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Florida Gateway College's basketball team poses with the South Atlantic District B championship trophy after defeating Pitt CC on Saturday. (JORDAN KROEGER/Lake City Reporter)
Never in doubt and oh so sweet.
Florida Gateway College is headed back to the NJCAA tournament after a dominating performance, blowing out Pitt Community College 102-77 to win back-to-back South Atlantic District B titles on Saturday. The game wasn’t even close over the final 13 minutes as the Timberwolves built a lead as large as 34 points in front of a packed home crowd at the Howard Center.
Next up is a trip to Danville, Ill., for the NJCAA Sweet 16, the program’s second trip in just five seasons since returning in 2018-19. FGC punched its ticket with two freshmen leading the way as Amayoaah Phillips scored 21 points off the bench while Antewan Webber added 20 with 17 coming in the second half that included three 3-pointers.
“This feels great,” said Webber, a walk-on who was named the Region 8 Player of the Week last week. “It’s the first time I’ve ever won anything in basketball so it’s a great feeling.”
The Timberwolves also got a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds from Eric Canavan, 10 points from Jeremiah Barze, a season-high nine points from Demorian Valmyr and nine points from Maurice Campbell. It was the typical balanced effort from FGC, which has now won seven straight.
“We knew our goal and we made a commitment to ourselves that we were going to play every possession,” FGC head coach Charles Ruise said. “Things broke open our way and the outcome of the game was evident of what we’ve done.”
Webber and Phillips were part of a contingent defensively for the Timberwolves (15-11) that wrecked the Bulldogs (19-15). Leading scorer Avery Huggins, who came in averaging 20.7 points per game, finished with a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds but shot just 3 of 15 from the field as FGC forced him into tough shots.
The rest of PCC didn’t have much luck either. Five-foot-9 point guard Phillip Martin didn’t play and his absence was evident by 16 turnovers from the Bulldogs, who got 15 points apiece from Jalen Hines and Patrick McLaughlin.
“We tried to extend pressure that would bother their point guard, and if we could keep him contained then (Huggins) would get a little rattled,” Ruise said. “We thought we could get him a little rattled not getting the ball, not getting touches, and that really affected them in the second half for sure.”
The Timberwolves only fell behind early in the game as the teams went back and forth through the first 10 minutes. But after Campbell hit a layup to make it 18-17, FGC never trailed again.
Campbell’s bucket kicked off an 18-7 run where the Timberwolves took control of the game. FGC went into halftime up 46-35, in large part thanks to Phillips’ nine first-half points.
“The whole week coach was in my head telling me this was really important to him and he gave us speeches and stuff,” said Phillips, who made two 3s. “It actually inspired me to come out and give it all and everything I had. And that’s what I did.”
PCC never got closer than eight points in the second half when FGC’s lead was cut to 48-40. That’s when Webber came alive offensively, hitting a 3 and a putback to kick off a 17-7 run.
Webber later pushed the lead past 20 with a lay-in and another 3 that put the T-wolves up 73-51. The Bulldogs were unable to cut the deficit under 20 again and shot just 35.5% from the field, stifled by an FGC defense that pressured their guards throughout.
“The changing up of the defenses, extending a little bit, 3-quarter court a little bit, some half court, we just mixed it up,” Ruise said. “That gave us a chance to get them shooting some shots in a hurry, the wrong people shooting, and that caused us an opportunity to take control of the game.”
The lead finally pushed past 30 when FGC cleared the bench. Royce Morris hit a 3-pointer to make it 97-66 and Riley Kilgore nailed another 3 that gave the Timberwolves their 34-point lead.
The final act of the game played out as a 10-minute pre-celebration. Every 3 that FGC splashed through was followed by three fingers high in the air, the players realizing good and well they were the superior team.
The Timberwolves shot 10 of 22 from beyond the arc and 50% from the field for the game.
“I was expecting to get up 10, 15 but I didn’t know about 30,” Webber said. “Shoot, that was pretty fun.”
FGC now turns its attention to the NJCAA tournament, which takes place March 21-25. Last year’s trip to Danville didn’t turn out too well as the Timberwolves were given the 16 seed and promptly swept out of the bracket after just two games.
The hope is this trip will be a little longer.
“We’ll pray that we pull a better seed and then come back and be ready to play,” Ruise said. “We were going to clean up some things, the little things we need to clean up, and then hey, let’s go up there and learn what we need to do moving forward. And hopefully this year, we’ll get a win or two up there.”