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Columbia guard Noah Wilson drives to the basket as Gainesville guard Brendan Bloodworth (12) and guard Willie Brooks (right) defend on Saturday night. (JORDAN KROEGER/Lake City Reporter)
It was the same story for the second time in as many nights for Columbia.
The Tigers struggled to score again, and they lost to a quality team, again.
Hampered by too many scoreless spells, Columbia fell deeper and deeper into a hole that proved too deep to climb out of as Gainesville rolled into Lake City and came away with a 68-51 win Saturday night to sweep the season series. Scoring wasn’t a problem for the Hurricanes, who led by as many as 20 and won their fifth game in their last six thanks to a 17-point and 15-rebound double-double from Cornelius White and 16 points from Anthony Leivonen.
It marked the fourth loss in the last five games for the Tigers, who began the week with a promising win against Buchholz only to end it with losses to Orange Park and GHS. Columbia got a game-high 18 points from Zamarion Jones and also 10 from Noah Wilson, but Kamarion Bryant was the only other player to score at least six points.
Zavian Douglas, who had 16 the night prior in the loss to Orange Park, scored just two points amidst foul trouble before fouling out in the third quarter. Wilson’s 10-point effort was also half of his total from the night before.
“The biggest issue we’ve had this year is consistency, guys from game to game providing the same thing that they did the game before,” Columbia head coach Steve Faulkner said. “Obviously, no one is going to get 20 every night but you can get 13. That’s where we’re at right now, and until we can figure out a way to get that consistency, we’re going to have a tough time beating teams like GHS.”
White was a problem on both ends, even more so after CHS starting forward Jalen Gaskins was sidelined during the first quarter. Gaskins has been battling some stability in his knee this week and was visibly limping midway through the opening period, forcing Faulkner to shut him down for the night.
With Gaskins sidelined, White dominated inside.
“When Gaskins goes out, it made it a lot tougher because he’s physical enough where he can handle that guy,” Faulkner said. “We don’t have a whole lot down the bench that can handle him when (Gaskins) is on the bench.”
Gainesville (12-8) never trailed, jumping out to an 8-0 lead behind five quick points from Leivonen. It took Columbia (10-9) until the 4:05 mark to finally score via a floater from Wilson, but the Hurricanes eventually went to the second quarter up 14-9.
The Tigers never got closer than five again. The Hurricanes increased the lead to 12 before Jones hit a 3 to cut it to 31-22 at halftime, but it grew to 52-32 by the end of the third quarter.
“In the first quarter we got off to a bad start,” Faulkner said. “We had some defensive mishaps on three possessions (to start the game) on stuff we talked about this afternoon on how to defend and we just went braindead…we dug ourselves a hole there. And then the second quarter got to the point where we were just missing shots. We went into halftime down nine and I felt kind of fortunate because it seemed like more than that. And then in the second half, they’re good enough where they’re going to come out and make some shots, and if you don’t match or get some stops, it ends up being 15.”
The first three quarters were similar to the teams’ first meeting back on Dec. 5 where Columbia trailed Gainesville by eight at halftime and then 19 at the end of the third quarter. But instead of losing by 30, like the 70-40 final that night, the Tigers fought back to start the fourth quarter.
Columbia managed to cut the deficit to 11 with an 11-2 run to open the period, but Gainesville squashed any hope of a comeback, answering with an 8-0 run out of a timeout to put the game away.
“I wanted to see what they were about, how much were they going to compete down 20, and I thought we really came out swinging there in the fourth quarter,” Faulkner said. “We got some fight in us, you would just hope after game 19 that we can’t use the word inexperienced anymore. They were inexperienced in game one, so a lot of them have experience.
“The kids did the best they could. They fought as much as they could. We’re just continuing to find our way here after game 19.”
Columbia will aim to bounce back when Lowndes visits for Senior Night on Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off.