Baptist Prep gets going late against Robinson

Issac McBride and the Baptist Prep Eagles warmed up in the second half of Thursday’s 69-42 victory over Joe T. Robinson in Little Rock.

McBride, a 6-1 junior guard, scored 10 of his game-high 21 points in the third quarter as the Eagles (12-4, 7-0) turned a 10-point halftime lead into a 54-30 advantage heading into the final eight minutes of the 4A/3A-9 Conference game.

“Our guys played really smart and we were really patient,” Baptist Prep Coach Brian Ross said. “Eventually it started to wear [Robinson] down a little bit. We started to figure out where the holes were.”

McBride hit 2 of 6 three-pointers and added a couple of free throws to finish with 8 first-half points. He was 5 of 6 from the floor in the second half.

After going 9 of 21 from the floor in the first half, Baptist Prep hit 10 of 16 shots in the third quarter. The Eagles finished 25 of 48 shooting, while the Senators were 17 of 41.

For the first 13 minutes, the game looked nothing like the eventual blowout. The two teams exchanged leads five times in the first quarter and Robinson (6-8, 3-2) was within 22-19 with 2:31 left in the half.

But when McBride hit a three-pointer from the left elbow with 2:14 to play, it started an 8-1 output by the Eagles to end the quarter. McBride also had five rebounds and three steals.

“We had a really good game plan for McBride and for the other shooters that they have,” Robinson Coach Anwar Hardin said. “But we got taken out of that game plan when we got into foul trouble.”

Junior Xavier McGraw picked up three fouls in the first quarter, severely limiting the Senators against McBride.

“Offensively, with our best scorers on the bench, it was really tough to score,” Hardin said. “Defensively, I thought we still played well for the rest of the half, but we couldn’t do anything on the offensive end. … They are too good for us to overcome that. We don’t have enough bullets in the gun for that.”

Baptist Prep made 15 steals, 11 of them coming in the second and third quarters. Senior Javion Collins collected five steals.

“Collins and Daniel Cobb both have quick hands and good anticipation skills,” Ross said. “We’ve been able to use our speed a little bit more to turn the games around this year.”

Sophomore Brooks Spoon scored eight points in the second quarter and finished with 17. Senior James Singleton put in 10 points.

Robinson junior center Elliott Harris led his team with nine points. Porter led the Senators in rebounding with seven.