MATTHEW BROWN: Respect the game

Published 11:15 am Friday, March 14, 2025

It’s been a week now to accept the fact that we did not get to see a repeat performance of a state championship in girls high school basketball. Note the irony, though, that Hardaway High, whom Baldwin High’s girls defeated one year ago to win the AAAA classification, prevailed this year in that same class while the Baldwin girls moved down to AAA.

Give all the credit to Cherokee Bluff, a school not quite a decade old in the growing community of Flowery Branch in Hall County. This team played better when it counted on the Macon Coliseum floor, and as head coach Kizzi Walker of Baldwin pointed out afterwards, it was their first time making it that far in the playoffs. The setting was not too big for them after all.

The hungry team came out on top.

What I want to do now is share some more post-game comments made from Walker in the Coliseum corridors. There was disappointment and pride expressed, the latter being for making a third straight trip to the finals. The disappointment was in the play that resulted in the 62-55 loss.

“We did not give what we should have given,” said Walker. “I don’t think the maturity level was there for them to understand that you have to play hard each and every play. We didn’t take care of the ball (20 turnovers), started being lax with it. We were not doing the things that got us here. When you don’t do the things that got you here … you are going to fail.”

The coach also used the word “relaxed.”

“This is the state championship game,” she said. “You cannot relax. You have to give your all at all times.”

What was missing was the Madison Ruff factor. With her as a senior guard anchoring the play of then juniors Janaye Walker and Kassidy Neal up front, Baldwin did it all in 2024 with a region and state championship. Ruff just completed the regular season at Division I Mount St. Mary’s as a freshman guard, and her team played in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Janaye and Kassidy are seniors now with eerily similar averages in points (16), assists (3) and steals (3) per game. Janaye had more than double as many rebounds.

“We’re used to rebuilding and coming back,” said Coach Walker, who will still be strong in the front court with rising junior Suri Clark. “Don’t count us out just yet. We are still going to be working and are still going to get here again. Don’t know when, but we are.”

What else was missing last week? Moments like this from last year’s championship story, also involving seniors: The substitute for the center, Morgan Ruff, got a little innovative, not to mention lucky with a miracle save under her basket. The ball went to JaMya Easley for 2. Following a takeaway, Morgan did an inbound pass off the back of a Hawk. Nobody was there to stop her from catching and taking her own shot for her only points of the game.

Remember that Baldwin was down to Hardaway by 16 in the third quarter of that contest. They had a 10-point first-half lead on Cherokee Bluff and a nine-point lead at the start of the second half. But they never led in the fourth quarter with eight being the largest deficit.

“They were always going after it … always trying to win,” said the coach about other playoff games this season that were quite competitive. “It’s like they gave up. They folded. They looked at the scoreboard and thought it’s over. They stopped playing hard. After your mind is gone, the body follows.”

Walker knew the rebounding numbers would be there, almost double that of Cherokee Bluff 49 to 25. But she said there was no execution and no stops on defense.

“It was us who had to stop them,” she said. “If you are playing defense, you are going to get the stops. We knew (the guards who combined to shoot 14-for-32 from the floor) were going to go off. But it was like, ‘Y’all go ahead and score.’

“I told them you cannot disrespect the game of basketball.”

As an example, she saw times where the players late in the game were not even looking towards the bench for instructions.

“We are going to have to learn to maneuver without our bigs,” Walker said about the offseason motivation this loss brought. “We’ll be guard heavy. I’m still looking forward to Baldwin basketball.

“I tell them you have to watch the game of basketball. You can’t just come out here, practice and play. You have to watch the game to see how it unfolds. Things you need to do when you need to do them.”

To not do so, again she used the word ‘disrespect.’ She said her daughter Janaye and Kassidy live and breathe basketball, always played on high level club programs against high level talent. She wants guards like Trinia Lawrence and Zuri Grant to pick up those habits.

Now we will see what they do with this experience.

(If at all possible, give pet adoption a try through the Animal Rescue Foundation in Milledgeville. Donations of any kind are also in great need. ARF is the little red building at 711 S. Wilkinson St., and more information is available at animalrescuefoundation.org.)