There are a few things which are worth remembering each Christmas season – a special gift, a family get-together, and winning the Quitman Holiday Invitational Basketball Tourney.  For a group of young Quitman athletes, taking the hometown tournament will be a memory for years to come.

The Lady Bulldogs gave their local fans some outstanding basketball as an extra gift. The team dispatched 4A Pleasant Grove and 4A Wills Point on the first day. On the second day, they defeated the Group B winning DeKalb Bears, which put the Lady Bulldogs on course for a showdown with the Gilmer Lady Buckeyes for the tourney championship. 

Quitman defeated Gilmer 37-36 in a gritty win which featured intense physical competitiveness. Two reports from the tournament action follow.

Wednesday, Dec. 27

Don’t sleep on the Quitman Lady Bulldogs. They are showing significant improvement since the beginning of the season. 

Their 49-32 win over Wills Point was a great example. The Lady Bulldogs controlled the play for long stretches against the Lady Tigers. Quitman was the more aggressive side, the better-conditioned side, and was adept at using the whole court.

Seven Lady Bulldogs etched the scorecard. Autumn Cason led the team with 13 points and Annabelle Popek joined her in double figures with 11. 

The Lady Bulldogs have made great strides in getting the ball into the post position and then playing the ball from the post to cutting wingers. Quitman generated a host of great shot opportunities, especially in the first half.

Throughout the game, the Lady Bulldogs created turnovers with a smartly-executed trapping zone defense. The defensive effort was efficient and executed without a rash of fouling.

Of particular note was the steadying effect which point guard Kaylin Sapp imparts to the team. The team clearly responded to her court awareness and calm hand in leading the offense.

Quitman methodically ran their offense against Wills Point, but they did not purposely slow down their attack. When a seam presented itself, the Lady Bulldogs pushed the ball up-court with great effectiveness. Sadie Vander Schaaf and Allie Berry most often led those charges. 

Wills Point mounted one challenge late in the first half. The Lady Tigers had closed to within seven points on the strength of some long-range shooting. 

With 1:13 left in the half, Berry took a defensive rebound and went the length of the floor, finding Sapp with a beautiful assist. Moments later Berry put in an offensive rebound and Quitman restored an 11-point lead at the half.    

Wills Point made a run midway through the third quarter, but a score by Kaylie Wood off a direct inbound pass from Vander Schaaf stole back the momentum. 

The Lady Bulldogs have melded a diverse set of basketball talent into an effective team. They should make a serious run at the district title.

Thursday, Dec. 28

Handling a determined DeKalb Bears team on Thursday morning set up a championship tip-off against the confident and capable Gilmer Lady Buckeyes. It was going to be quite a challenge, as one word described the Lady Buckeyes – physical. 

The Gilmer team took up floor space and were not easily scraped by screens, no  matter how well the screen was set. The Lady Buckeyes had good height and stout defenders.

It is an especially difficult thing to play four good teams in two days and not suffer a let-down in performance. However the Lady Bulldogs are mentally preparing themselves to play; it is working. They played loose, aggressive, tough and at times joyful basketball. 

They came out on fire. Ashley Davis opened the Quitman scoring with an offensive rebound put-back. Addison Marcee followed with a steal and score.

After forcing a 10-second violation, Autumn Cason converted a 3-point play after getting hammered on a drive. Sadie Vander Schaaf scored on a break to give Quitman a 9-2 start. Gilmer looked dazed.

The Lady Buckeyes went to a trapping forecourt which caused Quitman some trouble late in the opening quarter. Gilmer led at the break 11-9. 

The second quarter was very deliberate play by both sides. The Lady Bulldogs continued to struggle against the forecourt pressure, but as the game neared halftime, Quitman began to get behind the pressure and generate high-quality shots. 

Davis and Allie Berry offered beautiful assists for scores, as Gilmer took a one-point edge, 18-17, into halftime.    

Quitman outperformed Gilmer in every aspect of the game in the second half. It was the small actions on the court which made the difference – who made the better effort to get the loose ball, who sprinted ahead to prevent a breaking lay-up, who blocked out effectively on a missed free throw.  

Those efforts came from the whole Lady Bulldog roster.

There were two Lady Bulldogs, however, who contributed mightily in the final stages of the championship game: Vander Schaaf and Berry. 

Vander Schaaf seemed to be all over the court. She scored on a tough drive to the basket with seconds left in the third quarter to open a 4-point lead. In the fourth quarter she put a baseline drive up high off the glass for a score on a play in which the defender sent her careening out of bounds. 

Berry dominated the inside play in the last four minutes of the game. She came up again and again with key rebounds and added two critical scores from the paint. 

The championship game came down to the last 1.6 seconds of play. Gilmer inbounded the ball from half-court. As they had all evening, the Lady Bulldogs challenged the inbound pass, which was then mishandled by the Lady Buckeyes. 

It was a long 1.6 seconds. The buzzer sounded and the Lady Bulldogs were champions.