Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2B
THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2010
JHS BOYS BASKETBALL
Panthers continued from IB
LEADING SCORER
Darius Minor, seen here from earlier action, scored 32 points against North Paulding
last week. Photo by At McLeod
winning a dual match.”
Powers said along with Jackson County, he
believes the top contenders will be Eastside,
Oconee and Morgan County.
“I believe we have a good chance to come
away as area champions for the first time in
quite a while,” he said. “We've never been area
champions as a dual team, and it's been a while
since we’ve been area champions as individuals.
I think we’ve got a really good shot this week
end.”
Jackson County was slated to face Washington-
Wilkes on the road Tuesday. Results were
unavailable at press time.
Dragons continued from IB
5-0 to win the tournament, defeating Sandy
Creek 67-0, Woodward Academy 55-15, North
Forsyth 71-6, and Stone Mountain 81-0, then
defeating Parkview in the finals 63-10.
“They did very well,” Thurmond said. “We
wrestled some very strong individuals.”
Thurmond said momentum was key in the
finals against Parkview.
“You kind of get on a roll where the guys get
up and they get going, and it’s really tough to
stop that kind of momentum,” he said. “We've
had some real good matches with Parkview
over the years and that was a nice victory
there.”
Thurmond said the victory was a team
effort.
“If somebody didn’t seem to be doing well,
somebody else took up the slack,” he said.
“That’s kind of the tale of a good dual team.
They did a good job covering for each other.
When you beat somebody like Parkview like
that, it's a good team effort. I hope they can
keep this ball rolling right on into this weekend
and especially the next weekend.”
This weekend Jefferson will travel to
Riverside to take part in the Area Duals. Two
teams will transfer from the Area Duals to the
State Duals the following weekend in Macon.
“Banks will be good and North Oconee will
be good,” Thurmond said of this weekend's
challenge. “I think they will be the ones we
have to battle to get a spot.”
JCCHS continued from IB
Ashley Skelton led Jackson County in scor
ing with 13 points. Bree Drew scored nine.
“I was pleased with the effort, because it
was much better,” Pittman said. “We’ve got to
play hard every night. We're not going to beat
people unless we play hard and do things the
right way every night. I was pleased with the
way we rebounded from the loss of Sequoyah
and with the effort.”
The Lady Panthers were scheduled to play
host to Habersham Central Tuesday night.
Results were unavailable at press time.
Dragons defeat North Paulding
Lady Dragons continued from IB
By Brandon Reed
THE JEFFERSON Dragons
wrapped up their holiday
break by taking second in
the Pickens County Christmas
tournament last week.
Up next is a return to region
play on Friday, as the Dragons
will play host to Banks
County. Tip-off is slated for
8:30 p.m.
Jefferson will then travel
to Commerce on Saturday
to face off against archrival
Commerce in non-region
play. Tip-off is scheduled for
6 p.m.
NORTH PAULDING
Following a tournament
opening win against Kell,
the Dragons then moved on
to face the North Paulding
Wolfpack last Tuesday.
Jefferson took control of
what would be a very ath
letic game early on, moving
out to an 18-10 lead by the
end of the first quarter. The
Wolfpack would close the
gap in the second quarter, but
Jefferson continued to hold a
30-24 advantage at the half.
The Dragons would contin
ue to hold between a five and
10 point advantage though the
third quarter, leading 41-34
going into the fourth.
That’s when North Paulding
made a hard charge, making
up the difference and tying
the game late. With 25 sec
onds left on the clock, the
Wolfpack took their first lead
of the game, moving ahead
56-54.
Darius Minor hit a shot
Coming up:
WHAT: JHS vs
Banks Co.
WHERE: JHS
WHEN: Jan. 8 @
8:30 p.m.
with about 12 seconds left
on the clock to tie the game
56-56. The Dragons then
stopped North Paulding's last
trip down the floor to send the
game into overtime.
Jefferson took the lead early
in overtime, moving ahead by
four to five points, and then
maintained that advantage to
take the 68-63 victory.
Darius Minor led the
Dragons in scoring with 32
points. Shad Borders scored
15 and J.J. Damons scored
eight.
“It was
one of
the best
games
for
Darius
Minor in his career, espe
cially in the second half,” said
coach Bolling DuBose. “He's
done such a great job of dis
tributing the ball in the last
few games. In this game,
we weren’t hitting anything
so I think he kind of decided
if nobody else was going to
score, he was.”
Minor scored 13 of the 15
points scored by the Dragons
in the fourth quarter, and six
of the 12 points scored in
overtime.
