BOYS HOOPS
The Greyhounds are off to a 6-0 start to begin the basketball season, and they’ve found multiple ways of late to remain unbeaten.
While some clutch shooting down the stretch sealed last Tuesday’s 70-68 win against Union Grove to open region play, Jones County hit Northside with a haymaker on Saturday, starting the first 90 seconds with a 12-3 run on the way to a 79-47 win.
The win against Union Grove ran Jones County’s region mark to 1-0. The Greyhounds, who played Warner Robins this past Tuesday, go to Locust Grove Friday before hosting Northeast on Saturday. Jones County then has two more region contests next week, at Eagles Landing and at home against Ola prior to the annual Morris Bank Christmas Tournament.
“Union Grove played a heck of a game. It’ll be a good region; it’ll be a tough region,” Greyhounds head coach Buck Harris said.
There was one common thread in both of last week’s wins for Jones County – scoring balance. Against Union Grove, four players scored at least 10 points, and that balance went up another level against Northside with five scoring at least 10 points. One of them? Judd Anderson, who saw his first action since an injury just after he started practicing with the team following football season.
His size made an impact and gave Northside something else to worry with on Saturday as his three blocks led the team and seven rebounds tied for a team best to go with pouring in 10 points.
Jalen Sanford led overall as far as scoring went with 21 points, three assists and three steals with Daethan Harris adding 14 points and five rebounds. Jaden Stanley and Kaden Douglas each had 10 points for the Greyhounds, who used their speed, athleticism and ability to get up and down the court to lead 29-10 after just a quarter of play and ahead 40-20 at the half. The fourth quarter of the game was trimmed by two minutes due to the mercy rule, but JCHS still managed to close out the game strong while also getting reserves some playing time.
As lopsided as Saturday’s win was, Tuesday night was just as nail-biting.
The visiting Wolverines got the Greyhounds attention early, starting off on a 7-0 run with Jones County needing more than 4:30 to get on the board before countering with a 7-0 run to end the first on a bucket by Sanford followed by a Douglas three pointer and a pair of free throws by Sanford.
“They hit us in the mouth. We came in thinking, ‘come in and show up based on what we’ve done in the past years,’ but they were ready to play,” Harris said. “Our guys were kind of shell shocked and had to wake up, which we did. It was a total team win.”
From there, the back and forth would be on from both sides on a night where it was Stanley who led with 20 points and seven rebounds. Sanford was recognized before the game for having recently scored 1,000 career points, and Greyhounds head coach Buck Harris told fans in attendance of looking forward to him scoring even more for Jones County. That ended up being prophetic in more ways than one when the game was on the line.
Even when Stanley made his way toward to the basket for a 57-55 Greyhounds lead, Union Grove did not go away easily. Ahead 61-60 with 4:20 to go after two Stanley free throws, he’d again be sharp from the charity stripe, making a pair for a 68-65 lead with 31 seconds to play for the Greyhounds, who made 8-of-10 free throws in the fourth quarter alone.
That ended up looming large, as with 13 seconds left the Wolverines tied it at 68-68, setting the stage for Sanford’s game-winner with 2.8 seconds to play.
“I wanted the ball in either his hand or in Daethan’s hands. He’s got enough courage to step up and take it,” Harris said.
In addition to Stanley and Sanford, Daethan Harris had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Kaden Douglas scored 13 and took two charges.
