BOYS' BASKETBALL: Gritty win moves Jefferson to region title game

Jefferson boys’ basketball coach Kevin Morris said he’s a big fan of the Butler University basketball program, and that team’s mantra could easily apply to his Dragons’ Thursday night win in the Region 8-AAA semifinals.
With only four players scoring, Jefferson beat Hart County in a low-scoring affair, 36-34, to advance to the region title game.
“Their slogan is gritty, not pretty,” Morris said. “That one was gritty. There wasn’t a whole lot pretty.”
Third-seeded Jefferson (17-9) will play top-seeded Morgan County at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Hart County for the 8-AAA title. This is the second-straight year the Dragons have reached the region finals.
Kam Robinson got the Dragons there by providing the deciding points against Hart County with a pair of free throws after drawing a foul with 4.7 seconds left.
“He did a good job of jumping up and taking the contact, and even getting the shot up, and then a really good job of making the free throws,” Morris said.
Owen Parker led Jefferson with 12 points, while Robinson had 10 points on a night that both defenses dominated. Like Jefferson, Hart County had just four players score.
“All night we did a good job defensively, when you hold them to (34) points,” Morris said. “And they did a great job, holding us to (36 points) and we’re averaging 70 points a game.”
This was the third game this year between these teams decided by fewer than five points. Jefferson won two of the three.
“You’re talking about two evenly-matched teams, really, really close teams,” Morris said. “A couple breaks here and there in all three of the games would have made a difference in who wins that game or not.”
Jefferson is now playing for a region title again after losing last year’s top scorer, Jasper Gibson, which took 20 points a game from the Dragons lineup.
“A lot of people counted us out,” Morris said. “When you lose 20 points, people just kind of thought we’d be OK. Going down (a classification), I believe this region is tougher, and so I’m really proud of how our kids have come together and fought and battled.”