The Demons from Warner Robins High School made the trip up to Milledgeville Tuesday night to face the Baldwin Braves on the basketball court. Although they looked overmatched through stretches of the game, the Baldwin boys were competitive all night long but fell by a final of 66-62.

“I thought we had some guys that didn’t show up to play tonight and weren’t focused,” BHS head coach Buck Harris said after the loss. “We had shoot around today and I got on to them about not being focused at the free throw line, and it came back to bite us.”

The Braves did struggle heavily from the line early in the second half, but turned things around later to finish a more respectable 16-29 on free throws.

Baldwin controlled the opening tip but that possession would not last long. A Warner Robins player stole the ball and slammed it home with a thunderous two-handed dunk for the game’s first points. The Demons enjoyed a comfortable seven-point lead after the opening quarter.

Two players who did not fail to show up for the Braves Tuesday night were junior Brendan Robertson and sophomore Donte Justice who each finished with 17 points. Robertson did most of his work early on by fearlessly taking the ball to the lane against the Demon defense despite being outsized. A jumper from the junior late in the second quarter helped lessen the Warner Robins lead to just six points at the break.

Robertson came out of halftime and sparked things for his team by scoring five straight points. Warner Robins always seemed to have an answer anytime the Braves would go on a run though. Made three-pointers and offensive putbacks in the lane stemmed the tide each time Baldwin would try and seize momentum. Thanks in part to aggressive play by Justice and a 3-pointer from Tim Jones late in the period, the home team had chipped the lead down to just three points after three quarters.

The final quarter looked very much the same as the first three with the Braves trying to get the Warner Robins lead down and the Demons having an answer each time. Justice unofficially scored 10 of the team’s 20 points in the fourth but it wasn’t enough as the visitors were able to close out the victory from the free throw line.

“I thought we competed hard and I thought we played hard, but when you’re small and you don’t have any size you need every guy – you count on every guy to come in and give you something,” Coach Harris said. “Whenever we lose a game that’s on me. Players win games, and coaches lose games so this loss tonight is on me but we’ll get better from this.”

The Braves (3-2) are on the road Friday and Saturday night to face off against Putnam and Hancock respectively. Baldwin downed the War Eagles of Putnam 65-46 on Nov. 29 and  handily defeated the Hancock Central Bulldogs on Nov. 26 at home by a score of 53-35. Coach Harris and the Braves don’t play at home again until Tuesday, Dec. 20 when they play Apalachee.