BOYS HOOPS
In a perfect world, the Greyhounds would play up and down the floor at a fast pace and take advantage of the athleticism of their guards. But inevitably during a season, the time is going to come where an opposing team is going to slow the Greyhounds down, grinding the tempo to a slow crawl and limiting the number of offensive possessions.
That’s what Houston County did on Friday, as the Bears rallied in the second quarter to lead it before Jones County came alive down the stretch to win 50-39.
“They’re a good team. They took some things away from us and didn’t allow us to get into our rhythm,” Greyhounds head coach Buck Harris said. “They played well. We didn’t play our best, and that had a lot to do with what they were doing. We want to try and get as many possessions as possible, but they didn’t let us do that.”
The Greyhounds play Westside on Saturday in the Hypesouth Hardwood Invitational in Warner Robins prior to starting region play at home Nov. 29 against Union Grove.
Jones County moves toward the start of region play having weathered adversity. That came not just from the Bears being able to slow the pace down on Friday but also in already dealing with injuries. Judd Anderson is limited to the role of a spectator for the time being, as he was on the bench Friday wearing a walking boot. Jaden Stanley, who averages around 18 points a game, was also out of action Friday, depleting Jones County’s depth. Harris praised the play of Jacob Jackson, Rudy Bowen and Tae Lattimore for coming along to step up in Stanley’s absence.
On the court, a steady first quarter gave way to the Greyhounds being held to single digits in the second quarter and give up the lead, down 26-24 at the break.
That’s when the
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Greyhounds offered up some defensive disruption of their own, limiting the Bears to just five thirdquarter points.
“Defensively, we did some things that we needed to do,” Harris said.
The second-half effort was mirrored on the offensive end, too, as an early-fourth quarter burst was capped off by a Jaylen Sanford jump shot to lead 39-32, and that was followed up by Kaden Douglas driving in to score two of his 11 points, good for a 43-32 advantage with 4:10 to go that allowed JCHS to put the game away.
Douglas helped spur the Greyhounds early on offense with six firstquarter points, but he was hardly the only offensive standout during an evening that saw Sanford score 16 points and Daethan Harris have 12.
“Jaylen was huge for us, and Daethan became a point guard for us and got the ball to the right people,” Buck Harris said.
