid. The District 4 championship saw St. Augustine leading the region’s No. 1 seed Mainland by seven at halftime and by two at the end of the third quarter before Mainland rallied for a 43-39 win.
But even with a win over Deltona — the region’s No. 6 seed — in the district semifinals, St. Augustine couldn’t make up enough ground in the rankings after losing three of its final five games. The prior set of ratings two weeks ago had Columbia at 7.514 while St. Augustine was at 5.731.
Columbia also held a strength of schedule advantage over St. Augustine with a metric of 5.67 compared to 4.54.
“We were up 1.8 on them in the last rankings, so I know from experience with this that that’s a tough gap to make up without winning all your games,” Faulkner said. “You throw in losses in there and it’s hard to make up ground. I think at the end of the day it was probably just our strength of schedule. I think ours was a good bit higher than theirs.”
The winner of the Columbia-Rickards game will face the winner of District 3 champion Riverside and Deltona. Choctawhatchee (16-10, 9.093) jumped both Columbia and Deltona (16-8, 8.120) in the final rankings to grab the No. 5 seed and will face Booker T. Washington (16-8, 9.762), while Mainland (19-6, 17.123) will host Pine Forest.
FORT WHITE IN FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2019
Despite losing to Hawthorne in the District 6-1A semifinals last week, Fort White is back in the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
The Indians’ reward? A rematch with the top-seeded Hornets.
Fort White got the final at-large berth at the No. 4 seed in Region 3-1A and will travel to the top-Hawthorne on Thursday for a regional semifinal. The Hornets pulled away for a 69-57 victory in last week’s district semifinal, but the Indians hung in for most of the game, trailing by just two at halftime and five at the end of the third quarter.
The loss didn’t knock Fort White (16-6, 8.437 rating) out of the top four thanks to Hilliard, which took care of business and won the District 5 title. Hilliard (22-2, 10.036) is the No. 2 seed and will host No. 3 seed Newberry (15-8 8.659), which lost to Hawthorne (15-4, 12.868) in the District 6 championship.
Nobody else in the region was close to those four teams, with Union County way back in fifth with a -1.010 rating.
“We feel good,” Fort White coach Elven Sheppard said. “It feels good to be in the playoffs no matter who we’re playing, but it’s a great opportunity for us to go up against a proven team. It’s going to be a great opportunity for our guys. We felt like we played well. Going into the fourth quarter it was a 5-point game and halftime it was a 2-point game, so we’re right where we need to be. We’ve just got to finish.”
Region 3-1A is the toughest in Class 1A. All four teams in the bracket are ranked in the top six in the class, with Hawthorne ranked second, Hilliard ranked third, Newberry ranked fifth and Fort White ranked sixth.
Whoever comes out of the region will have earned their way to the state Final Four.
“It’s really stacked,” Sheppard said. “Four of the teams in the top (six) are all in our region, so it’s extremely difficult and extremely competitive. But we’re just glad we’re in that top four. (of the region).”