Baptist Prep glides to easy victory

Baptist Prep didn’t need a high-scoring performance from junior guard Isaac McBride on Saturday against Maumelle, but the Eagles got one anyway and they used it to coast to an easy victory.

McBride scored a gamehigh 23 points, grabbed 6 rebounds and handed out 6 assists to send the hosts to a surprising 62-27 rout of the Hornets during the Martin Luther King Showcase at Steve Miller Court.

“Isaac did what he usually does for us,” Baptist Prep Coach Brian Ross said. “But as a team, I thought we played a good game. We got off to a slow start over the first eight possessions or so, but after

that, we started executing our game plan really well on offense and started playing great defense.

“So it was an overall good performance for us, especially against a good team.”

Senior guard Karson Kauffman scored 13 points and backcourt classmate Javion Collins added 11 for Baptist Prep (16-4), which hit 47 percent (21 of 45) of its shots and turned the ball over just eight times. The Class 4A defending state champions also dominated on the glass, holding a 32-18 edge, but rode McBride’s coattail on offense and a suffocating effort on defense to pick up its fifth consecutive victory.

Maumelle (10-6), which had won three games in a row in 6A/5A-4 Conference play, shot just 21 percent (9 of 42) for the game and never got in sync after the opening quarter. The Hornets led 13-6 with 1:45 left in the first quarter but were outscored 24-1 over the next seven minutes. Baptist Prep then harassed Maumelle into 2-of-15 shooting in the third quarter and benefited from a 21-0 run to turn a 33-18 halftime lead into a 56-23 advantage. McBride, Kauffman and Collins each had three-pointers during the spurt.

The Arkansas Activities Association’s sportsmanship rule was invoked during the final eight minutes, but the outcome was no longer in doubt well before then.

“We held them to one shot and didn’t give them any second-chance opportunities,” Ross said. “We wanted to slow the game down because we knew they wanted to play fast. Every time we shot, we wanted to make sure we had safeties back to limit their fast breaks.

“We were able to do that consistently and limit our turnovers as well. So this is really a confidence builder for us because we want to build momentum going into the rest of conference play and into the playoffs.”