Kennedy Bradshaw’s five threes help push Demonettes over Veterans without Trinitee Thomas

WARNER ROBINS — It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but Warner Robins (7-0) got the job done against Veterans (1-5) without junior Trinitee Thomas in the lineup for most of the game.

Kennedy Bradshaw continued to light up the stat sheet in the 56-39 victory with five threes in the first half alone as the Demonettes struggled to produce consistent offense.

Most of those struggles came in the interior, which has been a shortfall for Warner Robins in recent years. Against the Lady Warhawks’ Ayonna Scott and Syniah Rankin their habits of not boxing out didn’t fly and gave Veterans a good helping of second-chance opportunities.

That’s been a subject of concern before this season, and head coach Rebecca Ivory’s message is to always go back to fundamentals.

“Boxing out does not start when the ball goes up, boxing out starts when the shooter has the ball,” Ivory said. “Rebounding I always say is 10% skill and 90% heart. You gotta have some heart and some want to.”

Bradshaw had 17 of Warner Robins’ 29 first-half points as they took a 15-point lead into the break.

The Demonettes needed someone else to help shoulder the offensive load, and both Janelle Turner and Laila Howard-Haney got going in the second half to answer the call.

“I think they just spread the ball out. We talked about some things at halftime,” Ivory said. “They stepped up…Laila and [Turner] can score on their own, they just have to have the confidence. They had more confidence in the second half.”

Howard-Haney and Turner scored 11 (13 total) and eight (12 total) second-half points respectively to maintain their cushion against a Lady ‘Hawks team that rode their top seven hard.

Veterans’ reserves are young, make mistakes and have the risk of giving up big runs like they did in the loss to Tift County. Because of that head coach Tracy Fendley kept the rotations relatively thin until later in the game.

The Lady ‘Hawks couldn’t do much more than keep the margin where it was, and the Demonettes put together enough at the end to take a 42-22 advantage into the fourth.

Veterans made one last push with a 7-0 run to open the fourth before eventually falling 56-39.

UP NEXT

Warner Robins will host Peach County to end their two-game home stint on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 6 p.m.

Veterans will host Westside-Macon at The Hanger on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 6 p.m.