By Brad Crowe
The Taylorsville Tartars basketball teams played host to familiar, local foes on Friday night, the Bay Springs Bulldogs. After being held off the hardwood for most of the week due to winter weather hazards, both squads were anxious to get back to work. When all was said and done, both visiting Bulldogs units traveled home with another mark in the win column: not only winning, but doing so in quite an impressive fashion.
The Lady Bulldogs and Lady Tartars tipped things off with a tightly-contested first quarter, ending with a 9-8 lead for Bay Springs. In the second quarter, however, the visitors broadened the gap to double digits, led by an impressive eight-point quarter by Kelsey Patterson. From there, the Lady Bulldogs never looked back. They put on an equally dominant second half performance en route to a 49-28 road victory. Three Bulldogs — Jada King, Kelsey Patterson, and Jaliyah Shelby — finished the game with double digit scoring totals.
“I think we played pretty well,” recalled Coach Neidra Hosey. “Taylorsville has some pretty good post players, so we really wanted to focus on now allowing them to score too much. I believe the strength of our team is our defense. We believe if we can keep our opponents under 50 points, we should be able to win games.”
Bay Springs’ girls are now 1-0 in district play, and they hope to carry that momentum forward as they fight for postseason positioning.
The Bay Springs boys squad, not to be outdone by their female counterparts, flexed their muscles with a sound win of their own by a final score of 92-44.
Contrary to what one would assume by seeing the final score, the game was extremely close in the first half. Up 29-26 with seconds remaining, Bay Springs’ Anthony Wheaton nailed a half-court buzzer beater to send the Bulldogs into the locker room with a two-possession lead and heads full of steam. Wheaton and his teammates fed off that momentum in the second half, leading to an awe-striking 60 points in the last two quarters of play.
“I thought we started out slow,” admitted Bulldogs Coach Corey Mackey, “but we went into halftime and talked about wanting a fast start in the third. We went in and basically started over, and the kids played very well in the second half.
The Bulldogs have high expectations to make a run in the playoffs, and they believe they are beginning to peak at just the right time. “I feel like we’re starting to hit that stride,” said Coach Mackey. “Right now we’re preparing to make that stride and make a run.” With a 14-2 overall record and a 2-0 start to region competition, the Bulldogs are well-poised for a long, promising postseason in 2018.
