Baylor Girls Earn First Spot In Best Of Preps Final

Baylor earned the first spot in the girls championship of the 2014 Best of Preps basketball tournament being played at Chattanooga State and will meet the Meigs County Lady Tigers at 7 p.m. Monday night for first place in the annual Christmas tournament.

While Baylor totally dominated Notre Dame in the first semifinal and Meigs County basically did the same against GPS, Signal Mountain and Heritage both won earlier games in the consolation rounds.

Aryn Sanders scored 23 points and teammate Lydia Bledsoe 10 as the Lady Eagles defeated Tyner, 56-37.  Porchia Turner and LeAundra Melton paced Tyner with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

The Heritage Lady Generals had three players in double figures en route to a 60-41 win over Chattanooga Christian.

Jada Hubbard was tops for Heritage with 20 while Tori Harvey followed with 13 and Sydney Smith with 10.  Joanna Smith topped the lady Chargers with 19 points.

Monday's schedule has the Tyner and Chattanooga Christian girls playing at 10 a.m.

for seventh place.  Signal Mountain and Heritage meet at 1 for fifth place while GPS and Notre Dame battle at 4 for third place. 

Baylor and Meigs will meet for the second time around 7 for the top prize while the Baylor boys will challenge Hamilton Heights for the second championship immediately afterward.

BAYLOR 63, NOTRE DAME 24: It didn’t take long for the Lady Red Raiders to take charge as they scored the first four points and 11 of the first 13 to take a commanding lead early.

Back-to-back buckets by Cheyenne Lindsay and Jutoreyia Willis in the final minute of the first quarter gave Baylor a 15-4 lead at the first break.

The difference was 20-8 at the half, but the Baylor defensive pressure started taking a toll on the Lady Irish in the third quarter.  Applying pressure from one end of the court to the other, Baylor put 27 points on the board in the third quarter and the issue was all but settled with a 47-20 difference when the quarter ended.

Morgan Cantrell hit two free throws to start the final stanza, but by the time Laura Rabuano scored on a layup with 2:13 to play, Baylor had scored 16 unanswered points with mostly younger players on the floor as Baylor coach John Gibson emptied his bench in the final eight minutes.

“I didn’t think we played well early as we just weren’t patient, but we’re getting better and better with each passing game and we got after them on defense after that,” Gibson said after his team had improved to 9-1 overall with its second straight blowout win.

“We have a lot of really good players in that locker room.  I just hate it for Wes Moore because I recruited him at UTC 20 years ago and we have remained good friends ever since,” Gibson added.

Notre Dame’s Moore was quick to admit that his Lady Irish just didn’t have an answer for the Baylor pressure.

“We didn’t play very well as we had too many turnovers and I thought that we ran out of gas in the second half,” he began before going into the Notre Dame dressing room.

“We just didn’t handle Baylor’s pressure very well.  You’ve got to take care of the basketball and make the most of every possession.  Obviously, we didn’t do that.

“We expended a lot of energy playing defense in the first half and to hold Baylor to just 20 points was pretty incredible,” Moore added after his team had fallen to 9-4 with the loss.

Mya Long was tops for Baylor with 18 points while Kameron Rich came off the bench to add 10 in the fourth quarter alone.  Willis was next with eight.

Annie Ripper scored eight points to lead Notre Dame.  Meme Siler and Cantrell were next with four points apiece.

Notre Dame enjoyed a 10-8 edge in rebounding for the first half, but Baylor turned things around to finish with a 32-20 advantage.

Grace Wardeberg and Lindsay both had five boards for Baylor while Keonna Beaman and Cantrell both had six caroms for the Lady Irish.

MEIGS COUNTY 47, GPS 33: Taylor Boggess almost personally outscored GPS as the Lady Tiger senior scored 31 points to lead the Meigs County win.

Boggess scored all 10 points in the first quarter as the Lady Tigers had a 10-9 lead at the break, but it was the combination of the second and third quarters that spelled disaster for the Bruisers as Meigs enjoyed a 37-11 advantage during that 16-minute span.

The visitors from Decatur had a commanding 47-20 lead when the third quarter ended and even though the Lady Tigers didn’t score a single point in the final period, the early deficit was simply too much for the short-handed  Bruisers to overcome.

“I felt pretty good until about the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter,” Meigs County coach Jason Powell said after his team had improved to 11-4.

“We wanted to slow the pace down at the end.  I thought we defended well and we moved the ball well, but we were finally able to contain their penetration.  Defense has been our staple all year, but we finally were able to get in the flow of the game with steals and easy baskets.

“I thought we played a pretty solid game, but we can be a pretty good basketball team when we start hitting our shots,” Powell nodded.

GPS coach Jennifer Williams knew that her team was facing a tall order under normal circumstances, but with team leaders Akia Harris and Reagan Williams both sidelined with ankle injuries, the challenge became a whole lot tougher for her young team.

But in a game where it would have been easy to give up and to quit playing hard, she was really proud of the fact that they never did.

“”That was rough,” she said after exiting the GPS dressing room.

“The odds were certainly stacked against us, but we didn’t quit and I’m really proud of that.  We had three freshmen on the floor for most of the game and I really liked the effort Kara Ware put out.  She’s only been back from shoulder surgery about four games, but I can always count on her to do what we need.

“We tried every trick in the book to get people open, but nothing seemed to work,” Williams nodded.

Boggess had eight points in the second quarter and 13 more in the third, but her 31 wasn’t a season high.  Teammate Kelsey Woods followed with six points.

Ware was tops for GPS with 12 points and 11 rebounds.  MacKenzie Jennings was next with seven.

GPS now stands 10-5 following Saturday’s setback.

MEIGS COUNTY   10  22  15  0  --  47

GPS      9  5  6  13  --  33

MEIGS CO. (47) – Woods 6, T. Boggess 31, Lewis 3, M. Boggess, Moore, Crowder 4, Dawson 3.

GPS (33) – McCurdy 2, Hubbard 4, Dunigan 5, Jennings 7, Hudson 3, Ware 12.

3-POINT GOALS: Meigs Co. 6 (Woods 2, T. Boggess 4); GPS 1 (Jennings).

NOTRE DAME   4  4  12  4  --  24

BAYLOR   15 5  27  16 – 63

NOTRE DAME (24) – Cantrell 4, Ripper 8, Wittler, Williams 3, Higgins, Rabuano 2, Hoffer 3, Siler 4, Beaman.

BAYLOR (63) – Clemons 6, Willis 8, Lindsay 6, Huckabay, Simpkins 2, Hubert 5, Wardeberg 2, Long 18, Popp 2, Rich 10, Parker 4.

3-POINT GOALS: Notre Dame 1 (Williams); Baylor 7 (Willis, Long 4, Rich 2).

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)