Dragons fall to Tigers in Commerce

Oglethorpe enters play this week with a 3-4 overall record, and winless in region play. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Commerce

After Friday night’s region pairing with Banks County was postponed due to inclement weather, the Dragons of Jefferson traveled to Commerce to face their arch rivals, the Tigers in a non-region game.
Commerce took control early, holding an 11-6 lead with about three minutes left in the first quarter. But the Dragons began moving the ball, and picked up 13 points while holding the Tigers scoreless to take a 19-11 lead by the end of the first quarter. The Dragons would continue to control the game, allowing the Tigers to score only 11 points while they added 13 to their lead to take a 32-22 advantage into halftime.

Commerce began coming on strong in the third quarter, holding the Dragons to eight points while they scored 13, closing the lead down to five points, 40-35, by the end of the third.

Coach Bolling DuBose said that from about the six-minute mark in the second quarter on, Commerce “totally outplayed us.”

“I don’t know if it’s a situation where we got that 15-point lead, and here’s a team that we had beaten (before) … we quit running with the ball, quit playing hard on defense and from that point on, they outplayed us. They played harder and they played better together than we did.

“The entire second half, I felt like we were stagnant on defense. We never ran the ball, we never pushed it down the floor.”

Commerce’s surge would continue in the fourth quarter, with Commerce tying the game with about two minutes left, then taking the lead with time running out.

Darius Minor would tie the game off of two free throws, 50-50, but would miss on a last second shot that would have given Jefferson the win, sending the game into overtime.
Commerce took control and moved away in overtime, going on to win 63-56.

“In overtime, Commerce played well I thought and we played poorly,” DuBose said. “They took the lead early and we started fouling them, and they took advantage of it.”

It was the first time in 10 years that Commerce’s boys’ basketball team had bested the Dragons. The last time came on Jan. 28 of 2000. Since then, Jefferson had won 21 straight games over the Tigers.

Darius Minor led the Dragons in scoring with 21 points. J.J. Damons scored 12. David Watson scored nine.

For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald.