LAKELAND — Saturday at 4:20 p.m., the final horn sounded on the Class 4A state title game inside RP Funding Center. The members of the Gibbs High boys basketball team went crazy, jumping and hugging and shedding happy tears.
For the first time in 55 years and after their third straight trip to the final four, the Gladiators were the last team standing. With a 49-43 win over Jacksonville Andrew Jackson, they at last were state champions.
“We were confident, because we knew that if we just played Gibbs basketball we’d be OK,” said longtime Gladiators coach Larry Murphy. “We’ve had the experience of being here before, and we knew we just had to play our game.”
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/NNRUP4MOCRD4PGIR3IURVF4FIA.JPG "Gibbs junior Jacob Daniels drives for two of his game-high 22 points.")
They did just that, keeping cool against Jackson’s relentlessly aggressive man-to-man defense, staying patient after trailing until late in the third quarter and, perhaps most impressively, smoothly adjusting tactics.
Murphy went to a zone defense in the second half after, he said, “we didn’t play more than 20 total minutes of zone defense all season.”
But Gibbs (27-5) practiced zone specifically in preparation for Jackson (26-4), which defeated the Gladiators 52-48 in early January.
“We knew they really didn’t shoot the ball that well from the outside,” Murphy said. “We said, ‘Hey, if they make the shots from the outside, so be it.’ But we thought it would be better to get them to shoot more from the outside.”
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/5HFWAU2NVVG2VC7J5ASAN6IDBI.JPG "Gibbs junior Mathis Roberts drives for two of his four points. He also had four rebounds.")
The defensive change worked beautifully, seeming to steadily increase Jackson’s frustration. After going up 30-25 late in third quarter, the Tigers went cold.
Meanwhile, Gibbs found sparks all over the floor: Jacob Daniels (a game-high 22 points), Oneal Delancy (six points, three steals), Ronald Williams (five points, four rebounds), Mathis Roberts (four points, four rebounds) and Bobby Crawford, who came on strong in the second half before finishing with 12 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks.
By the end of the third quarter, Gibbs had tied the score at 34. With little more than three minutes remaining, the Gladiators led 45-36 and were sky-high after a big slam dunk by Crawford.
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Explore all your options/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/X4INBBNFDFEORHIMPYTPFJVMXA.JPG "Gibbs freshman Oneal Delancy gets intense following a key defensive stop.")
“We feed off big plays like that,” Daniels said. “Seeing a dunk like that gives us big energy. We were feeling really confident. We were really feeling it.”
More than anything, however, Murphy said, the difference was “getting tougher.”
In the first half, Murphy pointed out, Gibbs was outrebounded 24-12. The Gladiators flipped the stat in the second half, outrebounding the Tigers 26-21. Gibbs also mixed in some full-court pressure in the second half with their half-court zone adjustment.
“We simply got more aggressive,” Murphy said.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/IIZMNSYBVJAJRALTLT3OWQ3VEQ.JPG "Gibbs freshman Oneal Delancy finishes off a layup for two of his six points.")
The state boys basketball championship was Gibbs’ first since 1969 and fifth overall (it also won an FHSAA title in 1967 and two FIAA titles in 1951 and 1966 before integration). It also gives the Gladiators reason for great optimism in the near future.
Gibbs returns every single player from this year’s roster, which features 11 juniors and three freshmen.
“The standard was really set a couple of years ago when we first got (to the final four),” Murphy said. “Now that we’ve gotten over the hump and won, anything less than a state championship is really unacceptable.
“That’s how we have to look at it. We have to go for that standard.”
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/5NZ3SMBSI5A7FDOEJHXVUEUOUA.JPG "Gibbs junior Mathis Roberts drives for two of his four points.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/OTKZPSI5TNFGNNZ33FQZE3ZIAY.JPG "Gibbs junior Bobby Crawford is all smiles as he receives his state championship medal.")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/S2ENJQJRJ5FNDMCEJP3VGNR554.JPG "Gibbs freshman Oneal Delancy is elated while receiving his state championship medal.")
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