Southeast ends 0-7 skid against No. 1 Gibbs to win district final

When a No. 1 team faces a No. 2, an excellent boys basketball game usually follows.

On Friday at St. Petersburg Gibbs High School, No. 2 Southeast was looking to avenge two regular-season losses to No. 1.

The Noles did just that.

Withstanding a furious fourth-quarter rally by the host Gladiators, second-seeded Southeast earned a 78-77 victory in the Class 5-A District 11 final.

The Seminoles (20-7) advance to face Lely at 7 p.m. Thursday at home in the Class 5-A Region 3 quarterfinal.

"I'm just so happy for our seniors -- those guys who really stuck with it," Southeast coach Floyd Watkins said. "This is something that's good for our program, good for our kids and good for our community. It was definitely a breakthrough for us. We were 0-7 against Gibbs, but we knew if the time was going to be, it was going to be now."

"We knew coming in it was going to be a tough game," Gibbs coach Larry Murphy said. "Both (early) games we had against them were close and went down to the wire."

Except for a tie at 3, Southeast led the entire first half and 35-30 at intermission.

Gibbs (22-4) opened the third period with a 10-0 spurt to take its first lead, 37-35, and built its largest lead, 40-35, after a Zykeal Shazell bucket.

"We talked about coming out and making plays," Murphy said. "Early in the third, my guys stepped up and made plays. Down the stretch, their guys did what they needed to do to get the win."

"We knew they were not going to go away," Watkins said. "They don't lose many games at all, especially here, so they're state ranked for a reason. We just had to stay firm and do everything we could to hold our footing."

The Seminoles responded with a 12-0 run to take the lead for good.

Southeast led by as much as, 72-62, in the final quarter.

Ronald Taylor finished with 28 points to lead the Seminoles, followed by Corey Davis with 21 and Alex Taylor with 12 points.

Da'Juan Johnson paced Gibbs with a game-high 29 points.

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Southeast ends 0-7 skid against No. 1 Gibbs to win district final ."