The Lady Gators did what Baker athletes do best, they fought hard and tried to make a game of it. The effort was one Baker coach Chelsea Medley praised. Baker’s effort couldn’t overcome the talent gap as Jay won 53-28.

“It’s just like I told them at the end of the game, Medley said, “I’m very proud of the effort. I’m very proud of the no-quit attitude. We know how good Jay is. They are a great ball team.

The fact that the ball wouldn’t fall for us in the first half made the climb a little steeper. I told them, ‘Don’t let the scoreboard to start the second half deter you from having good effort.’ They did just what I asked of them and went out and played hard no matter what the scoreboard said, and you can’t ask for any more than that.”

For those into moral victories, the Lady Gators outscored Jay 20-19 in the second half.

Jay jumped to a 6-0 lead to start the game with Hattie Locklin scoring all six points.

Jay led 14-4 at the end of the first quarter with McKenzie McGraw and Karsyn Crinklaw scoring for the Lady Gators.

Jay scored 20 points in the second quarter and Baker again settled for four points on a 3-point goal by Lily Adams and free throw by Katrina Price.

McGraw scored six points in the third quarter as Baker didn’t give any ground to the Lady Royals. Jay needed to increase the lead by just nine points at the start of the third quarter to initiate the running clock with a 35-point lead, but it never happened.

The largest lead of the game came at 43-12, but Adams’ 3-pointer followed by a basket from McGraw closed the Jay lead to 26 points and Baker was able to play the full four quarters.

McGraw led Baker with nine points. Adams scored six points for Baker.   

Led by Aiyana Dixon’s 13 points, the Lady Hoboes had three players in double figures. Laramie Boykin was deadly from the outside hitting four 3-point baskets for 12 points. Lakyn Varnum added 10 points, hitting a pair of 3-pointers.

“I want to tip my hat to the Baker Gators,” Laurel Hill coach Carl Henry said. “They fought really hard, and I was very impressed with what I saw from the lady Gators tonight.”

Baker’s McKenzie McGraw led all scorers with a game-high 16 points. Katrina Price added 10 points. Lily Adams and Bailey Johnson were the only other Lady Gators to score. Adams had eight points and Bailey seven.

The difference in the game could be summed up in made 3-pointers and missed Baker free throws.

Laurel Hill hit eight shots from behind the arch for 24 of its 50 points. Baker only hit three long shots for nine points.

“I tell them you have to take them to make them,” Henry said of the 3-point explosion. If they are open, I tell them to take them, and they were falling tonight.”

Baker shot 17 free throws to five shot by Laurel Hill, but the Lady Gators missed 11 of the shots from the stripe.

The Lady Hoboes hit the floor full speed ahead from 3-point range hitting four in the first quarter. Varnum hit two from long range, Boykin one and Jalion Smiley one. Dixon added a score from inside the paint giving Laurel Hill 14 points in the first quarter.

Baker matched Laurel Hill’s 14 points with a 3-pointer from Adams, four points in the paint from Price and five points from McGraw.

The teams continued to battle closely in the second quarter with the visitors holding a 9-7 advantage to take a 23-21 lead into the intermission.

McGraw scored six quick points, and Price added a basket, in the first two minutes and 15 seconds of the second half as Baker took a 31-27 lead. A basket by Adams with 4:21 left in the quarter would maintain the lead at four points, but it would be the last basket of the quarter for the Lady Gators.

Dixon scored on the inside and Varnum added a basket to tie the game at 31 all with 3:02 left in the third quarter. Boykin continued her hot shooting from outside connecting on a pair of 3-points in the final two minutes of the quarter to give Laurel Hill the lead once and for all.

Baker pulled to within a point at 37-36 on a 3-pointer by Adams before the Lady Hoboes closed out the win with a 13-5 run.

Baker coach Chelsea Medley said missed free throws weren’t the only problem for the Lady Gators.

“It’s not just the missed opportunities at the charity stripe,” she said, “but we missed chip shots, especially in the first half. I think we did a great job with our defensive scheme.

“The first half we gave up only three offensive rebounds, but in the second half it fell through. I think we gave up 10 offensive boards. If you’re not getting offensive boards and not hitting your free throws it’s going to be tough to win.”

Crestview managed just 16 points in the first half. And if not for the play of Lazarius Parks it might have been less. Parks came off the bench to score six in the half as Crestview trailed 29-16 at the half.

The Bulldogs managed just five points in the first quarter on a 3-point basket by Braylon Phillips and a score by Parks. Fortunately for the Bulldogs the Panthers only managed 10 points in the opening period and Crestview was still within striking distance.

That distance grew greater when the Panthers outscored Crestview 19-11 in the second quarter.

Makhi Jones, Crestview’s leading scorer, was blanked in the first half and was silent much of the third quarter as the Panthers used a swarming defense to control the CHS star.

