Jefferson won a late-season, non-region matchup Tuesday on the road as it warmed up for its regular season finale Friday with Jackson County.
The Dragons (16-8, 10-1) beat Oconee County 64-54 with three scorers reaching double figures — Austin Thompson (14), Andrew Bartek (14) and Andre Daniel (10).
Jefferson jumped out to a 14-2 lead but had to fight off Oconee County the rest of the way, particularly in the second and fourth quarters when the Warriors cut the lead to single digits.
“It was one of those games where you get off to a good start and your players maybe start thinking this is going to be easy and it’s not,” coach Bolling DuBose said.
Jefferson seemingly had the game in control by the end of the third quarter with a 51-34 lead. But the Dragons went four and a half minutes in the fourth quarter with just four points as Oconee County cut the lead to 55-47.
The Dragons, however, put the game away from the free throw line, hitting 10-of-16 attempts in the final quarter.
“We played really bad in the second and fourth quarters,” DuBose said. “Our shot selection was not good in those quarters.”
With the victory, Jefferson surpassed its win total from last year. The Dragons have won 12 of 14 games (that total includes a win via forfeit over Hart County) in the 2012 portion of the schedule.
•Oconee County 54, Jefferson (girls) 46: Jefferson (11-13, 5-6) saw a two-game winning streak end Tuesday night on the road as it fell to an Oconee County team (20-5) that’s been ranked in the Class AAA top 10 during the course of the year.
Jefferson —which entered the game coming off wins over Elbert County (53-34) and East Jackson (65-37) — was led by Skylar Evanson, who finished with 19 points.
Dralynn Vaughn added 11 points and Sarah Wood finished with nine.
