Lady Patriots Win Championship On Memorable Road Trip

GULF SHORES- The Bob Jones girls basketball team recently experienced a road-trip to remember making its way to Gulf Shores, playing in and winning the Gulf Shores Thanksgiving Bash held at Gulf Shores High.

“All of our players played and contributed and I am very grateful to our support system consisting of assistant coaches and parents,” said Jazmine Powers head coach.

After playing games three of four previous nights of the tournament and then leaving for Gulf Shores at 7:00 a.m. the opening day of tournament action, which included a 5:30 p.m. tip-off for its opening game, the Lady Patriots swept all three tournament games to take the championship tournament trophy.

In the opener, Bob Jones defeated Foley 49-36 behind the 17 points and 8 rebounds by sophomore Janiyah Bone and fellow sophomore Jordyn Fields’ 13 points. In game two against the host Gulf Shores, Bone, who is considered one of the top players on the Patriots’ squad, went down and out early in the contest with an ankle injury and would eventually miss the championship game. Senior Emariah Grant poured in 19 points to lead the Pats to a 53-42 advancing the squad to the finals against a very talented team from Tupelo, Miss.

“Tupelo was the best team I’ve seen in a while and we played hard and stuck to our game plan of limiting them to one shot and made them score over the top of us,” said Powers, in her third season as the Patriots’ head coach. “We were aggressive offensively and our defense played an extraordinary game.”

Sophomore guard Alana Obianozie topped the Patriots with 21 points followed by Grant with 12 and junior Jada Burks who added 7 points and 7 steals in a 47-41 victory. With the trophy winning effort Bob Jones remains undefeated at 8-0 on the season, but the trip to Gulf Shores with championship caliber play was only the tip of the adversity the squad was faced with during its trip to the sunny shores of Alabama on the Gulf Coast.

On the day of the title game with a scheduled 7:30 p.m. tip-off, the Patriots had to check out of their beach-house at 11:00 a.m. and spent the next eight hours in an attempt to pass the time away awaiting the contest. The girls went to a movie, spent a lot of time sitting on the bleachers within the gymnasium and in their cars. Powers added, “We went through a lot of adversities that final day and we showed a lot of toughness by going through that day and winning the tournament that night. I’m extremely proud of our team.”

The tournament schedule was a Saturday, Monday and Tuesday with Sunday a day off. The Lady Patriots had a wonderful and rewarding day of leisure on that Sunday in which they visited the white sands of the beach, played flag football and had numerous team-building activities.

“We had a lot of games over a one week amount of time and add the traveling aspect, it was really a road trip to remember,” said Powers.