It’s a season of new experiences for the Jones County High boys’ basketball team with new coach Johnny Williams, five new starters, and a roster of 12 players who all lack substantial varsity minutes. Through the first week of this season, a win would still be a new experience for the Greyhounds (0-3 overall, 0-1 in sub-region 4B-AAAA) after dropping games to Houston County, Wilkinson County, and Baldwin.

Despite the three losses, the ’Hounds did give the home crowd something positive – and new – to watch Friday night against Wilkinson before ultimately losing 86-59.

Jones hosted a team that has defeated it by an average of nearly 33 points per game in the last six contests between the teams, including an average margin of 43 points in the three most recent of these match-ups.

The ’Hounds trailed the defending class A state champions 31-28 with 2:42 to play in the first half.

After the Warriors hit a couple of baskets to try and pull away for a decent halftime advantage, the Greyhounds responded with a couple of their own baskets, drawing their deficit back to three at 35-32 with 38 seconds left in the first half.

“We came out intense and had a lot of energy and matched them defensively,” Williams said. “We came out being the aggressor, and I think that surprised them a little bit.”

Wilkinson closed out the half with a three to stretch its lead to six, but Loren Thomas opened the third quarter with a basket for Jones to pull the home team back within four.

That’s when the top-ranked team in its classification, according to the GaSports.com Coaches’ Poll, proved to be deserving of such praise.

The Warriors scored 13 of the next 15 points over a nearly two-and-a-half-minute span and would lead 58-47 at the end of the third period.

The Greyhounds folded in response to this surge, getting outscored 15-1 over four-and-a-half minutes in the fourth quarter and 28-12 overall in the period.

Finishing the games has been the major problem for the team over the first week of play.

“That comes with experience,” Williams said. “We’re going through some growing pains.”

Against Houston, Nov. 27, Jones led by one at the end of the first quarter, trailed by one at the half, and found itself down by three at the end of the third.

The ’Hounds then managed just two points in the first 7:20 of the fourth quarter, as opposed to their opponents’ 7, and the Bears were able to pull off a 53-43 victory.

Against Baldwin, in the team’s first sub-region 4B-AAAA contest, Saturday, Jones lacked any semblance of the energy displayed the previous night against Wilkinson, according to the coach.

“We seemed like we were just going through the motions,” Williams said.

Though they trailed by just five at the half, the Greyhounds were outscored by six points in the third period and eight points in the final stanza.

“We dug ourselves a hole and couldn’t finish because we got so far behind,” Williams said. “We’ve got to sustain the effort for four quarters, and we don’t have the experience to do that right now.”

Princeton Whitening has been the team’s offensive spark thus far. After managing just four points in the opener against Houston, the senior had 25 against Wilkinson and 10 against Baldwin.

Sophomore Jerome Wooten has also been a consistent offensive threat. He led the team with eight points against the Bears, scored 13 against the Warriors, and had a team-high 12 against the Braves.

No other player has reached double figures in scoring yet for the team.

This likely has something to do with Williams offering a liberal amount playing time to his entire roster in the attempt to nail down the best rotation for the stretch run of the season.

“We’ve got two post players coming back in Courtney Davis and Jake Robertson, and once we get them back, we’ll take three or four more games to settle on a line-up,” the coach said.