LAUREL HILL — Baker’s Cassidy Anderson scored a game-high 19 points and Lily Phillips added nine as the Gators rolled to a 50-27 win over Laurel Hill in girls basketball action Thursday night.
As was the case Monday night Baker hosted Freeport, the Gators (10-6) got off to slow start.
The Hoboes drew first blood on a basket by Jhanae Griffin, who led Laurel Hill with 12 points. A pair of baskets by Grace Reese helped the Hoboes to a 6-3 lead with 2:30 left in the first quarter.
The Gators closed out the first period with a 5-0 run. Kathryn Quigg hit 2-of-3 from the free throw line and Anderson added three points to put Baker up 8-6 after one.
The rest of the game belonged to the Gators as they used a full-court zone press to force the Hoboes into costly turnovers that led to easy Baker baskets.
Baker coach Brian Wagner was at a loss after another slow start, but was happy with the win.
“We’ve got to get out of the slow starts,” he said. “We either have a slow start or a slow quarter or slow half quarter. To get where we want to be we have to have a very good whole game and when we get to one of our district opponents, that’s when I hope it will show up.
“We know where we are at this point and where we want to be. Hopefully we will peak at the right time and just improve every game.”
The Gators outscored Laurel Hill 16-3 in the second quarter as four Baker players scored in the quarter.
By the time the final horn sounded to end the game every Baker player had seen action and got into the scoring column.
Baker extended the lead to 43-18 after three and coasted home for the win. Breanna Owens had a hot hand for Laurel Hill in the fourth quarter hitting a pair of 3-pointers as the Hoboes refused go away.
Laurel Hill coach Scott Varnum was pleased with the
“Foul trouble hurt us,” he said. Grace got into a little bit of foul trouble and that hurt us. But, hey, I’m proud of my girls.
“They played hard for four quarters and didn’t quit. I couldn’t be more proud of them with they way they played. Baker’s got a really good team and they played really well.”
Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Anderson leads Gators past Hoboes