The Jefferson boys’ basketball team has no time to lament its one-point loss to one of the best teams in the region.
Following an 87-86 setback to subregion-leading Hart County Tuesday, the Dragons (6-7, 1-2) face Oglethorpe County Friday, a huge non-region rematch with Commerce Saturday, Elbert County Tuesday and then East Jackson next Friday as the team tries to climb back over the .500 mark.
“The subregion games are really going to tell us whether we have a chance to move up and catch Hart (County) or not,” coach Bolling DuBose said.
Of course, the non-region game in that stretch, Commerce, will carry some interest to say the least. The Tigers will dedicate their gym this Saturday when the teams meet.
“So that’s going to be a tough game,” DuBose said.
Jefferson edged Commerce 74-69 Dec. 10.
In Tuesday’s loss, Jefferson pulled to within a point, 87-86, with four seconds left with three free-throws from David Watson, who finished with 24 points. Hart County then missed two free throws but Jefferson couldn’t hit a desperation buzzer beater to save itself from another narrow defeat.
“Hart’s a really good team,” DuBose said. “It’s like I said before the season, I think they’re the team to beat in our subregion.”
The Dragons have now lost five games by three points or less.
DuBose pointed to some defensive issues in this loss.
“We didn’t do a good job of keeping them out of the middle as we wanted to and that cost us a lot of points,” DuBose said.
Jefferson was able to limit Hart County’s outside shooting in the first half with its man-to-man defense. But the Dragons, facing foul trouble, went to a zone in the second half, which allowed Hart County to hit some big three-point shots.
“You kind of pick your poison,” DuBose said.
But the Dragons hit their share of big shots, too, in this back-and-forth affair.
In addition to Watson’s 24 points, Jefferson got big offensive nights from Austin Thompson (18 points) and Dre Clarke (13 points).
“Dre Clarke grew up there,” DuBose said. “He had a great game. David started shooting the ball well again … We had a lot of guys contribute tonight.”
Though his team dropped another subregion game, DuBose isn’t discouraged with the direction his team has been heading the past few games.
“I was really pleased with the effort,” DuBose said. “I thought everybody got out there and played hard.”
Jefferson was coming off a 1-2 performance in the Dec. 28-30 Westminster Holiday Classic.
The Dragons closed the Atlanta-area tournament with a 59-44 loss to Grady Thursday (Dec. 30). Watson and Joe Boyd each scored 12 points to pace the Dragons against what DuBose called “probably the best team we’ve played all year.”
Jefferson rallied from a 24-3 deficit in the second quarter to within five in the final period before Grady distanced itself from the Dragons with points at the free throw line.
DuBose compared Grady to Hart County, saying it was “just like Hart County but bigger.”
“They were so much more athletic and so much bigger than we were, but we battled them all day long,” DuBose said.
Had Jefferson shot the ball better, the Dragons might have found themselves in better position to pull off the upset.
“If we had shot the ball anything close to what we’re capable of, it would have been a close game,” DuBose said.
Jefferson entered the Grady game coming off a 62-56 victory over Brookstone Dec. 29 in which the Dragons hit 11 three-pointers.
Six of those three-pointers came from Thompson, who led Jefferson with 20 points. Boyd hit four three pointers and finished with 12 points, while Watson scored 12 as well.
“As a team, we shot the ball a little better from the three-point line,” DuBose said.
Jefferson was able to shrug off its last-second loss to Paideia the previous night, Dec. 28, on a tip-in to beat a decent Brookstone club.
“We didn’t seem to let that bother us,” DuBose said.
Brookstone had more height than Jefferson, but DuBose said his squad matchup made up for that with its quickness.
The coach also pointed to his team’s defensive effort.
“I thought defensively, we really gave them some problems,” he said.
