Despite coming up just short at the end, the Jefferson Dragons made a strong start to their 2009-10 season Saturday night.
Despite missing several players due to football season, and with a few of those players taking to the court despite having played against Buford the night before, the Dragons made a strong effort against Eastside, coming up on the short end of a 52-51 score in overtime in the opening game of the Tabo’s Tip-Off tournament.
Jefferson will next face Salem today (Wednesday) at 5 p.m. If the Dragons win, they will play at 2 p.m. Saturday. If they lose, they’ll play at 11 a.m. Saturday. They will face either Franklin County or Heritage depending on how some of the other tournament games work out.
“I thought it was a good game,” said Jefferson coach Bolling DuBose. “Both teams played extremely hard and it was back and forth all night.”
It was a tight game through the first half, with Eastside leading for most of the time.
At the end of the first quarter, the Dragons found themselves down by one, trailing 13-12.
That close play continued in the second quarter. When the game reached halftime, Eastside continued to hold a slim lead, 30-28.
During the half, Jefferson made some defensive adjustments to try to prevent the Eagles from getting the ball inside.
“We made a few adjustments on our zones to try to keep the ball out of the middle,” DuBose said. “I thought we did that in the second half. Offensively, I thought we had great shot selection, took care of the ball. We turned it over a little bit too much in the first half.”
Those changes made a difference, and at the end of the third quarter, Jefferson found themselves leading 37-36.
With three minutes left to play in the game, the Dragons held a seven-point advantage, leading 47-40.
That’s where things slipped a little for Jefferson, as they turned over the ball four times in a row.
“It wasn’t any one guy, it was four different players, so it was kind of a team effort,” DuBose said.
Eastside scored on each turnover, tying up the game 47-47 at the end of regulation.
It was back and forth again in overtime. Jefferson scored first, but the Eagles responded by scoring five points in a row. The Dragons roared back to cut it to within one point, and missed a shot that would have put them ahead.
Eastside missed a foul shot, and Jefferson got the rebound. With five seconds left, Darius Minor got the ball and took a 12-foot jump shot, but missed, giving Eastside the 52-51 win.
Minor had opted to play one night after facing the Buford Wolves on the football field.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald.
