BOYS BASKETBALL
With Warner Robins in the building on senior night at the JCHS gymnasium on Friday, the atmosphere was nothing short of electric on both sides.
In addition to seniors being recognized, it was a game that was likely a must-win for the Greyhounds in a quest to get the third seed going into the region tournament.
But after the Greyhounds and Demons were in tight quarters for a half, Warner Robins put a gaudy 48 points on the board in the second half, enough to hold back Jones County late as a fourth-quarter rally to get within four points came up short in a 73-69 win.
“We can’t give up 48 points in the second half and expect to win,” Greyhounds head coach Buck Harris said. “That was a disappointing defensive effort, and that’s on me. I thought we were a defensive team, but we’re not.
We’ve got some work to do.”
Jones County played at Ola Tuesday and goes to Dutchtown on Friday. The Bulldogs are tied for the region lead with Eagles Landing, which beat Jones County 55-45 on Tuesday. The Greyhounds (14-9, 4-6), who dropped a 67-57 decision to Houston County in a Saturday non-region game, began the week two games behind third-place Union Grove and one behind Warner Robins.
The higher seed a team has, the better draw it will have for the region tournament, with each team advancing to the semifinals, earning a state tournament berth.
“We don’t have any time to whimper. We have to figure it out in (these next few) games and go from there,” Harris said.
Being able to establish shooting from the outside got the Greyhounds going Friday, with Jaylen Sanford scoring 29 points to the 19 of Kaden Douglas. It resulted in a seesaw of a first half being a 32-25 Greyhounds lead, with Sanford making a trio of three-pointers on Friday. But that was before the second half, when Jones County was unable to slow Warner Robins down, with the Demons up 45-42. After a brief scoring burst to begin the final quarter by Warner Robins, JCHS trailed 55-54 with 3:50 to play on a layup and free throw by Sanford.
But the Demons hit back, draining a threepointer with 3:03 to play to lead 60-54, pulling away to win.
