Friday night was an evening of growth, fight, and response for the New Hope High School basketball teams.
On one hand, you had Taylor Baudoin, Kaitlin Bradley, and the rest of the Lady Trojans answering the call against a team they already had defeated two times in the regular season.
On the other, you had Chris Mosley and the Trojans fighting back from an eight-point deficit and beating the clock again in a last-second victory.
The response and the fight equaled growth for both New Hope teams in the form of two home games in the first round. The New Hope girls team’s 64-58 victory against Oxford secured a game against Starkville at 7 p.m. Monday in the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A North State playoffs.
The New Hope boys team’s 45-44 comeback against Oxford set the stage for it to play host to Yazoo City at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Both games were filled with drama. The suspense for the girls centered on if New Hope could complete a three-game sweep of defending Class 5A state champion Oxford. Consider that questioned answered, as New Hope pulled away in the fourth quarter, built an 18-point lead, and then hung on to earn a victory coach Laura Lee Holman said helped her team grow up in “years.”
“We needed this,” Holman said. “I told the girls in the locker room because Oxford came to beat you, I think it might have molded us and shaped us into a championship team. This was a great, great game. We fight and scrap and were a little slow out of the gate because of the box-and-one they put on Moe. We made some adjustments in the second half, and I think that helped us a lot and being able to find a way. We saw a defense we hadn’t seen, we had a couple of them in foul trouble, and we were trying to stuff differently on defense, and trying to keep Alexis Malone’s touches limited. I saw glimpses of a team that might be being shaped and molded into a championship team.”
Holman saw those flashes thanks to a balanced effort in which nine players scored. D.J. Sanders led the way with 18 points, while Bradley had 16 and Baudoin had 13. Seven players scored in a 20-5 run that stretched from the third to the fourth quarter and allowed New Hope to build a 55-37 lead with 6 minutes, 14 seconds. Bradley had five points in the spurt, while Baudoin, a transfer from Immanuel Christian who missed most of the regular season with a foot injury, had two and a pair of assists. She punctuated one of the assists off a 3-on-1 fast break with a fist pump.
“Big games bring out the emotion in me,” Baudoin said. “I think all of the emotion in me sitting the whole season and being able to play tonight it just all came out.”
Baudoin said her first quarter was emotional because Friday was one of her biggest games of the season in a timely spot. She didn’t score until the second quarter, but once she did she grew more assertive and provided another scoring option to complement Sanders and Bradley.
With Sanders and Baudoin patrolling the paint and point guard Moesha Calmes held in check due to a box-and-one, Bradley delivered the perimeter punch, stroking 3-pointers and 18-foot jumpers with silky smoothness. It seems like years ago when she was part of the team that went 6-16. Since then, the Lady Trojans have won 16 21, and 24 games in successive seasons. This year, the team feels it has the potential to make a run at Jackson, the site of the state championship games.
“I think the team has grown a lot coming from our 6-16 to now,” Bradley said. “We have come a very long way.
“I think if everyone shows up every night and plays their hardest and talks on the bench and cheers on everybody else on the court, works hard for their team, and comes on the floor hard, we probably will be an unbeatable team,”
New Hope, which is known for dictating tempo with its full-court pressure, dealt with a little bit of its own and saw its lead dwindle to 61-58 with 22.6 seconds to go. But Bradley had a blocked shot and Baudoin hit two free throws, and added another fist pump after the first, to seal the deal.
The performance left Holman praising all of the players who contributed in what she hopes is just the first step on the way to Jackson.
“In the first half, I felt like we had some people who really weren’t contributing as well. I was trying to find that rotation, and in the third quarter they kind of said, ‘OK, it’s time to go.’ Being able to pull kids off the bench and to be able to trust them and to sub, giving those two- or three-minute breaks, I think it makes a team tougher. When the other team has five or six ids and you have eight or nine, it is going to give you the mental toughness edge, and come the third or fourth quarter it is going to give you that edge.
