ELLISTOWN | It was a hard-fought battle from the beginning, but Baldwyn’s Lady Cats came out victorious over East Union on Saturday.
Jada Shinault put the Lady Cats on the board first with a three-point shot. The Lady Urchins tied it, but Baldwyn reeled off two more scores to take a 7-3 lead. With the Lady Urchins threatening again the Lady Cats again built a four-point lead, spurred by another trey by Shinault. East Union responded likewise, again pulling to within one. Baldwyn put together it’s third 4-0 run of the period to end it, taking a 14-9 lead into the second quarter.
Baldwyn led by as much as eight in a very low-scoring second quarter for both teams. With three minutes to go the Lady Cats’ lead was cut to seven, 18-11, follow an East Union free throw. Sommer Tyes helped put Baldwyn up by nine with just over two minutes to go, but East Union started showing some life, dropping a three-point shot and then scoring off a turnover with 1:18 to go in the half to cut Baldwyn’s lead back to four, 20-16. Baldwyn was unable to capitalize on its scoring chances the rest of the way, and East Union dropped another three a second before the buzzer to make it a one-point game, 20-19, at the half.
East Union took its first lead of the game at the top of the quarter, pulling ahead by three. Shinault struck back with two more three-pointers to reclaim the lead for the Lady Cats. Baldwyn stepped up its aggressive attack, forcing a turnover and then getting another basket and free throw by Shinault to put Baldwyn back ahead by six, 29-23. East Union broke Baldwyn’s 10-0 run, but the Lady Cats answered immediately with a 7-0 run to go back up by 11, 36-25, with 3:30 to go in the period. Baldwyn’s Kristian Hill extended the run about two minutes later with a basket underneath, but East Union broke the run with trey to pull back within 10, 38-28, with just over a minute remaining in the period. The teams traded score the rest of the way, with Kinya Anderson padding Baldwyn’s lead on a last-second jump shot to carry a 42-30 lead into the fourth quarter. The Lady Urchins briefly cut the Lady Cat lead to nine to open the fourth quarter but Baldwyn built another double-digit lead, as much as 14 points, 48-34, with just under four minutes to go. The double-digit lead was only breached once, with less than a minute to go, but Baldwyn tacked on two more points before the buzzer to leave Ellistown with a hard-fought 54-44 win.
