EAST Jackson coach Brian Turner said his team’s 56-40 win Friday at home over Jackson County was probably its best performance of the year. It was certainly its most thorough.
Jarron Davis led the Eagles with 17 points, including three three-pointers, and Jake Grindle added 14 as East Jackson avenged a 57-45 loss to their cross-country rivals.
“When we do certain things, we’re pretty good,” Turner said. “And I thought all-around tonight (Friday) we were pretty good. We had a few mistakes here and there, but we didn’t have near as much as we’ve been having.”
East Jackson established itself as the better team on this night, building a 37-24 lead after three quarters and using a 19-9 fourth-quarter run to put the Panthers away. Turner cleared his bench with a 23-point lead with 1:37 left.
Nathan Crumley also reached double figures for East Jackson with 11 points, most of which came at the foul line. The junior guard converted 8-of-10 free throw attempts.
This was the Eagles’ second subregion victory of the season, but the first to actually come on the court. East Jackson’s other 8-AA South win came via forfeit from Hart County.
The Eagles’ victory came on the heels of an 82-80 double overtime loss to Commerce in their last game. Turner said his team had showed glimpses in other games this year but was at its best Friday against the Panthers.
“Good cross-town rivalry,” Turner said. “The fans were great. I mean, yeah, you’ve got to put this one at the top, just because of who we’re playing and the crowd that was here. Hopefully this is something we can continue to build on the rest of the season.”
East Jackson led by single digits for most of the first half until Casey Reed knocked down a long-range buzzer beater to give the Eagles a 26-16 edge at intermission.
East Jackson opened up a 14-point lead in the third quarter when Crumley nailed a three with 2:31 left in the period.
The Eagles poured it on in the fourth quarter.
Grindle picked up a steal midway through the period and took it all the way in for a layup to push the lead out to 46-28. Crumley later penetrated into the paint and distributed the ball to an open Grindle, who scored and was fouled. Grindle knocked down the free throw and East Jackson led 49-28.
“The second half, I thought we did a better job of getting the ball to where we needed to,” Turner said. “And when they went to (a man-to-man defense), I didn’t think they could stop us from getting to the basket.”
As well as the Eagles’ starters played, Turner praised his bench.
“I thought our second group gave us a great spurt defensively … They were tremendous coming off the bench and playing defense,” Turner said.
Jared Scott led Jackson County with 12 points, and was the only Panther to reach double figures.
Jackson County’s woes were easy for coach Britt Beaver to explain.
“We didn’t run any offense,” he said. “I said, ‘guys, I’ll show you five years, any game that we’ve won or competed in, we’ve run our offense.’”
But he gave credit to East Jackson as well. “I certainly don’t want to take anything away from their kids … They came ready to win,” he said. “They scrapped hard.”
