PENSACOLA — For one team, excitement — and relief.

Mainland won a nail-biting 56-53 contest against Booker T. in the Region 1-5A final, sending the Buccaneers to the state Final Four for the second year in a row.

“This wasn’t something unfamiliar for us. We had multiple games that ended in overtime or were one- or two-point games,” Mainland head coach Brandon Stewart said. “This was a familiar spot, and we were ready for it.”

Mainland (17-12) — the defending Class 5A state champion — will wait to see who it will face in the state semifinals in Lakeland.

“When we won state last year, we were the first ever in girls basketball history (at Mainland),” Stewart said. “To be able to go back, it shows what we’re doing with the program. The girls we have are amazing. I’m just happy to be the coach that’s coaching them, because the girls deserve all the credit.”

For the other team, heartbreak.

The Booker T. Washington girls basketball team was inches away. The Wildcats trailed the entire game — down by as many as 11 or 12 points at certain instances of the game — but with less than 30 seconds left, Booker T. found itself right there.

Mikerria Bonner sank a free throw with 25 seconds left in the game, cutting the deficit to two points. While she missed the second shot, Booker T. grabbed the rebound and found a player in some space beyond the arc. A split second before the shot was released, Wildcats head coach Jade Brown called a timeout.

The 3-pointer sank.

Ronnie and Janis Bond Gymnasium went berserk.

The referees waived it off, signaling for the timeout.

“I didn’t have (a message). We’ve been in situations like that, and kind of lost the ball at times,” Brown said. “I didn’t say anything about the timeout (to the team). We got the ball back. We still got a look. We just didn’t convert.

“If I had to do it again, I’d do it again. … We had 30 seconds to get one shot off. I trust what I do. We’ll learn from it. We did the best we could. We just came up short.”

On the following possession, the Wildcats couldn’t convert. With Booker T. not in foul trouble, the Wildcats started to force fouls to try to get the ball back. Mainland eventually sank one free throw to make it three-point game.

Chamiah Francis launched a shot from half court, but it hit the top of the backboard as the clock expired.

Booker T.’s dream season — a turnaround from just a couple years ago, when the Wildcats won just three games – ended in the region final. The Wildcats posted a 23-2 overall record, and return a majority of their players.

The Wildcats have just two seniors.

“This was a young team, going against a ton of upperclassmen. The fight was there. I was just happy we got the experience. You don’t like the results, but you know what we have to do,” Brown said. “We don’t lose. We learn. … And we’re going to learn from this loss.

“I think our girls will respond. They’ll be ready to work, and we’ll get after it.”

Shooters shoot

Just as Booker T. has a solid core of players, it’s hard to miss Mainland and its top cogs in the system. The Buccaneers, the 2023 state champs, returned a good amount of their players from the title run.

Tia Dobson and Anovia Sheals, who were both on that squad, found success in the basket early and often. Also entering into the picture was Olivia Olson, who transferred from Spruce Creek this season.

All three players weren’t afraid to shoot the ball — whether it was after driving down the lane for a layup, an awkward angle shot over the Booker T. defense, or from several inches beyond the arc.

And for awhile, Mainland seemed to be running away with the game behind the efforts of those three stars. Sheals and Dobson are both Division I commits.

“We want to convince them to go out there and play basketball, and not be robots. They figured out a way to do it,” Stewart said. “We teach them to have a winning mentality and a relentless mindset. We did that tonight.”

Familiar territory

A big lead lost in the final quarter of the game is all too familiar for the Buccaneers.

In the state championship game last season, Mainland was up 20 points going into the fourth quarter, and it wound up beating top-seeded American Heritage by just one point, 62-61.

“As the coach, I had to do my job and stayed poised. I commend our girls for staying poised, because this was a rowdy crowd,” Stewart said. “We got the job done.”

On that same token, a strong strength of schedule — the fourth-toughest schedule in all of girls basketball, according to the FHSAA rankings — Mainland had plenty of games that were decided by just a possession or two.

“The reason we played that type of schedule was for games like this,” Stewart added.

And now Mainland returns to a place it’s become quite familiar with. Though, it wasn’t easy to get there. After hosting Choctaw in the Region 1-5A quarterfinals and Rickards in the Region 1-5A semifinals, the Buccaneers had to take a long trip to the Panhandle to secure its spot in Lakeland.

While another road trip is on the horizon for Mainland, out of Daytona Beach, one thing is for certain.

“Lakeland is home for us — that’s all I’ll say,” Stewart said. “Lakeland is home.”

Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Mainland girls basketball grits out road win to make FHSAA semifinals