| Times Sports Correspondent
CHIPPEWA TWP. — Quaker Valley girls’ basketball coach Tom Demko could only hope all of his players took instruction as well as senior Baly Garbee.
“I told Bailey that she needed to shoot more and score more,” Demko said after a 63-51 win at Blackhawk that evened both team’s records at 1-1. “This game, she came out of her shell.”
Garbee came out of that shell in spectacular fashion, scoring 32 on a consistent basis – 16 in each half.
“It didn’t feel like 30 points at all,” said Garbee. “This was just a huge game for us, especially coming to play a team as good as Blackhawk and winning.
“This will give us momentum going forward.”
Garbee was providing momentum from the outset. She scored the game’s first point and, when she hit her only three-pointer of the game early in the second quarter, she put the Quakers ahead 19-17.
They never trailed again, although Blackhawk did come back to tie the score at 23-23 with 2:13 left – then the senior took charge again.
She started and finished an 8-point Quaker Valley run over the rest of the half that forced Blackhawk to play catchup all second half. The Cougars also adjusted their defense after intermission to watch Garbee closely – there was definitely no social distancing – but the Quakers kept pace.
“Usually, their pace gets to us here,” said Garbee. “But this time we held on. I definitely didn’t see any social distancing and there is definitely a learning curve to play with this mask on.”
Demko was certainly not upset about any effects of the new COVID-19 rules, though. His team responded well to their first game back.
“We played once before the shutdown and this was our first game back,” said Demko. “We had time to prepare for this game.
“Coming to Blackhawk and winning is huge. Every year they have a solid, well-coached team and to come here and play well – we got some fast break points and made our free throws. We might have had our highest scoring quarter in the three years I’ve been here in the second quarter.
“We’re long and athletic and can turn defense into offense and we did that this game. Bailey is an amazing talent and got us going both defensively and offensively.”
In addition to Garbee’s 32 points, the Quakers also got 13 points from senior Corinne Washington. On the other side, Blackhawk also may have found a new weapon as sophomore Kassie Potts led the way with 20 points – 16 in the final frame. The Cougars also got 10 points from senior Jolie Strati.
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