Last year, the Gainesville boys basketball team swept Buchholz to win for the 34th time in the last 41 meetings, including three straight wins in the series.

They had also won 17 of their last 20 at home against the Bobcats.

But with Gainesville senior captain Craig Thomas Jr. on the sidelines on crutches, the Hurricanes needed someone to step up against their rival to keep the streak alive on Friday night.

Instead, Buchholz junior Jacob Bromirski (game-high 21 points) seized the moment, knocking down three 3-pointers in the game’s first three minutes to help lead the visiting Bobcats to a 51-38 win at The Purple Palace.

“Last night at Trenton (a 49-35 loss), we didn’t shoot the ball very well, and our guys could have gone in the opposite direction, but this is too big of a game for them,” said Buchholz coach Elliot Harris. “This is bragging rights right here, so this is a great win.”

The Hurricanes scored first on a 3-pointer by junior Willie Brooks, but Bromirski quickly tied it on a 3-ball. He made a right-wing trey for a 6-3 lead with 5:40 to play in the opening quarter and then drained a three in the left corner for a 9-3 lead.

“I see one go in the basket, I think they’re all going to go in, so I’m just going to shoot every time I’m open,” Bromirski said. “Let it fly. If it goes in, that’s great.”

GHS never led again.

In fact, the Hurricanes (2-5) managed just three more field goals the rest of the half and at the end of two quarters of play, Bromirski had outscored GHS, 14-12, at the break.

“I think we played really well tonight,” said Harris. “Defensively, we kind of locked them down in the first half. They only had 12 at the half, and our guys did good about getting on the boards. That’s been one of our things that we haven’t done well so far is just match the effort on the defensive boards. We did that tonight, and overall, we shot the ball well.”

The Hurricanes closed the gap to 9-7 on a bucket by AJ Hall (13 points) with 3:49 to play in the opening quarter.

However, Bromirski hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to stretch the lead to 12-7 a little over a minute later.

“Yeah, he was feeling it, man,” Harris said. “I watched him in pregame, and he wasn’t missing and he was getting to his spot. I watched him at half court. He was shooting the same shot every single time. He was in a zone. I knew he was going to have a good game tonight.”

The Hurricanes went cold from the floor in the second quarter and Hall picked up his third foul with 4:27 to play in the half as Buchholz (5-2) went on a 13-0 run for a 27-10 lead.

“We can’t keep putting ourselves in these jams,” said GHS coach Mike Barnes. “We had poor shot selection tonight. We have guys doing things out of character, and we’ve just got to do better. We can’t give up open looks. They can shoot, and we know they can shoot, and we gave up open looks. They knocked them down. They stretched it out early and maybe we started to force things a little bit. We didn’t quit, but obviously we can’t keep putting ourselves in these positions.”

It was similar to the game at Williston on Dec. 4 when GHS rallied from a 19-point third-quarter deficit to take a late lead before losing in overtime, 68-65.

In that game, Brooks scored 20 of his game-high 21 in the second half and overtime period.

Against the Bobcats, who had as much as a 19-point lead (36-17), Brooks scored 17 of his team-high 20 points in the second half, including a right-wing 3-pointer to cut the deficit to nine at 38-29 with 7:08 to play in the game.

He also had a 3-pointer from the top of the key to cut it to eight at 40-32 with 5:38 remaining, but the ‘Canes only had two field goals the rest of the way.

“We circled this game on our calendars,” Bromirski said. “We played good defense and defense led to offense. We played really good.”

Lucas Bhatia added eight for Buchholz, which will head to Gatlinburg (TN) for the Rocky Top Classic (Dec. 18-20), while GHS will play at Vanguard (Ocala) at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.