Demonettes skate past Cedar Shoals to advance to Sweet 16

WARNER ROBINS — Warner Robins (23-3) had very little trouble with their first-round matchup against Cedar Shoals (16-13), taking down the Lady Jaguars 59-25 on Tuesday night to advance to the Sweet 16.

The Demonettes have the ingredients to win a state championship: Scorers, a great defense and an established culture.

The one thing another team could exploit would be their rebounding. As head coach Rebecca Ivory has said umpteen times, it’s 90% heart and 10% skill.

“When I get into them [about rebounding] I see a response on the court,” Ivory said. “It’s just a little knowledge that we just pointed out to them, and they’re making the adjustments. We didn’t box out and rebound well in the second half, but the first half we were doing the little things, we just got to remember that throughout the whole game.”

The Demonettes boxed out and found bodies when the ball was in the air in the first half. They closed out the defensive glass and got several extra opportunities on the offensive boards.

They cruised to a 12-1 lead before Cedar Shoals went on their only run of the night — an 8-2 spurt to pull them within five.

Warner Robins built up a nine-point lead before the end of the first, but a slow second quarter gave them a 26-13 advantage at the break.

Considering how the game started this wasn’t up to expectations for the Demonettes, but they adjusted at the half.

“The halftime message was win or go home. They have a choice; Either we give our all or we go home, and they made that adjustment,” Ivory said. “The third quarter is very important, [we] talk about the first four minutes being important. I think they came out the first four minutes and made that adjustment, [we] went back to our energy and what we do best.”

The Demonettes only allowed four points in the third quarter and those came in the opening minutes for the Lady Jaguars. Warner Robins still wasn’t quite as good on the glass as they were in the first half, but the offense opened up and they had their most productive quarter with 18 points.

Freshman Kaelyn Brooks, essentially the signal that the game is over, came in with over six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Roughly a minute later other bench players came in as Warner Robins’ lead grew to 30 and showed no signs of stopping.

While a decisive round one victory is certainly a good thing, Ivory will stress the importance of bringing your A-game in the state playoffs before they host tougher opponents.

“Just talking about the importance of the state playoffs, it’s win or go home,” Ivory said. “You can’t take a quarter off, you can’t take a play off…You got to give that energy the entire time.”

“We talked about the other day, one step at a time. We checked off the Sweet 16, now we’re trying to get to the Elite Eight. If you want to get there we got to fight for it, and it doesn’t start on Friday, it starts tomorrow at 3:15.”

UP NEXT

Cartersville beat Pace Academy 60-55, so Warner Robins will host them on Feb. 27 at 6 p.m to advance to the Elite Eight.