POTW: Parkway girls basketball’s Zara Baker

BOSSIER CITY, LA (KTAL/KMSS) — The Parkway Lady Panthers have hopes of winning their third state championship in the last four years.

Last night was a step in the right direction, as Parkway opened up district play taking down the defending state champions in Huntington. Senior guard Zara Baker stepped up in a big way, bringing energy and letting her game do the talking.

“I just let my game, do what it had to do,” Baker stated.

Baker started playing basketball in the 6th grade, with her love for the game stemming from a familiar name in Northwest Louisiana.

“The reason why I started basketball is because of my cousin, Robert Williams. He got drafted to the Boston Celtics, so that’s the reason why I really started playing basketball because I was into like soccer and other stuff like that, but he’s the reason why I started,” Baker said.

That’s not a bad role model to have in your life, and so far during her basketball career, she’s done a lot of winning with the Lady Panthers.

“Two state championship teams. She’s been a facilitator on those teams, you know, throwing the ball around, you know, making assists in games, but, this year, she’s had to do a lot more with the ball in her hands,” assistant coach Silas Guidry said.

She proved those abilities in Parkway’s win over Huntington. Baker finished with 16 points, with nine of them coming in the fourth quarter, even getting an offer after the game.

The win is serving as a confidence boost for her and the team for the rest of the season.

“We’re not losing. I refuse to lose to Huntington again,” Baker said.

“It builds our confidence because we had doubts and I know other people doubted us as well, but this right here was just a confidence boost and helped us believe,” Baker stated.

Her and the Lady Panthers are eying another ring, which would cap off an incredible high school career.

“Knowing that we’ve been there before and that we definitely can do it again, and then the senior group we’ve been playing together since middle school and I don’t know if y’all know this or not but like we’ve like haven’t lost a game like playing together since this year. Like us five playing together we haven’t lost a game, so we know what it means to win, but sometimes you have to lose games to be able to win some,” Baker said.

Baker and Parkway will host Natchitoches Central on Thursday, January 22.

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