“At any time I can pull four or five kids off the bench. Kristen Phillips hasn’t played that well the past couple of games, and I was trying to find somebody to beat the box-and-one with. Her name got called and she stepped out there and did a fabulous job. Kristen Phillips stepping up tonight really, really made the difference in that swing in finding that fifth person who was ready to play and ready to score. Everybody did a great job, but that example, I think, pretty much tells the story about our team. When somebody is having a rough night, I always have somebody else who has been able to step up and fill that role.”
When it comes to last-second magic, New Hope boys basketball coach Drew McBrayer also seems to have an endless supply of producers. On this night, Mosley, a senior, took the opportunity to create some magic.
Three nights earlier, Tae Latham’s 3-pointer from the left corner helped New Hope rally from a double-digit deficit in the second half for a one-point victory. On Friday, Mosley took an inbounds pass with 11.2 seconds to play, worked from the backcourt into the frontcourt, rubbed off a high screen from Whyatt Foster, and attacked the basket.
McBrayer’s orders in the timeout had been “to make a play,” so Mosley slashed to the right, split three defenders, and eyed the backboard. He took off just before the help defense slid over from the left and kissed the ball off the glass to give the Trojans the lead with 3.6 seconds to go. On Tuesday, New Hope had to survive a last-second miss from just inside the 3-point line to beat West Point. This time, New Hope didn’t have to worry about fretting an improbable rally from an eight-point hole.
“We have done it two nights in a row this week,” McBrayer said. “The more times you put yourself in that situation to succeed out of it, the more confidence it gives you to be able to do it. I don’t know if we win this game if we don’t have a close one and figure out how to win it Tuesday night. The confidence that this team builds, even when they are down, it doesn’t bother them. For some reason, we get six to eight points like that, they dig in a little deeper and find that extra gear that is tough to find in 16-, to 17-, to 18-year-old kids to come and be able to execute like that.”
McBrayer had to scratch his head as he watched his team commit three consecutive turnovers against Oxford’s press. McBrayer called a timeout after the Chargers converted three baskets off the mistakes. The Trojans then turned the ball over again, which enabled Oxford to push the margin to eight points. Another timeout highlighted the importance of fighting to get back into the game. With repeated shouts of “D Up,” New Hope dug in and applied more pressure to the basketball. It caught a few breaks when Oxford missed the front ends of two one-and-one, which left the door open for another buzzer-beater.
“They are learning how to win close ballgames,” McBrayer said. “That is a big sign for a team that has played in this many close ballgames.”
McBrayer credited the crowd of giving his team a lift. He said the spirit and the intensity from the home fans provided extra ammunition in the Trojans’ ability to win what McBrayer called a “war.”
McBrayer also credited Mosley for taking on the pressure of making a big play with little time remaining. He said Mosley, too, has come so far in his career and is a “special young man.”
Mosley said he accepted his coach putting the ball in his hands and knew he had to go strong. He admitted it was a difficult shot to make, but he said he had “100 percent” confidence in himself that he would be able to make a play. He said his teammates had the confidence in him, which enabled him to slither through a seam and absorb the contact from the help-side defender.
“Our coach believes us in 100 percent,” Mosley said. “He told us to keep fighting, keep fighting (in the second half against West Point). We ended up pulling it out. Tonight, it was the same way We were down eight in the fourth quarter, and we always find a way to pull it out in the end. … We were very confident. Like we said Tuesday, the game is not over until it hits 0.0 and the horn goes off.”
Mosley said the seniors will decide if they will break out mouthguards, like the one Derrick Sherrod had to use after a blow to the face bloodied his lip, or headbands Tuesday for their first-round home playoff games. Regardless of whether New Hope players wear fluorescent socks, mouthguards, headbands, or another piece of apparel, Mosley said the Trojans need to come out faster. If they do that, that will make their finishing punch even more potent.
“We have to fight even harder than we fought (Friday night),” Mosley said.
It’s hard to imagine two teams growing, fighting, and responding better than New Hope did Friday night. But don’t put it past either of them to do it again Monday and Tuesday.
Adam Minichino is sports editor of The Dispatch. He can be reached at [email protected].
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.