Even as Jones continued to struggle the Bulldogs turned up the defensive heat to start the third quarter and quickly erased the Panther lead.

A.J. Johnson led the Bulldog charge hitting a 3-point basket that was followed by a 3-point play. Josiah Klauser scored for Crestview to finish off the 8-point run to start the second half.

Crestview’s scoring streak was broken when Milton’s David Aboya scored.

Another three by Johnson was followed by a 3-pointer from Lorenzo Blackwell to cut the Milton lead to 31-30.

Sergio Robinson hit a free throw for the Panthers to make it 32-30.

Klauser scored for the Bulldogs to tie the game 32-32 with 4:05 left in the third quarter.

“he third quarter is kind of how I expect us to play all the time and whatever reason we’re being aggressive and making shots,” Bulldog coach Greg Watson said. “We cut a 13-point lead to nothing just like that. You know we were tough during that time period.

Milton rolled of six straight points to push the lead back to 38-32.

Jones finally scored for Crestview with 2:11 left in the third quarter. And while Jones finished with a  team-high 11 points in the final 10 minutes of the game it was too little too late.

Watson said the Panthers played some box and one defense to contain Jones.

“But we’ve got to do some stuff that will hopefully get him more open,”” Watson said. “I’m surprised more teams haven’t done it (that defense).”

The Panthers maintained a lead of between six and eight points the rest of the way for the win.

Greg Watson said there were several areas in which the Bulldogs failed to execute.

“We didn’t get back in transition,” he said. “We missed a ton of layups you’ve got to make in games like this and that’s why you lose.

“It’s a competitive game against the team that’s 15-2, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to win that game.”

When the final horn sounded after 40 minutes of play the visitors headed south with a 63-62 win.

The game seemed to take on a nature of odds and evens during regulation. The Bulldogs won the first and third quarters and the Eagles took the second and fourth periods.

Most importantly, Niceville took the second overtime period by a point.

Bulldog coach Greg Watson was frustrated by the loss, but he said he would rather lose a tight game than get blown out.

“It’s good to play close games because hopefully, at the end of the season, you’re playing in a bunch of close games. It’s good to play in those games and they’re more fun, but you got to make more plays at the end than we did it tonight.

“I don’t, I don’t think we were tough enough and we didn’t make the tough plays. Obviously free throws are the big thing that stands out. But defensively I didn’t feel like we were very tough in the two overtimes.”

Watson honored senior Micah Jones with a commemorative basketball celebrating Jones reaching 1,00 points scoring in his career.

Jones continued to add to that total with a game-high 31 points against the Eagles.

The Bulldogs doubled up on Niceville in the first quarter taking a 12-6 lead into the first break between quarter. Josiah Klauser, who finished the game with 12 points, scored six for Crestview in the period. Jones had four points and Jacob Moulton two points.

When the teams returned to the floor to start the second quarter, the fickle lady momentum switched sides to Niceville. The Eagles outscored Crestview 24-11 in the second quarter to move in front 30-23 at the half.

Jones scored seven points for the Bulldogs in the second quarter. Braylon Phillips added a basket and Brayden Hall scored his only goal of the game for the Bulldogs.

Jones continued to heat up in the third quarter scoring nine points to reach 20 for the game. But it was Lorenzo Blackwell who had the hottest hand for Crestview scoring 10 points in the quarter.

Klauser hit a basket and Michael Foley scored for Crestview as the horn sounded ending the period with Crestview up 46-42.

Foley’s basket would be the last for the Bulldogs for more than six minutes.

By the time Phillips scored Crestview’s next basket with 1:47 left in the fourth quarter the Eagles had scored nine straight points.

The basket by Phillips was followed by a Klauser score.

The Eagles hit one-of-two free throws and Jones sank two for Crestview as the game was tied 52-52 as the clock hit zero in regulation.

Late in the fourth quarter Blackwell was driving to the basket when a Niceville player seemed to contact him and preventing him from getting a shot off. Instead of a foul, the official nearest the play called a jump ball with the possession going to Niceville.

Photos showed the Niceville player grabbing Blackwell’s arm, but in the sequence leading up to the contact the shots also show the Niceville player contacting the ball. The official had to make the call in a fraction of a second without the benefit of a high-speed camera shooting seven frames a second.

The teams continued to trade baskets in the first overtime and into the second overtime.

Each team scored just two points in the first overtime with Jones hitting a pair of free throws for Crestview and Jackson Kowal for Niceville with the game tied at 54-54.

Anwar Coley, who was the second leading scorer for the Eagles with 15 points, scored four in the second overtime period.

Jones scored six points in the second overtime to finish off his strong performance.

A free throw by Niceville’s Fred Libby with 16 seconds left in the second overtime turned out to be the difference.

