No. 6 Lady Hounds stay sharp ahead of playoffs

GIRLS HOOPS
  • Mya Anderson drives hard to the basket against ELCA on her way to scoring 18 points for the Greyhounds. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
    Mya Anderson drives hard to the basket against ELCA on her way to scoring 18 points for the Greyhounds. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
  • Liberty Pennamon had a combined 15 rebounds in Friday’s wins against ELCA and McDonough. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
    Liberty Pennamon had a combined 15 rebounds in Friday’s wins against ELCA and McDonough. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
  • Zandrea Thomas fights through McDonough’s defensive pressure. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
    Zandrea Thomas fights through McDonough’s defensive pressure. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
  • Desirae Dumas waits before dishing the ball inside against McDonough. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
    Desirae Dumas waits before dishing the ball inside against McDonough. BRAD HARRISON/Staff

    If there was any looking ahead toward the horizon by the Lady Greyhounds last week, it didn’t snow.

    This past Tuesday and Wednesday wrapped up the regular season for Jones County, with the regular-season region title and top seed for the region tournament that goes with it as well as an automatic state tournament berth.

    But before that, tasks at hand had to be handled for JCHS, which won four games over five days by an average margin of victory of 45 points, scoring at least 70 points in all but one of those wins. Jones County beat Hampton 88-22 on Tuesday, took down Ola 58-40 on Wednesday before Friday and Saturday wins over 79-30 against ELCA and 74-26 against McDonough.

    “We wanted to have a good week. The last few games, we’ve been playing pretty good,” Lady Hounds head coach Takeo Gray said. “You want to stay sharp ahead of these games coming up.”

    It all added up to extend Jones County’s record to 22-1 overall and 16-0 in the region. The Lady Hounds have now won 21 in a row. It all rolled into this past Wednesday, where a matchup against Stockbridge determined a region title. Thanks to what Jones County was able to do last week, momentum was hardly scarce.

    It all began with the win against Hampton with four Lady Hounds in double figures, led by Aubrey Norris’ 17 points, 5 rebounds and 5 steals along with 11 points apiece by Autumn Coleman and Liberty Pennamon and 10 points from Kamiyah Adams. Zandrea Thomas added eight points.

    After a 58-40 Wednesday win against Ola, the dominance continued Friday against ELCA with Jones County up 28-10 after a quarter prior to yielding just two second-quarter points.

    Mya Anderson and Adams matched one another point-wise, each scoring 18 with ten of them from Adams in the second quarter with 11 being added by Coleman.

    JCHS closed out the frenzied span of games on Saturday, routing McDonough 74-26 led by Anderson’s 25 points, five steals and two blocks and the 18 points and eight rebounds of Adams.

    “We want to treat every game like a region playoff game, like it’s one against a team who can eliminate us,” Gray said. “We want to stay humble and play hard.”