With a win last week against Eastside, the Jackson County Lady Panthers now find themselves 1-1 in region play and 7-2 overall as they continue their strong early season run.
Up next is a rematch with in-county rival East Jackson, as the Lady Eagles travel to JCCHS Saturday afternoon.
In their last meeting back on Dec. 4, the Lady Panthers came away with a 49-36 victory.
Jackson County coach Chad Pittman said he expects a lot of enthusiasm and energy for the second time around.
“For us it’s going to be a matter of not having a letdown,” he said. “They’re going to come over here looking for revenge. They played us really well, I felt like, the second half of that first game. We jumped out to a big lead and they couldn’t overcome it. So they’re going to come over wanting to return the favor. It will be real important for us to get off to a good start and set the tone early. Our theme has been to be steady and consistent.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Eastside
The Lady Panthers started off last week with their first region pairing on Tuesday night against the Eastside Eagles.
Jackson County took control early and didn’t give it up, hitting eight three—pointers and getting 26 defensive rebounds to power their way to a 53-36 victory.
Bree Drew scored 18 points and had 18 rebounds. Ashley Skelton scored 15 points. Victoria Fontana scored eight.
Pittman said he felt his team played well and did an outstanding job shooting the ball.
“Against Eastside, that always makes a difference,” he said. “Overall, it was really good. I was proud of the defensive effort. To hold an athletic team like Eastside at 36, I felt like we did several good things.
“Going into the game, I felt like we had to stop them in transition, which I think we did. They were big around the basket and I felt like we had to rebound well. Shooting the ball was just the icing on the cake. We shot the ball real well.”
Stephens County
The Lady Panthers hoped to carry the momentum from Tuesday’s win into Friday’s match up against Stephens County.
But things didn’t go quite as well against the Lady Indians. Jackson County found themselves down by four at the half, and quickly closed to tie the score 33-33 in the third quarter. But turnovers plagued the Lady Panthers late in the third quarter and by the end they found themselves trailing 44-35. By the end, Stephens County took the win 56-39.
Ashley Skelton led in scoring for Jackson County with 16 points. Bree Drew scored 11.
“Defensively, the effort was good in the first half,” Pittman said. “(In the) second half, towards the end of the third quarter, we kind of ran out of gas.”
Pittman also pointed to the skill of the Stephens County team.
“They’re a good team, give them a lot of credit,” he said. “They helped create the turnovers we had. I was a little surprised that we didn’t handle the ball any better than we did.”
Oglethorpe County
Up next was a trip to Lexington to face the Lady Patriots of Oglethorpe County.
The Lady Panthers took control of the game in the first half, scoring 24 points in the second quarter alone.
“That gave us some breathing room and I was able to get a lot of people in,” Pittman said. “I think everybody scored.”
In the end, the Jackson County came away with a 52-18 victory over the Lady Patriots.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald or The Braselton News.
