Now the Dragons must focus on the next hurdle in their state quest, as they face off against the Westminster Wildcats tonight (Wednesday) in a game delayed by weather from Tuesday.
The Wildcats come to Jefferson off a close victory over Dade County, where they won by just a two-point margin.
Westminster went 15-13 overall this season, and 7-7 in region play.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Manchester
From the start, it was a tough battle for the Dragons.
Up against a very athletic Manchester team, Jefferson found themselves trailing early. The Dragons were able to come back to tie the score 7-7 with just over two-and-a-half minutes left in the first quarter, but the Blue Devils fought back, and held a one point lead, 12-11, at the end of the quarter.
Things got ugly for Jefferson in the second quarter, as Manchester began breaking out. By the end of the eight-minute stretch, the Blue Devils had outscored Jefferson 27-15 to take a 39-26 advantage into halftime.
“I felt like at halftime, even though we were down by 13, if we could just slow down a little bit and get everything under control, and slow them down a little bit, that we had plenty of time to come back and get into the game,” said coach Bolling DuBose.
The Dragons came back out in the second half looking to make up some ground. They were able to close the gap to just nine points, outscoring Manchester 18-14, making it a 53-44 lead for the Blue Devils.
Now that they were within shouting distance, the Dragons began working hard to catch Manchester. For the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, Jefferson held the Blue Devils scoreless while they moved to within three points of the lead. Over the next five minutes, Manchester would continue to pull out a lead only to see it cut back to within three points repeatedly by the Dragons.
With just over a minute left on the clock, the Dragons closed the lead down to just one point, 63-62. Manchester was again able to slip away, but with just 16 seconds remaining on the clock, a three-pointer by David Watson again brought the difference down to one point, 67-66.
With time quickly running out, Jefferson again got the ball, as Chesser brought it down for a shot. It bounced off the rim, but David Watson rebounded for a put-back, giving the Dragons a 68-67 lead with just four seconds remaining on the clock.
Manchester got one shot off from half court, but it bounced off the rim, sending Jefferson to the second round of state play.
“We never led until four seconds were left,” DuBose said. “That’s just an unbelievable ending, to be behind for 31 minutes and 56 seconds and then get a tip-in to put you ahead. I thought we did a good job. They certainly had time to go down and get a shot off, as quick as they are. I thought we did a good job of defending them when they brought the ball in bounds.”
David Watson led in scoring with 21 points. J.J. Damons scored 18 points and had 14 rebounds on the night.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald.
