BOYS' BASKETBALL Eagles pass road test with Buford looming

TALLULAH FALLS — The East Jackson boys’ basketball team made sure a rare trip up to the mountains was a business trip.
Shaking off a sluggish first quarter, the Eagles (4-1) won convincingly over Class A private school Tallulah Falls, 69-52, on the road Tuesday. East Jackson plays Class AAAAA power Buford Saturday.
The Eagles, who traveled over an hour for this weeknight game in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, trailed for most of the first 10 minutes against Tallulah Falls before winning convincingly.
“Playing in a different environment is an opportunity for us to play uncomfortably, so that way we have to overcome some adversity,” East Jackson coach David Akin said. “I know that’s going to eventually happen somewhere down the road, so it’s good to play in a gym like this, a game like this, because of the uniqueness of the environment. It just prepares us to be uncomfortable at some point in time later on in the season.”
Tay Howard led East Jackson with 27 points — all of which came in the second and third quarters — to push his season average to 20.8 points per game.
“He’s very smart, and overall, he takes very smart shots within the rhythm of the game and that’s what the common spectator may not see,” Akin said. “He’s not shooting those shots by coincidence. Those are calculated shots that he knows that will come at certain times in the game. He is an explosive scorer at times, and that’s what I love about him. You have to keep going to him.”
Akin said “the best is yet to come” from Howard.
“I truly believe this is just one of many games where he will have a performance like tonight,” he said.
Howard and Makayl Rakestraw each scored 11 points in the second quarter as the Eagles turned a 16-8 first-quarter deficit into a 35-26 halftime lead. Howard then scored 16 points in the third quarter, hitting three 3-pointers, to help the Eagles push their lead to 57-42 heading into the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, Rakestraw drained three 3-pointers in the second half and finished with five 3’s overall in a 22-point effort.
“He’s not a shooter, he’s a maker,” said Akin, who raved about Rakestraw’s shot-making ability in practice. “He’s going to have nights — he’s a sophomore, my goodness — he’s going to have nights where he doesn’t play to his level, but then there’s the special nights like tonight where when he gets it going, I just know as soon as he lets it go, it’s going in and I’m ready to call the defense or the pressure.”
East Jackson twice led by 22 points in the fourth quarter in pulling away for a comfortable win.
Akin said his team was eventually able to force the game into a pace with which the Indians weren’t comfortable.
“We had scouted them and we had seen that they struggled a little bit with pressure, full court,” Akin said. “We struggled against their sets, man-to-man, in the half court. We said, ‘we’ve got to speed the game up’ … I think the guys really wanted to play tonight that style.”
East Jackson now gets set to face Buford Saturday at 2 p.m. on the road. The Wolves are ranked either No. 1 or 2 in Class AAAAA depending on the poll. Akin said Buford will always have a spot on the Eagles’ schedule while he’s coaching at East Jackson.
“It allows our team to see what the best looks like,” Akin said. “If we want to aspire to be the best program we can be, then we need to play those programs. I’m well aware of the names on that roster, and I know on paper what should happen. But that’s why we play the games. We’ve got to find out.”
Another benefit of playing Buford: the venue. The Wolves play in an arena-style facility, something the Eagles must adapt to if they make a run in the state tournament. Arenas can cause depth-perception issues for shooters who are accustomed to smaller gyms and less space behind the goals.
“They have the arena, and what people don’t realize is that eventually you’re going to play in the state tournament in an arena-style gymnasium, and you better not go into that arena never playing it before with the depth perception (issue),” Akin said.