The Lady Dragons of Jefferson were determined to end their regular season on a high note. After losing in a close game to Banks County last Tuesday, the Lady Dragons picked up a win in their final regular season game against a strong North Oconee team on Friday.
Now all thoughts turn to the post-season, and to region tournament action.
For the Lady Dragons, that gets underway tonight (Wednesday), with a pairing against Union County.
Jefferson just squeaked out a victory against the 4-4 Lady Panthers back on January 24, winning 51-50. Jefferson also enters tournament play off the momentum of a victory, while Union County ended their regular season with three losses in a row.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Banks County
Expectations and spirits were high on Tuesday when the Lady Dragons hosted the Lady Leopards of Banks County. Jefferson entered the game not only in the midst of a four game winning streak, but fresh off a senior night win over East Jackson. Add to that a January victory over Banks in their last meeting, and it was easy to see what direction many thought the game would go.
The Lady Dragons came out strong, going up 14-4 in the first four minutes of play.
Then, for whatever reason, things went wrong.
First, Jefferson found themselves in some foul trouble, which allowed the Lady Leopards to chip away at the lead. By the end of the first quarter, Banks only trailed by two points. By the middle of the second quarter, the Lady Dragons had lost the lead, finding themselves down by three or four points. By the end of the half, they trailed Banks by seven points, 28-21.
“We had completely lost our momentum,” said coach Jason Gibson. “We just couldn’t get anything going.”
The Lady Dragons recovered some of their form when they came back out for the second half. Jefferson managed to cut the lead down to three or four points through the third, and by the end of the quarter they trailed by only six, 37-31. But they lost their momentum again in the fourth quarter, allowing Banks to pull out to a 12-point lead with four minutes to go. The Lady Dragons again tried to spark a rally, and cut the lead down to just one point with 40 seconds left in the game. But they couldn’t overtake the Lady Leopards, who went on to win 50-46.
Emily Jacobs and Callie Holloway led in scoring for Jefferson with 10 points each, while Erin Knight and Marcayla Hester scored eight each.
“Banks played really well,” Gibson said. “They executed their stuff and they did a good job making the free throws. To me, they were the hungrier team that night, and that’s why they won the game. I told our kids for all we’ve been through this year, we should never walk on the floor and have a team hungrier than we are to get a win.
“We kind of went back to basics, and hoped we could bounce back against North Oconee.”
North Oconee
Going into Friday night’s regular season finale, North Oconee was the subregion leader by two games over Jefferson. It was a big game for the Lady Dragons, giving them a chance to make a statement for the post-season, and to get their winning momentum back.
The Lady Dragons came out fighting, and by halftime, they had a seven-point lead. They continued their roll in the second half, finding themselves up by 15 points with about 30 seconds left in the third quarter. The Lady Titans were able to cut that lead down to 10 before the end of the quarter, and began working to rally back. Jefferson made some foul shots down the stretch, and ended up winning by five points, 42-37.
Stephanie Fincher led the Lady Dragons in scoring with 14 points. Knight scored 11, Jacobs scored seven and Hester scored six.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald.
