Blue Devils find late antidote to Hornets’ sting

Published 9:00 am Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Correction: Chavious Hobbs’ surname was misspelled in the original version of this article.

TIFTON — Both results of Tuesday, Jan. 17th’s Tift County-Cook basketball games were expected. The scores, however, might not have been.

Whereas the Lady Devils waltzed to a 65-12 win, a group of Hornets that Tommy Blackshear said were much improved, held a lead until 43 seconds remained. Christian Jones scored a go-ahead basket in the paint and Tift ultimately triumphed, 62-59.

Simply stated, Cook was on fire in the 1st half, especially in the 2nd quarter. During those eight minutes, the Hornets ran up 26 points to Tift’s 19, taking a 40-32 lead at the break.

“They shot lights out,” said Blackshear, whose squad won their 12th of the year. Only after halftime adjustments did Tift finally cool them off.

However, Keshun McKever did score the opening basket of the 3rd for Cook’s biggest lead at 42-32. The Devils had some digging to do and while they did not shoot their best, they stanched the Hornets enough to slowly but continually make progress.

Tift played the final half without Tyler Parker and McKyler Horne, both sitting with ice on their knees. That changed the offense and the main target became Jones.

After McKever’s basket, Jones had all the offense in a 7-2 run. Cook went back up nine, but here came Ty’Quan Mills and Will Clark with five points. At quarter’s end, the deficit was now quite reasonable, 50-47.

The challenge of the 4th quarter was whether Tift had enough time to catch Cook. A hurdle appeared when Henry Gebhart fouled out at 4:52. Three regulars were now seated.

The Blue Devils were down a point at the time of Gebhart’s departure. Cook soon built it back to five points, 57-52, on a bucket by Chavious Hobbs at 3:09.

The tide began turning on a Mills basket. Davis Byrnes scored on an offensive rebound at 2:36. The lead was down to 57-56.

With 43 seconds left, Clark spied Jones down low and the big man made the shot. Cook called timeout with 27 seconds to go. To their chagrin, Clark picked off the inbounds pass.

A few fouls later, Kobe Farrie went to the stripe and made both ends of a 1-and-1 to go ahead 60-57.

The Hornets made a free throw, then Tift. With three seconds left, the Devils decided to play odds and send Cook to the line for a 1-and-1 chance instead of risking a 3.

Cook missed but got an offensive rebound. They were fouled again with two seconds left. Ny’Shawn Wallace made the first and attempted to set up a rebound chance by intentionally missing the second. Fortunately, he completely missed the iron, an automatic turnover.

Clark hit a free throw with nine-tenths of a second remaining. Cook was unable to fire a shot before the horn sounded, allowing for a nervous win.

The Hornets were handled easily in Adel at the beginning of the season, but came in fearless.

Tift was ahead 7-5 when Cook rattled off nine consecutive points. Clark and Mills rallied to 14-13 and things were further looking up when Mills and Byrnes blocked consecutive shot attempts to end the quarter.

The 2nd quarter, though, was one of the hottest anyone had ever seen. Shooting at a very high percentage, the Hornets landed five 3-pointers, two by Reshauld Tippins.

Tift kept pace for for 5:30, Clark’s free throws pulling to 28-26. But over the last 2:15, the Hornets scored 12 points, three baskets coming from behind the arc.

Farrie and Clark scored 14 apiece. Jones added 12 points — 10 in the 2nd half — and Mills contributed 11.

Hobbs scored 21 points for Cook. Wallace added 14 points, with Tippins at 13. Twelve of Tippins’ points were in the 1st half.

LADY DEVILS 65, COOK 12

Janie Ragsdale suited up Tuesday, playing her first game since the 2020-21 season. Ragsdale entered in the 2nd quarter and scored 6 points in the 2nd half.

Cook was overmatched from the opening tip. Controlling it, Jimmya Cushion fired a pass to the corner to a wide open O’ashia Cushion. Five seconds into the game, it was 3-0.

And thus the lead built.

Tift had 11 points in two minutes, 20 points in less than five minutes. In that span, O’ashia Cushion had three buckets from behind the arc and Jimmya Cushion had six points.

Though down quickly, the 1st quarter was Cook’s most productive. Ny’Jyah Thomas scored their first basket, a 3-pointer and Alexis Banks hit two jumpers.

The Lady Devils were ahead 26-7 at the end of the 1st.

Jamaria Washington led off the 2nd with Cook points, which became their only shot fro the field until a minute to go in the 3rd.

Ragsdale picked up two fouls, but looked like her old self under the basket, rebounding, interrupting shots and firing laser-precision outlet passes to teammates.

Jimeylah Cushion had a personal 6-0 run in the late stages of the quarter. Those six points, scored in less than a minute, would be more than Cook’s entire output over the last 20 minutes of the game.

The lead was 45-10 at intermission. Cook went 12 minutes without any points, until a steal by Thomas with 58 seconds remaining.

In the 3rd, Ragsdale scored here first points since the 2021 state tournament and Jimeylah Cushion scored four points.

A shortened 4th quarter saw Tift outscore Cook 5-0.

Three Lady Devils personally outscored Cook. O’ashia Cushion notched 15 points. Jimmya Cushion scored 14 and Jimeylah Cushion had 13. Faith Hillmon and Ragsdale had 6 points apiece.

Banks and Thomas scored 5 points each for Cook. Washington had the other 2 points.

Tift will play once more this week, Jan. 20, at Houston County. Two more will be on the road next week before they return home Jan. 31 to face Veterans.