Deep Wilkinson County squad dispatches FPD

The ability to keep fresh legs on the floor is a bonus most basketball coaches would like to have.

Wednesday night, Wilkinson County head coach Aaron Geter had that ability. He rotated two groups of players in throughout the night, taking advantage of depth issues FPD had because of illness.

Nine Wilkinson County players scored in the Warriors’ 66-56 GHSA Region 7A-1A victory, led by 20 points from Clarence Jackson.

Wilkinson County improves to 11-4, 2-1 in region play. FPD, led by 13 points each from Armaun Smith and C.J. Harris, falls to 7-4, 2-1.

Three who mattered

Jackson: The 6-foot-5, 205 pound junior guard had eight rebounds to go along with his 20 points, scoring 13 of those points in the second half.

Jaylon Lamar: The sophomore shooting guard helped Wilkinson County establish a 10-point halftime lead by hitting three 3-pointers. Those were his only points Tuesday night.

Harris: The 6-foot-1, 200-pound guard-forward kept things fairly close late with nine points in the fourth quarter. For the game, he also had eight rebounds.

Turning point

Lamar popped 3-pointers with 3:20, 2:33 and 1:01 to go before halftime, turning what was a three-point game into a 10-point contest.

Observations

Numbers game: Wilkinson County substituted frequently, with 11 players recording a shot through three quarters. FPD, which was without two key players because of the flu and had another key player playing with the bug, kept pace at first but began to tire as the game wore on.

Pounding the boards: Wilkinson County outrebounded FPD 40-25 despite not having the services of senior post player Greg Couson, who led the Warriors to last season’s GHSA Class 1A public school championship. He continues to recover from an offseason torn ACL and is expected to return in time for the postseason.

Maintaining control: Both teams maintained fairly clean ball-handling. Wilkinson County had just eight turnovers, while FPD committed 11.

Also Wednesday night

Wilkinson County’s girls claimed sole possession of first place in Region 7A-1A with a 37-29 victory over FPD, which was previously unbeaten in region play. Ahnila Owens scored 13 points and Zhakire Simmons added 12 for Wilkinson County (8-6, 3-0), while Bailey Ruble had 10 points for FPD (9-4, 2-1).

They said it

Wilkinson County head coach Aaron Geter on the depth advantage: “We’ve got some good kids. I’ve got seven of them, we kind of shake them in a bag, pull one out, and we’ll get the same results. Hopefully we’ll just continue to work hard and work hard together.”

Geter on Wilkinson County’s season so far: “Greg tore up his knee over the summer, so some of the other guys had to take on the responsibilities. All in all, things are slowly coming together. You couple that with the fact that you’re in a very tough region in 7-A, you’ve got to go out and earn your stripes.”

FPD head coach Michael Walton on taking on Wilkinson County short-handed: “We were down a few guys, and obviously that hurt us. We couldn’t match their depth (Wednesday). But at the end of the day, you’ve got to guard the basketball, and we didn’t do a good job of guarding the basketball or keeping their guys off the offensive glass.”

What’s next?

FPD hosts Mount de Sales in a 6:30 p.m. doubleheader Friday, while Wilkinson County hosts Stratford in a 7 p.m. doubleheader Friday.

This story was originally published January 11, 2017 at 10:22 PM with the headline "Deep Wilkinson County squad dispatches FPD."