Breakthrough: Mandarin wins Gateway Conference high school girls basketball championship

History arrived for Mandarin girls basketball Friday night.

A first-time Gateway Conference champion overcame Jacksonville's traditional high school girls basketball queens, as Mandarin topped host Ribault 54-48 in Duval County's public school tournament final.

For Mandarin head coach Anthony Flynn, now a Gateway champion with three programs — he won Gateway boys titles at First Coast in 2006 and at Ribault in 2010 — the moment was one to remember.

"It's such a good feeling, to be the first in the history of the program to win the Gateway Conference," said Flynn, who paid tribute to his coaching staff.

And where there were highlights, there was usually Nykeria Thomas, described by Flynn as Mandarin's "spark plug."

The junior, averaging nearly 15 points per game on the year, led the way with 24 points in her latest ace performance for Mustangs basketball.

"She was just determined to take this program to that next level," Flynn said.

Irvieona Gantt scored six key points in the fourth quarter to help the Mustangs (9-8) hold on, after Ribault had clawed back from a 10-point halftime hole.

Mandarin edges Englewood in penalties in Gateway Conference boys soccer championship

Magic number: No. 3 seed Fletcher seals three-peat, tops Mandarin in Gateway girls soccer

First Coast Varsity Weekly: Stingray Step Durham returns as Atlantic Coast football coach

Mandarin surged in front in the first half, scoring 22 points in the second period, becoming only the second Gateway girls hoops champion from the east side of the St. Johns River in the past quarter-century (following Sandalwood in 2019).

Gantt finished with 10 points, as nine players scored for the Mustangs on the night.

Sophomore forward Destiny Donaldson scored 17 points to lead 12-time Florida High School Athletic Association champion Ribault (12-6), which had won its previous six games and had rolled past Mandarin 57-36 in the teams' prior meeting on Dec. 1. The Mustangs had only beaten Ribault once in the last decade, a 50-42 game in November 2021.

For Flynn and the Mustangs, the December loss added an extra dose of motivation.

"I told the girls, nobody expects us to win this other than ourselves, and they did it," Flynn said.

Mandarin's success gave the Mustangs a single-night Gateway Conference double, with the school's boys soccer team also winning county honors by defeating Englewood. In all, Mandarin has won six Gateway titles for the school year, including volleyball, boys and girls cross country and bowling.

Now, 33 years after the school opened its doors, add girls basketball to the list.

"They've got great confidence in one another," Flynn said. "That's the big difference."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: High school girls basketball: Ribault vs. Mandarin, Gateway Conference final