But even then the Bulldogs still had a chance to tie or win the game. But the missed free throws Watson spoke of were the difference.

The Bulldogs missed eight free throws on the night. Four of those misses game in the fourth quarter and the overtime periods. The final two misses came with two seconds left in double overtime to give Niceville the win.

Jackson led the Baker attack with 20 points and Prows added 17.

If not for Baker coach Brent Zessin’s already shinny dome, Thursday’s game is the kind that might have made his hair fall out.

“I pulled my hair out a long time ago,” the veteran coach joked.

What was no joking matter is the way the Gators fought through adversity and found a way to get the job done.

“I’m really pleased with the leadership from our seniors,” Zessin said. “Their senior leadership really paid off. We made some bad decisions on passing and turning the ball over. And we missed some shots early.

“We just kept digging, digging and digging and it paid off,” Zessin added.

PCA led 10-7 at the end of the first quarter. Levi Hunter and Stephen McCosker each had baskets and Prows scored three points on an old fashioned 3-point play of a made basket and free throw.

Prows hit a 3-pointer early in the second quarter to tie the game at 10-10.

The Warriors took a 13-10 lead early in the second quarter when Adrian Acost hit a 3-pointer, his only basket of the game.

PCA stretched the lead to 22-13 late in the half before Jackson scored five points to cut the Warrior advantage to 22-18. James Washington’s only basket of the game for PCA came at the buzzer, ending the half and giving the Warriors a 24-18 lead.

At times it seemed as if the Newton’s third law of motion, “For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction,” was ruling the game.

The action of a Warrior run resulted in the equal and opposite reaction of a run by the Gators.

A pair of 3-pointers by Jackson and basket by McCosker early in the third quarter gave Baker a 26-25 lead. The lead lasted all of 30 seconds before PCA regained the advantage.

The Warriors eventually pushed their advantage back to nine points at 45-36 and again at 48-39 with 6:27 left in the fourth quarter.

This time the Gators responded with a stronger reaction down the stretch. Baker outscored the Warriors 17-6 in the final six minutes of the game.

Jackson, Hunter, McCosker and Prows scored.

A 3-point basket by Noah Cobb with 3:05 left in the game put Baker in front 51-50 as the two teams traded baskets down the stretch.

Prows had seven points in the fourth quarter and Jackson had six points.

Not to be overlooked in the scorebook are the four points scored by Colton Stidham who was playing in his first game since suffering a wrist injury several weeks ago.

Navarre beat Crestview 48-30 on Dec. 15.

The 2024 rematch belonged to Crestview thanks in large part to a Wonder Woman type effort from sophomore Natalie Toney.

Toney put the Lady Bulldogs on her shoulders in the third quarters scoring 18 of Crestview’s 21 points. The Lady Bulldogs stretched an 18-14 halftime-lead to 39-21. Toney finished the game with 27 points.

Navarre regrouped in the fourth quarter outscoring Crestview 14-6. But for all practical purposes Toney and the Lady Bulldogs landed the knockout punch with the surge in the third quarter.

“Navarre was one of those teams that beat us early on,” Crestview coach Connor Williams said. “They beat us by 18 over at their place, but this was our sixth win in a row.

“We have kind of gone back and forth about who’s the go-to (scorer) the last six games, Natalie or Madyson Boydstun. Yesterday they both had 17 points. Tonight it just happened to be Natalie.”

Playing their second game back since the Christmas break, the Lady Bulldogs got off to a slow start. Fortunately for Crestview, Navarre wasn’t much better. The Lady Raiders led 9-7 at the end of the first quarter.

Kennedy Baluran paced Crestview in the first quarter scoring all five of her points in the game. Karma Rhodes scored the other CHS basket.

Trista Wolk, who led Navarre with 17 points, scored five for the Lady Raiders in the first period.

Back-to-back baskets by Toney early in the second quarter gave Crestview a lead it wouldn’t surrender. The second of Toney’s baskets came after Baluran stole the ball.

A 3-pointer by Boydstun, a pair of free throws by Toney and two more free throws by Madyson Hankerson finished off Crestview’s first-half scoring.

Toney Show was off and running in the third quarter with her 18 points. Rhodes scored the other three points for Crestview.

Just as quickly as Toney and the Lady Bulldogs exploded in the third quarter, their shots fell short in the fourth quarter. Toney scored three points and Boydstun hit a 3-pointer, but that was all the offense Crestview generated.

The Lady Bulldogs were able to control the ball just enough and come up with the needed defensive stops down the stretch to secure the win.

“We’re kind of hitting our stride at the right time,” Williams said. “But we still have a long way to go. I mean, you can score 21 in a quarter, but then the next quarter you score six. You got to find a little bit of consistency.”