COLUMBUS — The Columbus High School girl’s basketball team fell to Second Baptist High School Dec. 18 at the Marley Giddens Center in Columbus by a final score of 61-31.
Columbus had the lead after the first quarter, then Baptist stormed back and dominated the rest of the game with executing designed plays, long range shoot - ing, and conversions near the rim.
“I think one of the big differ- ences was definitely their height," said Columbus head girl’s basketball coach Mike Albers.
“They controlled the boards good and had some second chances. Definitely some real ly good shooters. Pretty good team, no doubt. They played a lot of big schools and they can recruit people, so when you can pick your players and have some size and shooters like that, it's gonna be tough. We played them
good for at least the first quarter and a half. After that, had a lit tle problem with their pressure.
Press break, we didn't do a real good job, so they got some easy baskets. Got ahead, so it was just hard for us to catch up after that."
Lady Cardinals senior guard Karlee Mathis drove for a layup at the 30 second mark in the first quarter and it was followed by a free throw from Baptist in the
final seconds for a 12-8 score at the end of the quarter in favor
of Columbus. Mathis started
the second quarter with a three pointer from the wing, then Bap tist scored 19 straight points on a bunch of layups and a jumper to take a 27-15 lead at halftime.
Baptist scored on a steal
and a layup for the first points of the third quarter, which was responded by a layup on an inbound play from Columbus senior guard Sage Thomas to put it at 29-17 with 6:15 to go. After a three pointer from Lady Cardinals shooting guard Anaya Gardner and two free throws from Mathis, Columbus was able to cut the deficit to 31-22. A few minutes later, the Eagles started piling on the points with a mix of layups and three pointers to surge ahead 44-27 at the of the third quarter.
Baptist sealed the game in the fourth quarter as they continued to run designed plays to get peo- ple open, resulting in easy bas kets at the rim and makes from long range en route to a 61-31 victory.
