Mainland fends off Pensacola Washington rally, reaches Region 1-5A boys basketball final
DAYTONA BEACH — Mainland spotted visiting Booker T. Washington the opening bucket of the night, clamped down defensively during a 13-0 run and never trailed again Tuesday despite a late pushback.
Nathan Kirk led three Buccaneers in double figures with 21 points, Kade Manley sank a clutch 3-pointer with 1:22 left in regulation to derail the Wildcats' comeback bid and Mainland held on for a 56-44 victory in an FHSAA Region 1-5A boys basketball semifinal.
Winners of five in a row, the Bucs (21-6) will host Rickards at 7 p.m. Friday for a trip to Lakeland and a spot in the Final Four. Rickards, which Mainland eliminated in the first round a season ago on its way to the Class 5A championship game, defeated Riverside 39-36 in Tallahassee.
NIL in Florida? FHSAA to discuss Name, Image and Likeness at next board of directors meeting
"We watched film on (Booker T. Washington). Every game they play, they would be down and always come back and win," Bucs coach Joe Giddens said. "We knew they were capable, so we had to sustain and continue to play."
The Bucs smothered Washington (17-9) in the opening half, holding it to 3 of 19 shooting. Narayan Thomas ignited the early run with six points and two blocks in the first quarter, though he battled foul trouble for two key stretches.
"We take pride in our defense," Thomas said. "If they don't score, it doesn't matter how many times we score. … We've got to close out bigs, take away the shots. We know they like to shoot a lot of 3-pointers, and we know who their main guys are. We had to take them away."
Manley caught fire in the second quarter and entered halftime as the Bucs' scoring leader with eight points, as many as Washington had as a team, nailing a 3 from the right corner just before the buzzer sounded. Mainland entered the break with a 17-point advantage.
Kirk, the Bucs' top scorer at an average of 17.5 points per game, shouldered the load in the second half. He continually put pressure on the Wildcats at the rim, driving at will and working his way to the foul line.
Sixteen of Kirk's 21 points came after halftime, and the sophomore guard added four rebounds, three assists and two steals.
"I tried to slow the game down and make it easier for my teammates to get open shots," Kirk said. "Some teams just have that one guy they depend on. We have multiple guys that can get going at any time of the game."
The Wildcats chipped away in the fourth quarter, largely down to second-chance points from 6-foot-7, 180-pound senior forward Logan Brown. He finished just shy of a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds — five on the offensive glass in the second half alone.
Washington trimmed the Mainland lead from 13 to four over the first six minutes of the fourth quarter. Manley reestablished the Bucs' control with a 3-pointer from the left wing, and they scored nine of the game's final 10 points.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: High school basketball: Mainland tops Washington, makes regional final
