Jayvaugn Patterson lifts Jones County over Northside
Jayvaugn Patterson hit two free throws with 2.7 seconds left to give Jones County an 81-80 win over Northside in the GHSA Region 2-AAAAA opener for both teams. The Greyhounds got 26 points from Devin Wooten as they survived a furious second half by Northside. Marquaevious Williams led the Eagles with 28 points.
Jones County jumped to a 21-13 lead with Landravious Bowden scoring 11 and grabbed their biggest lead of the night at 45-26 on a Wooten basket with less than two minutes left in the first half. But Northside started to show some life, scoring the final seven points of the quarter to trim the Jones County lead to 45-33.
Jones County maintained a comfortable lead for most of the third quarter, pushing its lead to 62-48 on a Wooten 3-pointer midway through the quarter, but Northside outscored the Greyhounds 12-3 to cut the Jones County lead to 67-60 by the end of the quarter. Devonta Willis hit consecutive 3-pointers in the run.
Northside continued to apply pressure to Jones County and finally caught Jones County at 69 on a Tobias Oliver free throw with 4:34 left in the game. The Eagles pushed the lead to three at 75-72 on another Oliver basket, but Dennis Woolfolk Jr. hit a 3-pointer for Jones County to tie the game at 75.
The game went back and forth, but Williams scored on a putback to give Northside a one point lead with 35 seconds left, setting up Patterson's heroics for Jones County
FOUR WHO MATTERED
Wooten: He scored 26 points with four 3-pointers, including three in the third quarter.
Bowden: He had 14 points for Jones County, including 11 in the first quarter to give the Greyhounds a comfortable early lead.
Williams: The Northside junior scored 18 points to keep his team in the game in the first half and also pulled down 10 rebounds.
Trayvon Willis: The Northside junior had 13 of his game high 20 points in the second half.
ALSO TUESDAY NIGHT
The Northside girls edged Jones County 60-59 in the early game. Tikarra Benoit led the Eagles with 16 points while Krystal Wimberly had 24 for Jones County.
THEY SAID IT
Jones County head coach Dennis Woolfolk on his team's play in the second quarter: "It was great. Everything was clicking, and what was so great about it was we had guys coming off the bench that had not played a lot, and they came in and played at a very high level."
Woolfolk on the importance of winning the first region game: "I told them that this was pretty much a must-win game with us being at home and against a strong team like Northside."
Northside head coach Matthew Simon on the comeback: "I am proud of the way we fought in the second half. I mean we were down by 20 or something, but one thing I can say about this group is that we don't give up. We did not come out ready to play, and we dug ourselves into a big hole."
WHAT'S NEXT?
Jones County plays at Houston County on Friday while Northside plays Warner Robins on Saturday.
This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 10:20 PM with the headline "Jayvaugn Patterson lifts Jones County over Northside ."