By Brandon Shields
Managing editor
University School of Jackson’s girls’ basketball team continued its winning ways on Friday night, defeating Silverdale Baptist Academy 55-45 at home.
The game was in the Division II-A quarterfinals, and it was their 16th win in a row.
The win put the Lady Bruins in the state semifinals, which will be played Friday at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville.
“We knew Silverdale would be a good team that would give us a great game and really test us,” said USJ head coach Joel Ayers. “And that’s why this win is so big for us.
“We needed a lot of different players step up and make some big plays, and we got that from different people at different times in different ways.”
The celebration that ensued was a memorable one.
It was Toga Night for the student section, and they had an impromptu toga party with the Lady Bruin players on the court in the immediate moments after the game.
The team’s lone senior, Ava Barham, got to cut down the net after winning the final game she got to play at home.
And for the second week in a row, the team would have to wait an extended time for its next game after playing through a flurry of games in the final weeks of the season after January’s snow storm shut local roads and most games scheduled for more than a week, postponing those games to get four weeks of games in three weeks’ time.
“You know, I’m not the biggest fan of having to wait a week before playing our next game,” Ayers said. “But everybody played tonight, and everybody is waiting until next week, so we’re all in the same boat.
“We did OK this week after waiting six days since our previous game, so hopefully this break won’t have any negative effects on any of us.”
USJ is now preparing for the state semifinals.
They’ll travel to Cookeville to play at Tennessee Tech against Christian Academy of Knoxville. The winner of that game will have about 24 hours before the championship game, Saturday at 4 p.m. against the winner of Goodpasture and King’s Academy.
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
