Southaven girls rout Central in basketball

Article from Commercial Appeal

It's pretty rare for a coach not to be able find a single negative following one of his team's games. But that's just how impressive the Southaven girls basketball team was Tuesday afternoon in the Turkey Shootout tournament.

The host Chargers took control of their game against Central early, building a double-digit lead in the second quarter before cruising to an 86-66 victory. With the victory, Southaven improves to 6-0 on the season.
"No, there's not a negative thing I can say about our performance," said Chargers coach David Baldwin. "We played very well. My two assistants, Jeremy Russell and Ronnie Tucker did a great job of getting us ready for this game."

Southaven returned all five starters from last year's team which finished 29-3 and lost in the Mississippi 6A state semifinals and they looked the part against the Lady Warriors (2-1).

Jasmine Joyner, who has signed with Tennessee-Chattanooga, established an inside game early and finished with 19 points. In the second half, junior guards Olivia Cunningham (23 points) and Queen Hayes (20) repeatedly beat the Lady Warriors downcourt for easy buckets in transition.



That, despite the fact that all five Southaven starters played the full 32 minutes.

"We're in good shape," said Baldwin. "Our motto is get it (the ball) out, get it up (the court) and lay it up."

Count Central coach Niki Bray among those who was very impressed by the Chargers.

"That's not a good team, that's a great team," she said. "One through five, they're very solid."

And Central's lackluster performance didn't help matters. Baylor signee Nina Davis had 21 of her team's 30 first-half points and finished with a game-high 33. But there were no other options for the Lady Warriors until near the end, when Tia Wooten got hot and sank a few buckets to finish with 12.

"We got outhustled from the opening tip and that's not the way we play," Bray said. "We didn't communicate and we were flat. This is a new team and the players have to learn that everyone is going to be giving them their best shot."