Bravettes’ passing game silences Shaw

Published 2:59 pm Friday, February 24, 2023

Janaye Walker was doing her best Pat Mahomes, and Jasmine Williams looked like your favorite receiver breaking wide open for Walker’s passes in the flat. This, however, was done on the basketball court Wednesday, and Walker’s ‘touchdowns’ were actually outlets for two points, not six.

The Baldwin High girls basketball team, piling on assisted baskets as well as steals on the defensive side, handily defeated Shaw High 68-44 on the James A. Lunsford Court to start the GHSA AAAA tournament. The Bravettes caught a big break in another town, Waynesboro, Wednesday when Region 4-4A’s No. 4 team, Troup High, knocked off 3-4A No. 1 Burke County. So the Baldwin girls, runner-up from Region 2-AAAA, will host Troup in the second round Saturday at 6 p.m.

“We had a lot of problems with finishing after we stole the ball,” said head coach Kizzi Walker. “We need to clean that up. That wasn’t good. We had too many turnovers.

“We are able to make the passes we need to break the press. But when we run the offense they don’t make good decisions, and we turn the ball over.”

On defense, the coach said they were “anxious” to get the ball away from Shaw. Maybe the Bravettes pressed, maybe they didn’t, but there was an aggressiveness Shaw felt each time they had possession. Kizzi said that can also result in too many fouls if you think you can steal it all the time.

It was all Baldwin after a game-opening 12-0 run with half coming off takeaways. Press-breaking baskets were scored by Kassidy Neal and Morgan Ruff with assists coming from Walker and Madison Ruff.

Shaw finally scored at 4:27 of the first period. The Raiders from Columbus hit 3 at 3:06 to pull within seven at 14-7. Baldwin put up two more assisted baskets with a bench combination of Jamya Easley and Kyla Levester handling the full-court press. After Easley herself scored by Jordyn Bolston’s inbound play, Shaw ended the quarter converting one of those Baldwin giveaways.

The Raiders trailed by seven, 18-11, to start the second quarter and only got as close as six the rest of the way. Morgan Ruff and Neal each scored down low in a 7-0 run. It was Walker, though, who took over the blocks on both sides with two put-back baskets offensively and all those outlets on the defensive end.

Williams was the beneficiary, and she did her own dirty work going all the way after a midcourt steal. She was on the finishing end of Zykeria Paschal’s perfect dish-off (started by Walker’s outlet) and later was all alone to catch and convert another outlet.

Neal added four points to the onslaught that put Baldwin ahead 39-22 at halftime.

For the third quarter, Walker scored seven points from her offensive rebounding alone. Neal got into the outlet passing act, Williams still on the receiving (and scoring) end. Williams repaid her giving up the ball at the basket, a break started again by Walker.

Madison Ruff couldn’t be forgotten about either as she scored eight second-half points on the run, two assisted by sister Morgan.

Neal, when it was over, tallied the most Baldwin points with 15, just ahead of Madison’s 14 and Walker’s 13. Williams chipped in 10 points with five assists and five steals. Madison stole the ball five times (17 for the team) and Walker grabbed 11 boards. The team shot 50 percent (32-for-64) inside the arc but 0-for-12 outside.

Shaw didn’t make a field goal until halfway through the third, which ended 62-28 Baldwin.