BHS hosts first Little Caesars Classic

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The Baldwin High Bravettes captured the championship during the first-ever Little Caesars Classic hosted by BHS. Keith Jump

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January 3, 2012

Keith Jump The Union-Recorder The Union-Recorder Tue Jan 03, 2012, 05:05 PM EST

MILLEDGEVILLE — The Baldwin High School basketball program spent a portion of its holiday break hosting the first-ever Little Caesars Classic, which looks to be an annual event.

"We are pleased to host the Classic for the inaugural year. But we want it to be a mainstay in the community also. My son, Mark Owens, and coaches [Rechard] Larkin and [Janeen] Cooper-Bolston have worked hard to make this first year a success," said Betsy Jennings, co-owner of the Milledgeville Little Caesars along with son Mark, the sponsor of the first-ever Christmas tournament.

After two days of stiff competition, both the Baldwin Braves and Bravettes were in the championship games in the first year. Day one saw the Terrell County girls beat East Laurens 38-31, and Baldwin beat Washington by a 45-14 shellacking. In boys action East Laurens blew by Terrell County 62-47, while the home Braves jumped out to a 25-3 lead and demolished Macon County 69-39. The consolation games on day two saw the East Laurens ladies beat Washington 58-21, before the boys of Macon County beat Terrell 58-54 in a see-saw game. In the first championship game of the night, Terrell played a slow down game with the sluggish Lady Braves and took a 16-10 lead into the half. But behind some great coaching by coach Cooper-Bolston and a renewed vigor by the Bravettes, the third and fourth quarters were a totally different story. Ja'la Douglas, the tournament MVP, and Jayla Waller set the tone as they and their teammates came out clicking on all cylinders. With Douglas and Waller running the floor and knocking down shots from all angles, teammates Erica Grimsley, Anthonika Thomas, Terrian Williams and Shamirika Manson hounded the girls from Terrell into mistake after mistake and bad shot after bad shot.

Baldwin took the lead with only 1:35 to go in the third quarter at 21-20 and never looked back. From there Douglas looked like a young lady on a mission as she hit pull up jumpers, running layups and at times was sprawled across the floor in an effort to win the game. Waller was just as intense with her play, while Grimsley was tenacious as she rebounded like a 7 foot center and took foul after foul. But fouling her was part of the Terrell undoing as she hit what seemed like a bushel basket of free throw to seal the victory 41-25.

Baldwin had outscored the visitors 31-9 in the final two stanzas to walk away with the championship trophy.

"I'm very happy with the win, but I'm more proud of the way our team never gave up and fought back together to win. This was full team effort,” said Cooper-Bolston.

In the night cap the Braves never found their stride as they fell behind by 10 at the half and never caught up against East Laurens.

"We just took a whopping tonight, there is no other way to say it. We did not play our type of basketball and when you don't play your game or make adjustments this is the result," said Larkin after the game. "We have been in all our games win or lose with the exception of this one. So I know our guys will let this one go and be ready to play next time we hit the floor."

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