FORT BENNING, Ga., (Jan. 21, 2015) -- The Midland Middle School Jaguars crushed the Faith Middle School Warrior Bears 45-23 in a boys' basketball game Jan. 16 at Smith Fitness Center.
In the first quarter, the teams were neck and neck until Midland's Rod Winfrey's two-pointer and Justin Richardson's 2-for-2 free-throw shots set them ahead of Faith at the end of the quarter 14-11.
Faith's plan of action going into the game was to stay focused, play a 2-1-2 zone and not let Midland drive through the lane, said Steve Chambers, Faith's head coach.
"We wanted to make sure that we focused on the shooters on the outside to make sure they weren't getting good shots," he said. "We had our offense already set. We were trying to make sure we got everything lined up ... it didn't quite work the way that we wanted it to."
Midland dominated the second quarter with an 8-point run after Faith's Javeon Henley put up their only two points, extending Midland's lead to 22-13. Since Midland was shooting more from the outside, Chambers said by halftime, Faith switched to a man-to-man offense to try and put more pressure on Midland's Rod, who had a game-high 16 points.
"But it still didn't quite work," he said.
In the third quarter, as they did before, Faith only added two points with Ramon Brown's bucket, while Midland sunk 18 more, making their lead 40-15. Ramon led Faith's scoring with a team-high seven points.
In the fourth quarter, Faith managed to get their score out of the teens by knocking down eight buckets and holding Midland to only five points, closing the game out 45-23.
Midland shot 55 percent from the free-throw line, compared to Faith's 16 percent.
"It just wasn't really our night tonight," Chambers said.
When it came to the scoring drop-off, Chambers said he believes the players got discouraged when their opponents were hitting baskets and they weren't.
"Once the ball started (to) not fall for us, they kept getting more frustrated," he said. "I tried to get them focused. By that time they were pretty much gone - that's one of the things you work with when you're working with younger children."
Chambers said for as hard as they practice, the end result is they defeated themselves more than Midland defeated them.
"We weren't necessarily outplayed (and) it wasn't that they were a better team, we were just outhustled," he said. "We just couldn't get the drive that we needed out there today. I guess some days it's like that and some days it's not."
Midland 45, Faith 23
Midland (45)
Winfrey (16), Richardson (11), Meeks (9), T. Lawson (3), Brown (2), Johnson (2), Moore (2)
Faith (23)
Brown (7), Henley (4), Ramirez (3), Robertson (3), Parker (2), Pearman (2), Scott (2)
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