Baylor’s Peyton Randolph (10) takes a shot over Central’s Delaynie France (42) Wednesday in the first round of the Times Free Press Best of Preps basketball tournament at Chattanooga State.Baylor started slowly, like a basketball team whose players had burned midnight oil cramming for semester exams.
The four-time reigning Best of Preps tournament girls’ champions shrugged off the doldrums in the second quarter Wednesday morning, breaking from a 12-4 lead at the end of the first quarter to a 35-6 halftime advantage.
Then the Lady Red Raiders coasted home – with coach John Gibson emptying the bench – to a 54-20 win over Central in this year’s tournament opener at Chattanooga State.
“We were a little jittery starting out, and then we settled down,” Gibson said of a performance that would’ve had them pressing to drop anchor in the water 50 feet from shore.
The Lady Raiders (4-4) were most impressive in that second quarter, putting together a 21-0 run and just missing a second-quarter shutout when Central’s Miracle Miller dropped in a two-footer in the period’s final minute.