Basketball finishes 2024 in style
Published 12:00 pm Sunday, December 29, 2024
Becky Taylor/The Tifton Gazette Ashanti Dixon attempts to reel in a pass against Appling County. It was a good night for Dixon, with eight points.
Becky Taylor/The Tifton Gazette A fallaway shot was not of much extra help to Cook when presented with the much taller Cordell Nelson under the basket. Nelson had numerous blocks Saturday.
Becky Taylor/The Tifton Gazette Tift's Jalaya Miller slides for an offensive rebound, then gets the timeout in time before a Lady Pirate gets her hands on the ball.
Becky Taylor/The Tifton Gazette Jevian Wilson makes a steal and starts a second half Tift County fast break.
Becky Taylor/The Tifton Gazette Jimmya Cushion gets congratulations from Ke'nashah Mitchell after a third period free throw becomes Cushion's 1,000th point.
Becky Taylor/The Tifton Gazette Makayla Bryant jets a pass to teammate Jalaya Miller for an open three-pointer.
TIFTON — To all a good night Saturday at Tift County’s Christmas Classic — as long as the fans were cheering for Tift teams. Jimmya Cushion scored her 1,000th career point in a 60-43 victory over Appling County, while the Blue Devils crunched Cook, 48-20 in a fourth quarter shortened by the mercy rule.
Cushion’s entry into the Thousand Point Club came on a free throw with 40 seconds to go in the third quarter. She’d finished the first half with four points to be at 999, but had to wait nearly eight more minutes until she was fouled on a shot attempt under the basket.
There had been much anticipation for Cushion reaching 1,000. She was eight points away in the Lady Devils’ elite eight game against River Ridge when she injured her knee in the first half. Cushion missed all of Tift’s November games before making a surprise return to action Dec. 17 against Northside.
When Cushion reached the milestone, Tift called a timeout to honor her at halfcourt as athletic director Chris Martin announced the achievement. Cushion got a curtain call during the boys game, where her family had a chance to celebrate with her between quarters.
The Cushion free throws gave the Lady Devils a 42-29 lead, part of a tremendous frame that saw them pull away from visiting Appling.
Action was frenetic in the first half.
Paced by Keniyah White, the Lady Pirates jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first 66 seconds. Tift answered with baskets by Jalaya Miller and Ashanti Dixon, but White delivered a three-pointer at 5:37 to make it a 9-4 lead.
Two minutes later, the Lady Devils gained their first lead, Mackenzie Holliday fed by Jaziyah Johnson to go up 11-9. Erica Clemons banked in a three barely 20 seconds later for Appling, who further built the lead to 15-11 on a free throw by Shamiah Barnum.
Miller made her second trey of the period and Clemons had a put-back for Appling at 1:12 for a 17-14 score. Tift finished period with Miller scoring her 10th point on a baseline jumper and Cushion coming up with a steal and layup that circled the rim before falling through as the horn sounded on the quarter.
At 7:35 in the second, White made a triple and the Lady Bucs were back up at 20-18. The tide turned there, however.
Johnson and Miller made back-to-back threes and the Lady Devils went up 24-20 at 4:26. Appling could have potentially tied, but only made one of four from the free throw stripe. Cushion was perfect from the line to get to 999 points.
The quarter ended on a 12-3 Tift run with Mariyah Batts on a jumper and Miller finding Amaya Jordan after an offensive rebound.
As hot as Appling started the game, they began the second half equally as cold. Miller blocked a shot to open the third, then hit two shots as the lead exploded to 36-23.
White hit two shots from beyond the arc in the third period, but no one else from Baxley had any points. Cushion reached 1,001 points on free throws at the end of the frame for a 42-29 game.
Almost five minutes into the fourth, Miller spied Dixon again in the paint to push the lead to 15 at 49-34. Appling never came closer than 13 after, that coming on a steal by White at 2:40. Jazlin Martinez hit a three off a Cushion pass and Jordan worked the post three times in the final two minutes.
Miller had 19 points, all in the first three quarters, to lead the Lady Devils. A trio of players had eight points each: Cushion, Dixon and Jordan.
White had 23 of Appling County’s 43 points, with Barnum tossing in 10.
Appling has been a rare opponent for Tifton basketball teams. The last meeting between the two was possibly in 1961, when the then-Tifton High Angels met Appling in the Region 1-2A tournament.
DEVILS 48, COOK 20
For the second straight game, head coach Tommy Blackshear got to empty his bench. Tift’s starters only saw three quarters of action, building up a 45-15 lead in those 24 minutes.
Cook has struggled this season, but jumped out to a 6-3 lead at 6:33 on three-pointers from Ryan Thompson and Tucker Rountree. Tift made a slight dent with a Kaden Lawson free throw at 6:08, but there the score stayed for much of the period.
Marshall Howard posted up to tie the game at 6-6 at 1:10, which held through the end of the frame.
Nineteen seconds into the second period, J.J. Lamar drove in for an 8-6 Tift lead. It only built from there. The Blue Devils scored 13 consecutive points — eight by Lawson — before Cook came up with a Thompson free throw at 3:42. That was the sole point for the Hornets in the quarter.
Cordell Nelson came through with free throws and a turnaround jumper before Lawson added two more buckets. The 6-6 tie turned into a 27-7 advantage at the break and continued to grow after.
Held to only a point in the second, Cook’s coldness from the field lasted 16:30 before something finally fell in the third. At 3:20, the lead for Tift climbed to 30 (39-9) on a trey by Jalen White.
Rountree had two buckets to briefly stave off the mercy rule, but Quay Bell hit all four free shots over a 27-second span. The now-45-13 score was enough to withstand Rountree’s steal and dunk with eight seconds left.
Zamari Paulk had Tift’s only basket of the fourth, which was played as a six-minute quarter because of the mercy rule.
Lawson led the Blue Devils with 15 points, 12 coming in the second quarter. Lamar scored 9 points. Thompson scored 10 and Rountree had 9 for Cook, accounting for all but one of the Hornets’ final score.
Next up for Tift is its Region 1-6A openers, scheduled for Jan. 4, 2025 against Lowndes.
