Oak Hill – Sports broadcasting icon Dan Patrick coined the phrase, “You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him.”
Saturday afternoon inside the Lilly Center, Webster County all-state guard Sydney Baird could not be contained.
Scoring a game-high 24 points, Baird was the second-half catalyst that sent the Highlanders past Oak Hill 49-31.
“We got off to a slow start and we didn’t have our shots falling. They were getting a little frustrated with the shots not falling,” Webster County head coach Sharon Baird said. “We went into halftime, came out with a game plan and played totally different in the second half. We played the type of ball that we are used to playing.”
Both teams struggled to find the range in the first half and the game was tied at 18 after the first 16 minutes.
“In the first half it felt like we were rushing everything and played like maybe they were a little nervous. What we emphasized at halftime was coming back out, setting up our offense and running our sets” Coach Baird explained. “We finally settled down and ran our sets. We were patient and it got us some baskets.”
The initial lead of the second half went to the Highlanders on two Baird free throws. Oak Hill regained the lead on a 3-pointer from Samiah Lynch, but Baird’s ability to get in the lane created extreme frustration for the Red Devils the rest of the way.
“I think her tempo picked up a little bit. Sydney can drive and shoot from the outside, but she really loves dishing it off to her teammates as well,” Baird said. “She looks for the bigs and gets the ball to them for easy scores. That gets her fired up. I think the girls feed off Sydney too.”
A dump pass on the next possession from Baird into Madison Hamrick gave Webster the lead for good.
Baird again found Hamrick inside who kicked the ball out to Holly Perrine for a triple and Baird made it a 27-21 lead with a straight-line drive to the basket.
“The first and second quarter, I thought we did a good job with our help. That was what we preached on today. We wanted them to stay and help on (Baird) and not worry about the outside shooters,” Oak Hill head coach Darrell Compton said. “I am not sure if it was because we were missing so many shots or that we got in foul trouble. I’m not sure. They stopped defending and stood and watched.”
Kalila Hames stopped the run briefly, only to see Baird ignite another 6-0 spurt.
Baird and Hamrick hooked up for the first bucket before Baird rolled straight to the rim for another score. When the junior standout found Josie Mathes behind the defense for a layup the Highlanders were up 10 and cruising.
“We also picked up our defensive intensity. We put our press back on and sometimes that picks up the intensity for us. We got some easy baskets and it gave us some momentum,” Baird said. “We finally started boxing out and rebounding in the second half also, even though Oak Hill was taller than us.”
Holly Perrine added nine for Webster and Natalie Snyder scored six. Lynch led the Red Devils with 20 points.
“We couldn’t get shots to go in today and at the same time, we weren’t able to get second shots up today. We are just not rebounding the ball well,” Compton said. “We were taller than they were, but they were out-rebounding us. We have to learn when you are not making shots that you have to get rebounds and put them back.”
WC: 15 3 16 15 – 49
OH: 8 10 7 6 – 31
WC: Holly Perrine 9, Natalie Snyder 6, Sydney Baird 24, Josie Mathes 4, Emily Taylor 2, Madison Hamrick 4.
OH: Allison Smith 3, Eden Gilkey 3, Kalila Hames 2, Samiah Lynch 20, Taysia Gray 3.
3-pointers – 3 (Perrine 2, Baird). OH: 2 (Lynch 2).
