Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The Jackson County Lady Devils battled in the second half, but were unable to overcome a slow start on offense in a 41-28 loss to Jo Byrns on Tuesday.
The problems on offense began from the jump, as it took Jackson County until almost halfway through the second, leading to a 28-8 deficit at the halftime break.
After being outscored 9-4 in the third quarter, the Lady Devils began to put some consistent offense together in the fourth by outscoring Jo Byrns 14-4. It wasn’t enough however, as Jackson County saw their winning streak come to an end in a 41-28 defeat.
Riley Thomas led all scorers in the game with 20 points, as head coach Jim Brown says he liked how his kids battled despite the slow start.
“I don’t think kids ever play well when you’re out of school and out of that routine,” Brown said. “We were just flat-footed and didn’t do much in the first half…Riley Thomas really stepped it up for us in that fourth quarter and got hot for us. It’s a good learning experience.”
The fourth quarter continued to prove Brown’s point that when Jackson County doesn’t turn the ball over, they have the ability to put together consistent offense and stay in games.
“I was glad because we’ve been in this spot earlier in the season and we just quit,” Brown said. “It was good to see them come back and battle and respond, so hopefully we’ll learn from that and move on.”
The Blue Devils wrapped up their time at Clay County with a last-second 61-59 win over Hampton.
The Blue Devils got off to a better start on offense than they did on Monday, leading to a 12-11 advantage heading into the second quarter. Jackson County increased the lead in the second by outscoring the Bulldogs 15-9 to take a 27-20 lead into half.
Hampton fought back in the third quarter, and cut the lead all the way down to one at 39-38 heading into the fourth. There, the Bulldogs took the lead with just under 20 seconds remaining at 59-58.
This set up the Blue Devils with one final possession to win the game, and that’s exactly what they did on the strength of an Alex Johnson three-pointer with 1.8 seconds left. Jackson County wrapped up a 2-0 stint in the Clay County Christmas Classic with a 61-59 win over Hampton.
Tre Monette led the way with 21 points, while Jordan Arroyo added 18 of his own for head coach Kevin Thomas’ squad.
“I just thought our kids gave tremendous effort today,” Thomas said. “To come over here and play that caliber team back-to-back, Hampton’s got a really nice team, and I just thought our kids played hard and were extremely focused the entire game.”
The Blue Devils still have some more out-of-conference games left before they hit the meat of district play, and Thomas says he believes these games helped his team build their depth.
“We got to build some depth with Ramon Cuevas not being here,” Thomas said. “We competed and we were able to win…Grayson Smith, Drew Clinard and Alex Johnson stepping up and playing for us helps us become eight-deep. That was big for those kids to get that playing time here.”
Jackson County’s next contest is Jan. 3 when they take on Van Buren in Spencer.
