Coming off of a victory over archrival Commerce, and with four wins under their belts, the Jefferson Dragons had to feel good about their chances last week going into Friday night’s game at Union County.
The Panthers were off to a mediocre start, and it looked for all intents and purposes like Jefferson’s first region game of the season would result in their first win as well.
But it was not to be, as Jefferson found themselves on the wrong end of a 38-34 final.
But with that behind them, Jefferson is looking forward to a little rest over Christmas before heading to Oconee County to take part in the Warrior Holiday Classic beginning Saturday.
Their first opponent will be the Sevier County Smokey Bears from Tennessee. That game is scheduled to get underway at 5:30 p.m.
Coach Bolling DuBose summarized Friday’s game Blairsville pretty handily.
“We played the worse game that we’ve played all year,” he said.
The Dragons traveled to Union County hoping to pick up their first region win of the year. Their plan was to try to press and force the Panthers into mistakes. Union County has had trouble this year handling the ball, with several younger players on the team.
But Jefferson’s press never seemed to put a lot of pressure on the Panthers, while Union worked to slow the tempo of the game down, giving them better shooting opportunities.
“The guys were very lethargic,” DuBose said. “We had no energy when we hit the floor. We were a step behind the whole game, and we really didn’t do much of anything.”
Despite the problems, the Dragons found themselves trailing only by four points, 20-16, at the half.
In the second half, Jefferson found their energy, and began attacking the basket better in the third quarter. Chris Beck scored eight points in the quarter. But a blow to the head off of a Union County player’s elbow with about two minutes left in the quarter would put him on the sidelines for the rest of the game.
“(He) had a big knot on his head, along with being dizzy,” DuBose said. “I was worried that he might have a mild concussion, so we didn’t put him back in the game.
“That really hurt us, because he was the one guy at the time that was really attacking the basket.”
The hard work by the Dragons paid off, and they found themselves leading 27-26 at the end of the third quarter. But the energy they had found after the half seemed to slip away, opening the door for Union County.
Once the Panthers regained the lead in the game, they began holding the ball, and again controlling the tempo as they held Jefferson to seven points in the quarter. In the end, that was what it took to put away a 38-34 win.
Beck led the Dragons in scoring with 10 points, while Darius Minor scored seven on the night.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald.
