After Thursday’s road loss to Woodland caused the Lady Greyhounds to miss out on taking over first place in the region standings by themselves, Jones County had a chance to take out that aggression less than 24 hours later.
The Lady Hounds took full advantage of the opportunity, routing the only other team in the region to beat them this season as JCHS steamrolled Stockbridge 73-34.
“We didn’t play our best basketball, and girls know it,” Lady Greyhounds head coach Takeo Gray said of Thursday’s loss. “We wanted to prove a point to Stockbridge, sort of like we did to Putnam, that we were the better team.”
In truth, Friday’s game was over almost as soon as it began for Jones County, which led 10-0 less than four minutes into the contest on a run capped by a Kamiyah Adams three-pointer. The early show of dominance didn’t end on either side of the floor, as the Tigers didn’t even reach double digits in points until 3:10 remained in the first half. That helped the Lady Greyhounds lead 31-20 at halftime.
“They were locked in,” Gray said. “Defensively, we were locked in and scored off of our defense. I was super-proud of how they responded.”
Whether it was penetrating defense that frustrated Stockbridge or the ability to sink shots all over the floor, the night was all Jones County the rest of the way, led by 20 points from Adams, 19 by Aubrey Norris, 13 from Desirae Dumas, and 12 by Liberty Pennamon.
It all helped the Lady Hounds put a loss the night before at Woodland, where a four-point second quarter put JCHS down 27-15 at halftime, a hole that Jones County could not quite rally from despite a 21-point fourth quarter.
“Not to take anything from them, but we kind of beat ourselves,” Gray said.
Friday’s win clinched a tie for second in the region standings for the Lady Hounds (17-5 overall, 13-2 in the region), which would give them a No. 2 seed for next month’s region tournament and state tournament bid. A region tournament win, however, would mean a repeat as region champs for Jones County, a task that the Lady Hounds will have to exacat revenge on Woodland to achieve.
“We’ll see them again in the region championship. One thing we saw last year, you can go 18-0 in the regular season and still win the region championship game by one,” Gray said. “Now, the girls are on alert. They know they can be beat and now, they are really locked in.”
JCHS will conclude the regular season on the road, playing at ELCA on Friday and Union Grove on Tuesday.