“I didn’t think offensively
we played well, but we did
play hard,” DuBose said. “We
played well on defense, and
that allowed us to stay in the
game even though we were
not shooting the ball well.”
DALTON
Tuesday's win put Jefferson
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downtown Hoschton. He can be reached at
706-654-5691.
♦♦
hllLLi incur,
into the championship game
against the Dalton Catamounts
on Wednesday.
The Dragons took an early
lead, but the aggressive
Dalton team came back to tie
the game 21-21. Dalton took
control of the game in the
next quarter, moving out to
a 13-point lead at one point.
But Jefferson came fighting
back, cutting the lead to six at
the half, 37-31.
Dalton put a lot of pressure
on in the third quarter, and
took a firm lead, 53-41, by
the end of the quarter. In the
fourth, Jefferson got a few
defensive stops that allowed
them to cut the lead from 12
to five points on two occa
sions. But in the end, it was
Dalton coming away with the
75-64 win.
J.J. Damons led the
Dragons in scoring with 13
points. Darius Minor and
Shad Borders scored 13 each.
“As physical as that game
was, we just did not handle
the ball well,” said DuBose.
“We had 20 turnovers and
a lot of that had to do with
their defensive pressure.
They also out rebounded us,
they were really physical
around the boards. I think
they out rebounded us by six
rebounds.
“They showed us that we've
got to learn to handle the ball
better against pressure and
we’ve got to do a better job of
blocking out in a real physical
game on the defensive end of
the floor.”
half, Jefferson fell back and
played man-to-man, getting
several players time on the
court. In all, 11 different
players saw time with nine
scoring as the Lady Dragons
went on to win 55-29.
Erin Knight led Jefferson
in scoring with 11 points.
“We shot the ball well,”
said coach Jason Gibson.
“We didn’t shoot well from
the free throw line, but it
didn’t really reflect in the
score.”
“Our kids did a good
job of pushing the basket
ball and created some easy
opportunities in transition,”
Gibson added. “We were
able to knock down some
threes, which is something
I feel like we’re capable of
doing but we just have not
shot the ball very well yet as
a group.”
WALKER COUNTY
The Lady Dragons were
looking to end their tourna
ment on a high note as they
faced the Lady Wolverines
of Walker on Wednesday.
Jefferson took control
of the game early, leading
16-11 at the end of the first
half. Walker would close to
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within one, 23-22, late in the
third, and take the lead just
before the end of the quarter,
27-23. The Lady Dragons
would hold Walker score
less until the last minute
of the game. After scoring
on free throws, the Lady
Wolverines would go on to
score on seven of eight free
throws down the stretch to
win 36-26.
Skylar Evanson led the
Lady Dragons with seven
points on the game.
“Our kids came out and
played extremely hard,”
Gibson said “They really
got after it. Defensively,
I thought that might have
been one of our best games
of the year.”
Gibson said he felt the team
did a good job rebounding
and controlling the tempo of
the game.
“We had probably the
worst shooting performance
of any team I’ve ever had,”
he said. “We were 8-75 from
the floor. We couldn’t make
a shot. Our defense caused
them a lot of problems. We
never got ourselves where
we could make some bas
kets in a row. We couldn’t
get any rhythm offensively.
It took us out of what we
wanted to do.”
With a little over a min
ute to go, they led 27-26.
They scored to go up 29-26.
Jefferson had to foul and
the Lady Wolverines made
seven of eight free throws
to win down the stretch by a
final score of 36-26.
Now with the region
schedule looming on the
horizon, Gibson said he
hopes his team will continue
to improve offensively over
the course of the next few
weeks.
“I think if we can average
in the low 40s per game,
this group would have a
chance to win,” he said.
“Defensively, they’re really
starting to understand and
take it to heart. They've
done a good job defensively
the last couple of weeks.
“If we can score a few
more points, I think we’ll be
in the thick of things in our
subregion.”
The Lady Dragons were
slated to host Mountain
View on Tuesday. Results
were unavailable at press
time.
BRING ONE FOR
THE CHIPPER
Dec. 26 - Jan. 10
The tree of Christmas past can give
our community a cleanerJuture.
Your old Christmas tree can be recycled
into mulch, fuel or fish habitats, especially
since our public landfills will no longer
accept trees or yard waste.
Just remove all the decorations and bring
the tree to a recycling center near you.
Area recycling sites:
Arcade - City Hall
Commerce - Lanier Tech/Badcock Center
Hoschton Towne Center
Jackson County Transfer Station
on County Farm Road
Tcdmo - Fire Station
Nicholson - City Hall
For more information, call (706) 708-7198
or visit us online at
www.keepJacksoncountybeautiful.com