HUNTINGTON — The Gateway Regional girls basketball team qualified for the postseason on senior night with a 33-27 victory over Smith Vocational on Tuesday.
With 20 seconds left, and Gateway (10-9, 7-2 Tri-County South) up five, senior Donna Viel was substituted out of the game. She walked off the court with both arms raised, and the Gateway crowd was deafening. Viel took a bow, then did her best John Bender impression, punching the air as the Gateway faithful cheered the Gators on.
“I made a deal with my other senior, Grace Van Buren, that I would go out with ‘The Breakfast Club’ punch in the air,” Viel said. “But this was great. If we lost this game, we wouldn’t be in the tournament and it’d be my last game ever.”
Early on, it didn’t look like Viel was going to walk off the way she did. Though the Gators jumped out to a 5-0 lead, Haleigh Pensivy’s presence the paint on both ends brought the Vikings back.
Trailing 11-10 after the first quarter, the Gators dominated the frame, scoring 10 points and holding the Vikings to two. Hannah Duggan’s six points and three consecutive steals took the Gators to the half with a 21-12 lead.
“Hannah’s been a monster all year,” Gateway coach Eli Robbins said. “She leads our team. Today, in particular, she was very aggressive and it made a big difference with our offense.”
Smith Vocational’s only points in the quarter came from Ella Sherman.
“We’re a young team,” Smith Vocational coach Kristen Tirado said. “We’re living, we’re learning, and we’re trying to dig our way out of those times when it gets to be a little difficult. We lost that game in the second quarter.”
The Vikings (6-12, 4-6) tried to go back to Pensivy in the second half, but the Gators were prepared. Junior Peyton Bucko matched up with Pensivy, playing lock down defense and keeping the Vikings’ comeback hopes down.
“Our defense is definitely the strong point of our team,” Robbins said. “Just getting focused and locking in, making those little adjustments after seeing how their offense works. It makes a big difference.”
Sherman did her best to keep the Vikings in the game with six points in the fourth quarter. However, Van Buren turned it on down the stretch, sealing the Gators win and playoff berth with four points and a block.
“Making the playoffs has been one of our goals all season,” Robbins said. “It’s something we strive for every year as a program. It didn’t go as smoothly as we hoped it would this season. We had a lot of really tight games, two overtime games, two losses at the buzzer, but the kids found a way to persevere and stick with things.”
Viel is just happy to keep playing for now.
“I want to play as much as I can before I can’t anymore,” she said.