Jones County boys push past Howard

Jones County had four players in double-figures off some unselfish play Tuesday night for a 78-70 victory at Howard in a GHSA non-region boys basketball game.

The Greyhounds (5-4) took the lead for good early in the second quarter, but the Huskies (3-5) made it a one-possession game early in the second half only to see the visitors capitalize on turnovers to extend the lead to double-figures.

Howard was never able to get closer than six points the rest of the way.

FIVE WHO MATTERED

Nick Singleton: The guard led the Greyhounds with 20 points, including 15 in the second half.

Devin Wooten and Lendrevius Bowden: The two finished with 18 points each to back Singleton, doing most their damage in the first half when Wooten had 11 and Bowden 10.

Chris Quainter: Howard's inside muscle led all scorers with 22 points, the bulk coming off offensive rebounds.

Jerry Stevens: The point guard, who played last year at Jones County, followed Quainter with 15 points.

TURNING POINT

Singleton scored 12 of the Greyhounds' first 22 points of the second half when they turned a 36-33 edge at halftime into a 48-45 cushion with 6:41 left in the game. He started and finished an 8-2 run to start the third quarter with a pair of driving layups to put the Huskies in full catch-up mode. His steal and three-point play followed by a jump shot off another Huskies turnover stretched the Jones County lead to 58-45 with 6:41 left in the game.

OBSERVATIONS

Costly turnovers: Howard helped fuel the Greyhounds offense in the middle two quarters with eight turnovers in the second and six in the third.

Board work: Both teams had success off the offensive glass, particularly the Huskies. A total of 13 field goals by both teams came on follows of a teammate's missed shot. Quainter had seven of the Huskies' eight.

THEY SAID IT

Jones County head coach Dennis Woolfolk on Singleton's play: "Nick's our all-purpose guy. He's more of a point guard than scorer, but (Tuesday) he was our main guy. We've been demanding a lot of Devin. He's had some 30-point games, and I knew there would a game coming where we'd maybe not have it. Nick picked it up and kept it moving for us. He's worked on his game to be a better shooter and he's money off the dribble."

Woolfolk on the unselfish play: "They don't care who scores points. First team I've coached that's been this unselfish. They just want us to win. They get happy making an assist or a basket."

Howard head coach Jay Lunce: "Biggest problem throughout the night: When we turned the ball over, it seemed like we turned it over in bunches. And they were getting runouts from it. I thought we played pretty decent on defense in the half-court, but when we did extend it to the full-court situation it was a problem. Their transition is pretty tough, and we didn't get back like we needed to, especially after a turnover."

ALSO

Erica Moore poured in 29 points to help the Howard girls (4-4) pull away in the second half for a 49-37 win. Moore scored the Huskies first 13 points of the final quarter to help hold off the Greyhounds (4-3), who closed within 42-37 with 58.5 seconds left. Moore, however, broke free for a layup and a pair of foul shots to seal the issue. She had scored eight points in each of the second and third quarters when the Huskies took the lead for good.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Howard is at Lamar County on Friday, while Jones County hosts Northeast on Saturday.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 11:19 PM with the headline "Jones County boys push past Howard ."