In case you missed it on Thursday, Jan. 18, Mike Ridaught joined Jeff Cardozo, Zach Alboverdi & Pat Dooley on “The Tailgate” on WRUF-98.1 FM & 850 AM at 4:05 p.m to talk high school sports. Here are the things they discussed on ThePrepZone.com Sports Report Presented by SunState Federal Credit Union:
Last Saturday, the P.K. Yonge girls basketball team hosted the Blue Wave Classic. There were several defending state champions and state runners-up who played in that tournament, plus a bunch of area teams. How did that end up?
Pretty good for Eastside, in particular. They were the only area team to play twice, and they won both games. They beat defending 4A state runner-up Providence (Jacksonville) in double overtime on Friday night. Then they beat Leon (Tallahassee) on Saturday. The Rock also beat Providence on Saturday. Gainesville beat defending 3A state champion FAMU (Tallahassee) by six. And P.K. Yonge, which is up to 4th in the state in Class 4A according to MaxPreps, beat Class 8A West Port (Ocala) by 15. I think the Lady Blue Wave could get to Lakeland this year. But the best game of the day as Class 1A Trenton and Class 9A Dr. Phillips (Orlando). Trenton was in the 1A state semifinals last year and will have to likely go through Wildwood again if they want to make it back to Lakeland, but they improved to 14-2 on the season with a 45-43 win. Even though Trenton is ranked, that’s still impressive because you’ve got the smallest classification in the state beating the largest. Dr. Phillips missed a lay-up at the buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime. Trenton’s Thalia Jackson finished with 16 points and 18 rebounds. She’s a difference maker. But all in all, it went well for the locals. They all won and represented girls hoops well.
There’s a city showdown in boys’ high school basketball tomorrow night as Gainesville hosts rival Eastside. The game will be played at Santa Fe College.
A week ago, I told you that these were two of the top three teams in Alachua County, with Hawthorne being the other. That hasn’t necessarily changed, but the status of Eastside has changed. The Rams have lost junior guard Anthony Wright for the season to an ACL, and their point guard James Pope was in a cast with a broken arm this past Saturday when they lost on their home floor to Hawthorne. So the Rams have lost two starters due to injury. They just lost a district game at North Marion on Tuesday in triple overtime. I don’t think they lose that game without the injuries. In fact, Eastside beat North Marion on its home floor by 20 last month. The Rams have lost two in a row for the first time this season, but this is a rivalry game so we’ll see what happens. Someone else will have to step up. Gainesville’s just kind of quietly rolling along. With Christian Miller-Cardwell, GHS is a threat in Class 7A this season. The Hurricanes have won three in a row. They’re 13-4 overall and they’ve really dominated this series against Eastside lately. The ‘Canes have won six in a row and nine of the last 10. Eastside is looking for its first win in the series since 2014. The game will be played at Santa Fe College, and has been for years now because of the large crowds for these games. I expect a big crowd tomorrow night, but if you can’t make it we’ll have audio & video available online at ThePrepZone.com.
The Winter sports are winding down. Girls soccer regular season ends this week. Boys soccer regular season ends the week after that.
Yeah, the boys wrap up their regular season next week. The district tournament for girls’ soccer is also next week so we really only have a little over a month left in the season, period. The state championships for girls’ soccer are Feb. 21st and Feb. 23. The boys are the week after that. Eastside’s probably the best girls team in the area, although Buchholz is right there and should compete for a district title. Last night, Eastside beat Santa Fe on the road, 9-2. Junior Sierra Millinor had five goals. She’s got nine goals in her past two games. Eastside will host their district tournament next week at Citizen’s Field. Buchholz will have to travel to Jacksonville Mandarin. P.K. Yonge is another team that could do well in girls soccer just because they have Lee Ducharme. She already has over 300 goals in her career. By the way, P.K. Yonge has two former Gator soccer players on their coaching staff – head coach Rebecca Shackow, formerly Rebecca Hidalgo, and assistant coach Haley Reeb. The P.K. Yonge girls have two regular season games left – tonight at Oak Hall and then tomorrow against Williston. But guys, if they can win those two, and I believe they will, they will finish the regular season a perfect 16-0!
For the latest in high school sports in Gainesville, check out our daily reports on 106.9 FM every weekday around 7:50 a.m. Here is a link to the archives.
