Eastside players line up for the National Anthem before the game Saturday against Fort White. [Jasmine Valcin]

Eastside Boys Basketball Falls Short On Senior Night Against Fort White

The Eastside boys basketball team suffered a disappointing 48-40 loss on Senior Night against Fort White after leading most of the game.

Coming into their last regular-season home game of the season Saturday with a 3-17 record, the Rames hoped to give their seniors a victory. Seniors Audric Garsico and Gavin Calleja were honored before the game and the team got to work.

Fort White (11-9) got on the board first, but Eastside was able to respond quickly with a 3-point shot from Calleja. At the end of the first quarter, Eastside had a 11-7 lead. This was largely thanks to Calleja, who scored nine out of the first 11 points for Eastside. The other two points came from sophomore Jai’Vion Williams.

Eastside (3-18) continued to control the second quarter, scoring 12 points and holding Fort White to only nine points. Going into halftime up 23-16, it seemed Eastside would get its Senior Night miracle after all.

Heating Up

Eastside remained strong offensively throughout the third quarter. Calleja, Garsico and Williams worked together to score 13 points, bringing Eastside’s total to 36. However, Eastside began to struggle on defense to allow Fort White to begin to come alive.

Fort White doubled its first-half score, going from 16 to 32. At the end of the third quarter, Eastside maintained a narrow 36-32 lead.

The first three minutes of the fourth quarter was slow offensively, with the teams only scoring two points each. Although the beginning of the quarter was quiet score-wise, the crowd was not. Fans loudly voiced their opinion as numerous fouls were called on both teams. Multiple small skirmishes broke out on the court as the game continued to heat up.

The game came down to one thing: foul shots. Fort White was able to score several points from foul shots, while Eastside made just two. Fort White took a 42-40 lead with 1:27 left, its first lead since the first basket of the game.

Fort White scored six more points in the last minute with no answer from Eastside.

Up Next

The Rams are the fourth seed in the 4A-District 5 tournament and will host the five seed Dunnellon Tigers (9-13) on Monday. A win then would move them against top seed North Marion on Wednesday.

2025 FHSAA Boys Basketball District Tournaments 4A District 5

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