GIRLS HOOPS
Each time that Jones County’s girls go against Eagles Landing on the hardwood, it’s usually a tense back-and-forth seesaw. Both teams usually find themselves contending for the postseason, so there’s usually plenty of parity, magnifying the smallest moments of each matchup.
Needing a bounce back from opening region play against Union Grove and Warner Robins, it was a commanding third quarter that sewed up a key region win for the Lady Greyhounds last Tuesday in a 53-48 win. That victory, combined with Friday’s road win at Ola, evened Jones County’s region record at 3-2 prior to Saturday’s non-region 61-54 win at Peach County.
“It’s really big. I think we are good enough to contend for a region championship, but we have to win the ones we are supposed to win,” Lady Greyhounds head coach ChoRhonda Gwaltney-Harris said. “Eagles Landing is a very good team. Any time we play them, it’ll always be a dogfight. It was huge to get that win.”
Down 29-28 at halftime, JCHS outscored Eagles Landing 17-8 to take control through three quarters, leading 45-37. In those eight minutes alone, the Lady Greyhounds knocked down four three-pointers with the long-range shots being drained by Amaris Ridgeway, Autumn Coleman, Britley Johnson and Mya Anderson.
Johnson’s three-point shot with 5:32 to go in the third began the run coming out of halftime with a 36-31 lead, and Ridgeway’s three-pointer would make it 42-34.
Ridgeway would go on to lead Jones County with 18 points with Coleman’s 13 including a trio of three-pointers.
The Lady Hounds would need the cushion from that third-quarter burst in the end as the Eagles rallied to trail 51-48 with 1:26 to play. A lack of fouls against Eagles Landing ended up costing them in the end, forcing them to foul more times before being able to force the Lady Greyhounds to the free-throw line, which in the end would eat more time off the clock.
“It was a huge third quarter and downhill in the fourth,” Gwaltney- Harris said. “The things that we did, hopefully we don’t duplicate it. We turned the ball over. That’s our thing. We have to take care of the ball, especially in the fourth quarter. But we got the win; that’s all that counts.”
