Gallery by Ashley HonakerĀ
Lindside – For three quarters James Monroe held Webster County all-stater Sydney Baird in check as she had just 13 points – 19 below her season average – heading into the final stanza.
Unfortunately for the Mavs the fourth quarter went as poorly as possible.
Baird poured in 23 of her game-high 36 points in the final frame, breaking a 39-39 tie after three quarters to deliver the Highlanders a 64-45 victory in a Region 3 co-final Thursday in Lindside.
With the win Webster County earns the No. 5 seed in next week’s Class A state tournament at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center, setting up a third matchup with No. 4 Greenbrier West.
Cruising early in the third quarter after extending their lead the seven, the Mavericks yielded a run, setting up a thriller.
The script never played out that way as the hosts shot just 3 of 15 in the final quarter, turning the ball over seven times.
Baird, who served as a distributor in the first half, was the catalyst for the eruption.
Following a basket from James Monroe’s Maggie Boroski that made it a 41-39 game, Baird answered with layup. From there she collected steals on two of the next three Maverick possessions, converting both into layups. A third steal, courtesy of Josie Mathes, led to another Baird layup on a runout, pushing the advantage to 47-41.
“We just know defense wins championships,” Baird said. “If we get stops on the defensive end, our offense will follow. In my mind we had eight minutes and that’s our ride to the state tournament. If we win this eight minutes, we got a ride there and we just came out and performed.”
“That’s what we talked about at halftime,” Webster County head coach Sharon Baird said. “Our defense was not good and we tried to make some adjustments at halftime to tighten it up and start getting some rebounds. They paid a little more attention and got their hands up and knew what was going on. I think the key was getting some steals there and turning things around.”
Aside from the middle two quarters where they shot a combined 11 of 24 from the field with just five turnovers, the Mavericks failed to capitalize on their opportunities. They took 22 more shots than Webster (57-35) and won the turnover battle 17-14. The difference boiled down to the free throw line and Webster’s ability to get there and convert late sealed the deal.
The Highlanders shot 23 free throws to James Monroe’s six with Baird going 17 of 19 from the line and 15 of 16 in the fourth quarter alone.
“She’s kind of our floor leader and gets the kids motivated,” Coach Baird said. “I think she took a look at the scoreboard and she saw what was going on and knew it was time to step her game up and get with it and get this win.”
It was a role reversal for the senior in the first half as she had just eight of her team’s 21 points, dishing four assists. Drawing heavy attention from the Maverick defense, she was able to find Mathes who led the Highlanders at the break with nine points. The emphasis on slowing Baird created open looks for her teammates in the paint.
“The biggest thing, and I’ve watched her play for three years now, once she gets the ball out of her hands she’s smart enough to go get it back,” James Monroe head coach Mike Hines said of Baird. “She makes all kinds of cuts and just little subtle things to where she can go back and get the ball. But I told them in the locker room and in the fourth quarter to make somebody else make a shot. I think they scored 64 points and she had 36. We had to do something different to make her get the ball out of her hands and they capitalized on a couple inside shots.”
To the Mavericks’ credit they weathered the storms early.
Trailing 14-12 heading into the second frame they scored the first nine points of the second quarter to go up 21-14 with James Monroe all-stater Adyson Hines accounting for four of them.
The lead later ballooned to eight after a Mary Beth Meadows layup but buckets from Baird and Allie Key closed the gap to four at the intermission.
A 3 from Webster’s Hannah Wayne early in the third trimmed the deficit to 3 but a pair of 3s from Hines helped pushed the advantage back to seven.
Unfortunately for the Mavericks, Hines, their inside presence, was relegated to the bench shortly afterwards with her fourth foul, spending most of her time on the pine until midway through the fourth.
That allowed Webster to find success and tie the game heading into the final frame.
Hines’ return to the floor was brief as she picked up her fifth foul shortly after checking back in and her teammates never could weather the storm.
“A couple turnovers right there and if she gets the ball in the open floor it’s hard to stop her,” Hines said of Baird. “She knows how to finish and if you close in on her she knows where to dish. She’s averaging 32 points a game but that’s why she’s averaging 7.5 assists a game. She can do a little bit of everything and she’s a special player. You can’t rush her. She plays at the same pace and she’s a great player but 3 for 15 in that fourth quarter really hurt.
“Their adjustments in the fourth quarter really spread us out a little bit and having Adyson having to sit out that whole fourth quarter pretty much and then she comes back in and gets her fifth foul. That kind of hurt because she’s been our inside presence the whole year. Not to take away from anybody else but she’s been that key in the middle and we just didn’t have that late in the fourth quarter.”
James Monroe finishes the season at 18-6 and will graduate four seniors who helped the program to three consecutive regional appearances.
“I told them in the locker room I’m proud of them,” Hines said. “We had a five-step process and got past step one, we just didn’t get past step two. Give credit to Webster County. For three quarters it was a battle. They won the first and the third and we had a really good second but in the fourth quarter it really didn’t feel like we were allowed to play the way we normally like to play and foul trouble got to us.”
WC: 14 7 18 25 – 64
JM: 12 13 14 6 – 45
Webster County
Hannah Wayne 3, Emily Taylor 6,Josie Mathes 13, Allie Key 4, Serenity Cole 2
James Monroe
A. Hines 12, M. Meadows 9, M. Boroski 13, H. Hunnicutt 8, A. Dunlap 3
3-point goals – WC: 3 (Wayne 1, Mathes 1, Baird 1); JM: 4 (Hines 2, Meadows 1, Boroski 1)