On Feb. 20, the Bishop Gorman girls’ basketball team returned to the mountain top as the Nevada 5A State Champions. The Gaels won their second championship in the last three years after losing to Democracy Prep in the semi-finals last year. This year, they got their revenge on DPAC with a double overtime win to win the state championship.
In the first quarter, Gorman and Democracy Prep were going back and forth, no team could seem to get a lead bigger than five. Gaels Addysen Carr ‘27, Kenzee Holton ‘27, and Aaliah Spaight ‘26 carried an early load, helping to close the first quarter out up 20-13. Holton said, “My mindset going into the game was to just lock in on the little things, play defense, and keep my attitude in good spirits. I knew it was going to be a challenging game, so mental preparation is essential.”
However, the story was much different in the second quarter, DPAC dominated the entire period. Led by guards Bray’ana Miles ‘26 and Keonni Lewis ‘26, Democracy Prep raced out to a 10 point lead going into halftime. Winning the quarter 26-9 overall, through a mix of intense defense, great shot making, and electrifying plays. Another factor was forward La’Niah Hicks ‘26, who had multiple forced misses, rebounds, and points inside. At halftime the score was 39-29, Democracy Prep led.
Through the third quarter Gorman was able to regain control of the game, slowing the pace down, taking DPAC’s crowd out of the game, and hitting open shots that couldn’t seem to drop in the previous quarter. Spaight and Carr both made timely shots, and Gorman managed to cut the lead to two heading into the fourth, 50-52.
The final regulation quarter was nothing short of electric, both teams went back and forth with threes, tough layups, and great defensive plays. Gorman had tied the game with only about 15 seconds left on the game clock, Democracy Prep gave the ball to Hicks, and after dribbling the time down she drove into the middle and Gorman was able to steal the ball to force overtime.
Only about 30 seconds into overtime, Miles fouled out of the game for DPAC, which proved to be a severe loss as the main ball-handler and first scoring option. A few minutes later, Holton also fouled out for the Gaels. Notably, both players couldn’t stand to even sit down on the bench, as they watched their teams, both were clearly more nervous on the bench where they couldn’t have an impact on what happened. The difference was, Gorman still had Spaight, Carr, and quite a few more reliable options when needed. One of those options was Anna Barragan ‘27, who contributed late in the game to push Gorman forward. “I knew my shot wasn’t going to fall, so I had to contribute another way. For me, it was defense and boxing out,” Barragan said. DPAC clearly didn’t have as much of that luxury. The same situation ended up happening in overtime as at the end of the fourth, tie game, DPAC had the ball and gave it to Hicks, again, Gorman was able to get the stop and force yet another OT.
The strategy was clear for Gorman in the second overtime, get the ball to Spaight, as she scored multiple clutch buckets towards the end of the game allowing Gorman to seal the win over DPAC 79-76. Spaight finished with 25 points and Carr with 15 points on 5 made threes as the Gaels won the 2026 Nevada 5A State Championship. “I think it was a full circle comment, and definitely a great feeling of redemption,” Holton said.
