JACKSON COUNTY didn’t have its top scorer Tuesday night, though it nearly mustered up enough firepower to get by.
The Lady Panthers (11-10, 3-5) dropped their fourth straight game, falling to Hart County 56-50 without Ashley Skelton in the lineup.
Skelton was sitting out due to a bad concussion sustained in Jackson County’s 46-41 loss Saturday to East Jackson.
Against Hart County, the Lady Panthers hung closely with the Lady Bulldogs, but gave up two many second-chance points. Hart County scored 16 points off put-backs, while Jackson County had just six.
The Lady Bulldogs also shot 22 free throws, making eight, while Jackson County attempted just 10 (converting eight).
Despite the loss, coach John Hawley praised his team’s resolve.
“I am really proud of our team and their willingness to give everyday and every game to get better as a team,” he said. “The team really stepped up tonight to cover the loss of Ashley not being in the lineup.
Skelton was carried off in an ambulance in Saturday’s game against East Jackson after a nasty fall with 48 seconds left in the 46-41 loss.
Skelton came down on her head after going up for a rebound on a missed free throw, sustaining a concussion.
The game was delayed 20-30 minutes as Skelton was attended to and as school officials waited for the ambulance to arrive.
Coach John Hawley said Skelton could possibly play Friday but is day-to-day right now.
As for the East Jackson game, Jackson County shot just 15-of-58 from the floor and missed some easy baskets in its third loss in a row.
“That pretty much tells the story,” Hawley said.
Skelton led the Lady Panthers with 13 points, while Savannah Roncadori added 11 points and Bre Drew finished with 10.
Jackson County jumped out to a 12-0 lead but East Jackson rallied.
“Hats off to East Jackson,” Hawley said. “I thought they did a good job of battling.”
The Lady Panthers led 46-41 after three quarters, but the Lady Eagles’ LaShundra Gresham scored 12 points in the final period as East Jackson overtook Jackson County.
“Big thing, the effort was there … If we would have made some baskets, it’s a completely different ballgame,” Hawley said.
Contributing to the loss was a big disparity at the charity stripe.
East Jackson hit 16-of-28 free throws, while Jackson County went 5-for-6 at the foul line.
Jackson County experienced a rough second half the night before in a 60-51 loss to North Oconee.
Skelton finished with 19 points.
The Lady Panthers led 29-24 with 7:31 left in the third quarter but went without a basket for the next 6:20.
“That’s the thing that’s plaguing us right now,” Hawley said. “We’ve got to learn to fight through those lulls.”
Jackson County trailed by as much as 10 points in the fourth quarter before cutting the North Oconee lead to 56-51. But the Lady Titans salted the win away at the free throw line.
The Lady Panthers had six costly misses at the free throw line in the fourth quarter, which didn’t help.
“We’ve come a long ways, but there’s some things that we’ve still got to do, fundamentally, in the offseason so we can have the confidence to step and shoot those and get the rhythm down,” Hawley said.
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