Baylor Girls Roll GPS, 50-31
The Baylor Lady Red Raiders are slowly getting better as a basketball team and they got back on the winning track Thursday evening at Jimmy Duke Arena/Austin Clark Court with a 50-31 victory over arch-rival GPS.
Baylor improves to 11-8 overall and 1-1 in region play while the Bruisers are now 5-9 overall and 0-3 in region play.
The Lady Red Raiders got off to a good start and scored the first 12 points of the game while GPS struggled on the offensive end and only avoided being shut out in the first quarter when McKamey Bratcher sank a 3 from the key three seconds before the quarter ended.
Baylor coach John Gibson had emphasized "winning every quarter" and playing with a lot of intensity. The veteran leader was pretty pleased with how it all unfolded.
"I thought we did a good job tonight," Gibson said in the hallway just outside the Baylor dressing room.
"I thought we played with a lot of intensity and that's what I was wanting, but we wanted to set the tone early and that fast start was exactly what we were looking for.
"We did a nice job defensively and Riley (Oleksik) did a nice job shooting the ball. We're starting to get better but we still have a long way to go. But the good news is that everyone got to play and get some valuable experience in a game situation," he added.
It's been a tough season for coach Janna Eichelberger and her group of young Bruisers. Injuries have been a major factor in their season so far as at least two probable starters are sidelined for the season.
Roles have been changed and Bratcher is the only senior on the team, but Eichelberger is confident that her young group will only get better with time as she has two eighth graders and four freshmen who saw extensive playing time on Thursday.
"We're getting there, but the good news is that we competed hard tonight and never once thought about quitting," she said after a post-game chat with her players.
"McKamey is our only senior and she's our main shooter as I'm hoping some of the others will follow her example. Scoring has been a problem and we just have to get better at putting the ball in the basket, but we didn't quit and I'm okay with that.
"These girls are great support for each other and they're slowly getting better. In addition to our shooting, we also need to work on our rebounding. We're doing a good job of putting bodies on people, but it takes a little extra effort to grab a rebound," she concluded with a smile.
Oleksik had the hottest hand for the Baylor girls as she scored four of those first 12 points and ended the game with a team-high 17. She's as competitive as anyone on the team and is a really good shooter as she demonstrated by including three 3s in her day's work.
Farah House, who is just a freshman, was the scoring leader for the Bruisers as she also finished with 17 points, including eight of her team's 10 points in the second quarter when Baylor extended its lead to 34-13.
It would have been easy for the Bruisers to just toss in the towel and surrender, but they did anything but as they battled for all they were worth in the final two quarters.
Baylor scored a dozen points at the start of the third quarter for its biggest lead at 46-17 following a short banker by Mia Kinney with 3:33 on the clock.
Two free throws by Hadleigh Warton and a layup by Izzy Moore were the only points the Lady Raiders scored the rest of the way as the Bruisers finished the game on a 14-4 run.
While Oleksik had the hottest hand for Baylor, Warton was next with nine points while Sloane Watson was next with eight.
Bratcher was the only other GPS player in double figures as she finished with 11.
Baylor also had an unofficial 37-15 advantage in rebounds as Bella White grabbed eight and Warton five for the Lady Raiders. House was tops for GPS with four.
While there was a decent crowd for Thursday's game, this place will be packed to the rafters on Friday for the slugfest between the Baylor boys and McCallie.
GPS 3 10 6 12 -- 31
BAYLOR 12 22 12 4 -- 50
GPS (31) – Lawrence, Choate 1, Senoweeh, O'Keefe, Hicks 2, Farah House 17, Polk, McKamey Bratcher 11.
BAYLOR (50) – El. Carico, Riley Oleksik 17, Em. Carico 2, White 4, Thompson, Warton 9, Kinney 2, Catalanotto 3, Sherrow, Moore 2, Sanders 2, Merritt 1, Wyke, Watson 8, Royal, Phillips.
3-POINT GOALS: GPS 1 (Bratcher); Baylor 4 (Oleksik 3, Watson).
Riley Oleksik Leads Baylor Girls Past GPS, 50-31 - Chattanoogan.com
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