With the schedule reworked to end the regular season, the Lady Greyhounds will now wrap up their slate of games against the current second and third place teams in the region. Between that and the region and state tournament to follow, the emergence of challenges is inevitable.
Jones County passed another on Saturday afternoon at the JCHS Gymnasium, holding Woodland to a single third-quarter field goal in pulling away to win 50-34. The Lady Hounds trailed 9-7 after a quarter and led 23-15 at halftime, going on to win for the 17th time in a row and improve to 18-1 overall and 12-0 in the region. JCHS is now ranked No. 7 in its classification.
The visiting Wolfpack was plenty formidable – they came within two points of knocking off Jones County in the previous meeting this season. The margin of victory was wider this time, coming on a day when a supporting cast dug deep as leading scorer Mya Anderson was hampered while still bouncing back from what was described as flu-like symptoms. Kamiyah Adams scored 14 points, half of them in the closing stretch of the fourth quarter with Aubrey Norris adding 12 points.
“She hadn’t been able to get out of bed, so it was a good test for us. We had some other players really step up. They picked up the slack,” Lady Greyhounds head coach Takeo Gray said. “That’s the big thing for us with our depth. We try to push the pace and wear people down.”
The depth of the Lady Hounds’ bench helped them take over in the third quarter, going up 33-24 on a jumper by Anderson. JCHS also took full advantage of being able to draw opposing fouls, padding its thirdquarter lead by going a combined 4-of-6 from the charity stripe on shots by Anderson, Norris and Desirae Dumas.
“That’s the key. You don’t want to waste a possession,” Gray said.
An inside shot and free throw by Adams early in the fourth continued the critical third quarter, pushing the Jones County lead to 44-27 with just above five minutes to play.
“Once Kamiyah Adams can get in there and get rebounds, it’s hard to stop her,” Gray said.
And unlike previous games against teams lower in the region standings, Saturday saw the JCHS starters on the floor for most of the game, an experience that is bound to come in handy as a regular season reaches its conclusion.
“This time of the year, you want to win, but you also want to be tested,” Gray said.
