No. 14 Central uses big night from Jazlyn Johnson to defeat No. 17 Temple in A-Division I playoffs

The No. 14 Central girls used a key first quarter to build an 11-point lead and never look back Tuesday night, as they took down the No. 17 Temple Tigers 57-36 at home to advance to the second round of the GHSA Class A-Division I playoffs.

The Lady Chargers won the opening tip but, after a back-and-forth first three minutes of not scoring, Temple hit a three for the first score of the game. On the very next possession, the Chargers’ Jazlyn Johnson pushed it down the court and hit a floater for Central’s first bucket of the game. 

After a slow first half of the quarter, the Lady Chargers picked up some momentum after taking a few steals and scoring on the fast break on back-to-back drives. After a made three by JiKaylee Marshall, the Chargers took an 11-point lead. Temple found a little steam at the end of the quarter, but thanks to Johnson’s 10 first-quarter points, the Chargers finished the first up 18-9. 

The Chargers opened the second quarter with a made pull-up midrange shot by Gabrielle Knowlton, continuing their run. The second quarter was very back-and-forth with Central failing to truly pull away and Temple unable to dig into the Chargers’ lead. After a few lay-ups and a few tough finishes around the rim, Central was able to extend their lead as halftime approached. The Chargers went into the half up 32-17. 

Senior forward Jazlyn Johnson was all over the court in the first half making her presence known on both sides of the ball putting up 14 points while also grabbing a handful of rebounds on the defensive end.

“We can’t get relaxed because of the lead,” head coach Tamara Bolston-Williams said about what she told the team during halftime. “Teams are going to go into halftime and try to adjust to us and try and get back into this game.” 

The Lady Chargers opened the second half clearly trying to put away Temple, starting right away in their press defense and getting takeaways on their first two defensive possessions. After the first five minutes of the quarter, it seemed that Central had finally opened the floodgates and the Chargers were in full control. Their lead climbed to 26 with three minutes left in the quarter, an advantage they rode to the win.

“One of the key points to today was to not let them get a huge lead on us. We wanted to make sure that we played for four quarters and not take ourselves out of the game so we don’t have to climb back from being down,” Bolston-Williams said.

Johnson would finish the game as the leading scorer, going 10 of 19 from the field and putting up 26 of Central’s 57 points. She also would have six rebounds, three assists, two steals and 2 blocks in the game. Senior forward Frances Anyakudo would be the game’s leading rebounder as she was able to snag 12 boards, 6 of them being offensive, along with 3 steals and 2 blocks to go with it. 

“The senior class playing in some of their last games of high school have done everything we’ve asked of them within their roles, especially Jazlyn Johnson,” Bolston-Williams said. “We are just trying to get her to continue to play hard and show everyone all of the great things that she brings. 

“JiKaylee Marshall came off the bench and hit some key shots for us like she always does and then Frances Anyakudo just always being that monster.”

“We have to just continue to get better every game, all of the small detail things. We got to continue to communicate, play together, and continue to play tenacious defense and just do whatever it takes to advance to the next round.” Said Coach Bolston-Williams.

Central advances to the round of 16 of the A Division-1 GHSA playoffs where they will go up against the No. 3 Model Blue Devils (22-5) this Friday. The Blue Devils beat Social Circle 64-31 in the first round.