There’s a bit of horizon glancing for the Lady Greyhounds, who will finish off this week looking for a clean sweep of every road game within the region prior to hosting McDonough Saturday.
Jones County should be plenty ready for that challenge against Saturday night’s trip just north of Eatonton against Putnam County.
A key span late in the first half broke open a tight contest in a near-capacity arena, enabling Jones County to put away the War Eagles late in a 52-42 win to extend the Lady Hounds record to 12-1.
“It was a great environment. This has been a great rivalry for us in the past, so we knew it would be a tough place to play and that their fans would be into it,” Lady Greyhounds head coach Takeo Gray said. “We knew they’d come out feeling like they could beat us and have a lot of energy.”
Both teams matched one another for most of the first half, but JCHS changed that headed toward the break, going on an 11-2 run going to halftime. That separation ended up being enough of a margin for the Lady Greyhounds, who zeroed in defensively in the fourth quarter, holding Putnam County to only one field goal.
“It was big for us; we made some baskets to kind of fight them off,” Gray said. “That second half, it was one of our better performances on defense.”
That allowed JCHS to finish off the win, leading 47-37 with 2:30 to play on an Aubrey Norris layup. Norris was especially key in the third quarter, scoring seven points in those eight minutes alone. Mya Anderson had 12 points, nine via a trio of three-pointers in the third quarter. Norris and Autumn Coleman also drained a three-pointer for Jones County, giving the Lady Hounds five on the night.
The closing stretch came in a final quarter in which Jones County kept a level head amid a big opposing home crowd and a handful of calls by officials that received verbal disagreement from those who traveled from Gray.
It also meant the Lady Hounds head coach had to lean on his bench down the stretch due to foul trouble. Kynnidi Houston, Zandrea Thomas and Desirae Dumas came off the bench to help seal the win.
That play off the bench was also key in the paint with Dumas leading JCHS with eight rebounds as seven a piece came from Houston, Anderson and Norris with six by Liberty Pennamon.
