Jalisa Sanders briskly moved the ball down court before stopping above the arc. The Boyd Buchanan point guard could have driven into traffic if she had wanted to, but instead she dished the ball off to forward Dani Reeves at the elbow. Reeves also had a shot if she had wanted it. Rather than taking the midrange jumper, Reeves hit a cutting Kamille DeLoach in stride for a layup. Such displays of selfless basketball were common in the Buccaneers’ 54-12 win over Chattanooga Central’s Purple Pounders.
“We have a lot of confidence in each other,” Sanders said.
“We work on ball-movement and passing all the time, and we just need to perfect it.”
The game started out looking very much like a season opener for the host Buccaneers, who were playing a worn-down Chatt Central team who had duked it out with Lookout Valley the night before. The first four minutes were a parade of fouls and turnovers by both teams, with neither side seemingly able to hold onto the ball or hit a shot.
Guards Sanders and Sarah Durham (a sharpshooter who nailed two triples against the Pounders) made dribbling the ball an impossible task, and forced a turnover on every other possession. Sanders dished the ball off for easy shots in transition after many of these plays, and Reeves and others benefited from her hit-ahead plays.
When Central could get their offense into a set, they remained focused on driving to the rim and drawing fouls. Forward Janaye Parker scored three of Central’s six first-half points at the free throw line, and the team as a whole scored all of their points off free throws.
Boyd Buchanan’s speed was a problem for Central, but so was their size. Center Leslie Burton was a problem inside, but she wasn’t all brute force. She played an old-school post game, and her teammates knew that. She would carve out position with her back to the basket, catch the pass in traffic, and then turn around for a soft fadeaway from the block.
“We call her ‘Big Boogie’,” Sanders said. “Leslie is an eighth-grader and she’s been working.”
Guards Allie McFarland and Eva Winston kept the energy level high when they came in, as did the rest of Boyd Buchanan’s second-unit. The result was a parade of transition chances and quick points on the fast-break, as well as a 34-6 lead at halftime.
Chattanooga Central’s effort didn’t wane in the second half, but there was no coming back from such an enormous deficit. And in the highlight of the game, Sanders hit a buzzer-beating three to beat the third-quarter buzzer to make it 48-9. A running clock in the fourth quarter depressed the scoring to end the game.
CHATTANOOGA CENTRAL 03 03 03 03 - 12
BOYD BUCHANAN 18 16 14 06 - 54
CENTRAL: Haiden Harness 3, Alissa Walton 1, Leshana James 3, Janaye Parker 5
BOYD BUCHANAN: Jalisa Sanders 5, Dani Reeves 3, Macy Balthrop 2, Jancey Robertson 2, Jada Sanders 4, Kaitlyn Pope 1, Eva Winston 2, Allie McFarland 4, Riley Robertson 7, Avy Bailey 2, Leslie Burton 8, Sarah Durham 12, Kamille DeLoach 2
THREE-POINT FG: BOYD BUCHANAN 3 (Durham 2, Sanders 1); CHATT. CENTRAL 0 ()