Baker 51, McGill-Toolen 42: Kriston Davis, Hornets punch ticket to Birmingham

Second-year Baker coach David Armstrong had no doubt his team could defend second-ranked McGill-Toolen on Wednesday.

Boy, was he right.

The Hornets limited the Yellow Jackets to 30 percent shooting, forced 19 turnovers and ousted McGill 51-42 in the Class 7A Southwest Regional final at Alabama State.

Baker (19-13) secured a spot in next week’s final four for the first time since 2010 and just the second time in school history.

“This game for us was huge,” Armstrong said. “We’ve only been to the semifinals once in program history. McGill is a big rival for us. We want to beat them if we are playing sticks. To beat them here and go to the final four and have the kind of crowd we had and have our principal here and my wife and family and to do it with this group is special. I couldn’t be more proud.”

Baker scored the first basket of the second half and led 31-23 before McGill (24-6) made its run. The Yellow Jackets tied the game with eight unanswered points, including a pair of 3-pointers from Jack Flynn. He finished with 18.

“We were a little bit down on ourselves at half,” McGill coach Phillip Murphy said. “I thought we settled down early in the third and tied the game, but then they took it from us. They played with a lot more energy than we did. They had a huge fan base and fueled them, and that can make a big difference.”

Armstrong took a quick timeout with the game tied at 31-31.

Leo Richards and Kriston Davis scored two quick baskets, and Baker didn’t trail again.

“My halftime speech was no third-quarter run,” Armstrong said. “That’s what McGill usually does. Every time I’ve seen them play in these games, the third quarter is when they come out and win it. We didn’t do a great job immediately out of the break, but we got a couple of quick buckets out of the timeout and settled down.”

Davis scored 15 of Baker’s final 20 points and finished with 19. He was named MVP.

“Kris and I have been together since the end of his eighth-grade year,” Armstrong said. “I saw him for the first time playing football. At the end of the game, they had (Matthew) McNeece guarding him. I think he was playing him more to shoot. I thought if we could start screening, Kriston could drive to the goal and that’s what he did.”

McGill was playing in the regional final for the fifth straight year and looking for a fourth straight trip to Birmingham.

Game ball: Davis. He was 6-of-10 from the field. He also had five rebounds and two steals. He took over when the game was in doubt in the third quarter.

The history: In addition to its 2010 state semifinal appearance, Baker also made the tournament in 1952, 1953 and 1958 when only 16 teams made the field. The Hornets lost in the first round each year.

Key sequence: After McGill tied it at 31-31 in the third quarter, Baker scored nine of the final 12 points of the period to take a 40-34 lead.

Stat sheet: Baker – Christian Bedgood had 10 points and six rebounds. McGill – McNeece had 12 points and seven rebounds. Freshman Barry Dunning finished with eight points and six rebounds but was just 3-of-13 from the field.

By the numbers: McGill was just 14-of-46 from the field (30 percent) and 5-of-18 from 3-point range. Baker was 19-of-41 (46 percent) and 4-of-13. … Baker had a 15-4 edge in bench points.

Coachspeak: “I knew we could defend them well. They had a tough time getting the ball in the post like they wanted to. We didn’t do a great job with Jack to begin with. We were better once we started face-guarding him. I thought we gave great effort defensively. We knew we could do it. We did it once before this year.” – Armstrong.

They said it:

“I’ve been dreaming of this since my freshman year. It means the world.” – Davis.

“We had been in that spot before. I just tried to put my head down and attack.” – Davis on his plan after McGill forced a third-quarter tie.

“They outplayed us from start to finish. I thought we responded well out of the lockerroom, but we didn’t sustain it. They pressured us, and it was effective. Our guys didn’t show up and execute the way they have all season. You have those days in basketball sometimes. We had that day this morning, and a lot of it has to do with Baker.” – Murphy.

“They had more energy than we did. They were climbing into us on defense almost at half court. Sometimes we wouldn’t have anyone crashing the boards, and it seemed like their whole team would be in the paint.” – McNeece.

When you are expected to win, you’ve been in the regional final five straight years and the final four three straight years, there is definitely an undue pressure and you feel it. I feel like we were definitely expected to get to Birmingham, and we expected to get there. We just didn’t, but I’m still proud of this group. We overcame some weaknesses and flaws personnel wise. The guys did a great job and had a stellar year.” – Murphy.

Next up: Baker will play Hoover in the Class 7A semifinals at 1:30 p.m. next Thursday at the BJCC.

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