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Gateway boys use defense to get past Franklin Regional in section showdown

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Friday, January 12, 2024 | 11:03 PM

This Gateway boys basketball team is inherently defensive and plays a halfcourt style with goals steeped in fundamentals and a touch of grit.

The idea is to grind opponents down and make them work, then run lengthy sets and take care of the ball on the other end of the floor. Simple, really.

If there was a shot clock in the PIAA, the Gators would probably love every second of it.

Their recipe worked again Friday night as the top-ranked Gators ran their winning streak to 10 with a 58-48 victory over No. 4 Franklin Regional in a Section 3-5A first-place clash in Murrysville.

No love is lost between the neighboring schools, but one of them had to lose its first section game.

Gateway (11-1, 4-0), ranked No. 4 in the state, spun a 10-0 run just before halftime and the Panthers (11-2, 3-1) never fully recovered as their six-game winning streak came to a halt.

“We pride ourselves on defense,” Gators coach Alvis Rogers said. “Defense travels. The offense can take a play or two off, but defense had to be there and stay locked in.”

After a ping-pong first quarter that produced a 14-14 tie, Franklin Regional took a 21-18 edge on a corner 3-pointer from junior Connor Crossey that spun around the rim and grazed the glass before falling.

But Gateway scored 10 straight, including six in a row from 6-foot-3 senior forward Alec Dunsmore. Senior guard Vito Campolo scored on a fast break to give the Gators control at the half, 28-21.

Senior guard Fin Hutchison hit a 3-pointer to open the third for Franklin Regional, but the Gators used a 9-2 spurt — Campolo nailed a 3 — to take a 37-26 lead with just over 4 minutes left in the quarter.

In Gateway games, patience often comes into play — for both teams. Franklin Regional got into a run-and-gun game Tuesday in a 66-64 win over Latrobe. This game was a polar opposite.

“We were not ready to do the things required to win a game of this magnitude,” Panthers coach Jesse Reed said. “Gateway plays hard, and they play unselfish basketball. They work their butts off.

“It feels like they take 40 or 50 seconds off the clock when they have the ball. We battled, but they slowed us down. They took away our transition and made us work.”

In the fourth, the Panthers started with a 6-0 run to cut it to 41-38 and crept to within three again twice more over the next four minutes, the last at 46-43 on another Hutchison 3 from the near corner.

But they couldn’t sustain the rally.

“(Hutchison) played well for them,” Rogers said. “We tried to lock in and take care of Cam (Rowell) and Cooper (Rankin). We tried to take one away.”

Rowell finished with a game-high 18 points but had only two field goals in the second half. Rankin finished with 15.

Three other Panthers combined for 15 points, with Hutchison scoring eight.

Senior guard Taili Thompson, a North Carolina A&T baseball commit and key reserve, helped the Gators stay in front. He tipped in a miss, then tapped a pass from just above the foul line to a wide-open Dunsmore to make it 50-43 with 2:01 to play.

“Taili is very deceptive,” Rogers said. “He can present matchup problems.”

Thompson added another basket off an inbounds play, and sophomore Mykel Bruce-McCrommon came up with a three-point play, following one by Franklin Regional’s Rowell, to push it to 55-48 with 43.6 seconds left.

Thompson had 13 points off the bench to lead the Gators, Dunsmore scored 12, Campolo added 10 and senior guard Alex Lowery chipped in nine.

Bruce-McCrommon and junior Bryson Pavlik, who played for Franklin Regional last year, each scored seven.

The Gators’ bench outscored Franklin’s, 20-0.

Free throws finished off the 10-point win for the section’s top defensive team (the Gators came in allowing 46.4 points).

“This humbles us a little bit,” Reed said. “We have a lot of confidence, but this game was on a different level. It was like a playoff game. It was good for our guys to get these kind of reps.

“We’re just as good a team as them. There is no reason we can’t compete with them the next time we play them.”

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

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