On Wednesday, February 18, Bishop Gorman suffered a loss to Coronado in the state semifinals, 55-76. This would’ve been their ticket to punch their way into competing for a third state championship in a row. Before this year, Gorman had repeated as state champions in 2024 and 2025.

Coronado was firing on all cylinders from the moment the game started, they raced out to a 7-0 lead, eventually building to 19-8 before Gorman had to call a time-out. Coronado was the much more aggressive team, with high intensity defensive efforts from Demari Hunter ‘26 DeVaughn Dorrough ‘28. Gorman had an extremely difficult time getting any open shots in the first quarter, and it showed on the scoreboard.  The lead was 24-9 at the end of the first quarter. 

Gorman seemed to regain some of their footing in the second quarter, having some bursts going on unanswered runs, cutting the lead to as low as 8. Braylen Williams ‘28, Kameron Cooper ‘27, and Tyler Johnson ‘27 kept Gorman afloat following Coronado’s opening barrage. At halftime, the score was 37-26. Not a desirable position for Gorman, yet by no means unmountable. Coronado players Munir Greig ‘27, Johnny Collins ‘26, and Amare Oba ‘26 shined offensively in the first half. Collins and Oba made multiple three pointers and Greig was seemingly unstoppable getting to the rim. Tyler Bright ’26 was another key factor defensively for Gorman getting back into the game, “We just tried to play as a team, play hard, and listen to our coaches’ game plan of just giving it our all and having no regrets,” Bright said. 

The third quarter was the most even amongst the two teams, a back and forth struggle where no team could seem to gain any sort of ground on the other. However, Coronado seemed to be the team with the momentum, as an even game going forward would tilt in their favor due to the already built up lead. At the end of the third, Coronado led by 12 points, a nearly even quarter evident by the intense environment and all out efforts from both teams. 

The fourth quarter seemed to be similar to the third, with the lead for Coronado hovering in the 10 to 14 point range, never seeming to go outside of that in either direction. This pattern remained until about 4 minutes left in the game, when Collins nailed a deep three pointer that seemed to completely drain Gorman, from the team to the crowd. After that, Coronado built the lead as high as 25 before the game’s end. “They were not missing… we were kind of giving [3 Pointers] ups but they chose to shoot the lights out that night, unfortunately,” Bright said. At the final buzzer, Coronado led Gorman 76-55, a 21 point victory advancing them to the state championship against Liberty on Friday, February 20.