The Greyhounds rolled into region play earlier this week, drawing McDonough, ranked within the top 10 in the GHSA’s AAAA classification, on the road.
Jones County capped its brief schedule leading into region play last Tuesday in Macon, falling 81-53 to Southwest.
And while JCHS ended that span 0-3, they feel they are more ready for the grind of region play that will include teams pegged to make deep playoff runs, such as Eagles Landing, Union Grove and McDonough.
That’s because all three of the Hounds’ opening games came against teams that are no strangers to the postseason in Southwest, Warner Robins and Putnam County.
So although Jones County could have found languishing teams to pad stats on, it’s been strongly tested out of the gate.
“The good thing is that these are all good teams,” Greyhounds head coach Willie Reese said. “We could have played some patsies and gotten some good wins, but playing these teams, that really will help us.”
Another big test Jones County received last Tuesday at Southwest was its depth. With its roster for the time down to eight players, Jones County had fewer players to rotate onto the floor.
That meant, as the game went on, that the smallest amount of foul trouble would pose a problem for the Greyhounds in addition to the case of one starter running into foul trouble.
That ended up playing out as things progressed against the Patriots.
The Greyhounds kept Southwest off-balance enough through a mix of jump shots to trail 30-24 at halftime, but the combination of more depth for Southwest and Tyler Wold running into foul trouble added up to the Patriots adding some distance to their lead, going up 41-30 with 3:40 left in the third.
“We played well for two quarters, then we got about two or three minutes into the third quarter,” Reese said.
“When Tyler got in foul trouble and guys got tired, we could not match them.”
Still, Jones County rallied back, trailing 43-36 on a Justin Ray three-pointer and Jakeylan Wilburn layup before foul trouble and a lack of depth helped the Patriots cruise to the win. “Rudy may have had his best all-around game, but it’s tough to do that playing 32 minutes,” Reese said.
