Devin Wooten, Jones County take down Houston County
WARNER ROBINS -- After digging out of an early hole, Houston County took the lead and momentum to the locker room after Marquis Traylor's putback at the buzzer.
Halftime, however, was better for Jones County.
Devin Wooten regained the lead for the Greyhounds with an early 3-pointer in the third quarter and helped spark a 13-2 run to key Jones County's 69-56 win Friday over Houston County.
Jones County (10-7, 2-0 GHSA Region 2-AAAAA) got 21 points from the senior guard, while Nick Singleton added 17 and Kyle Hill 12.
After Houston County's Grant Sanders tied the game at 34 with a 3-pointer, Hill scored over Sanders down low to put the Greyhounds up for good.
Wooten went coast to coast for a layup and made Houston County (5-8, 0-2) pay for a bad inbounds pass with a 22-foot 3-pointer for a 7-point lead.
The Greyhounds got a double-digit lead for good on Singleton's bucket after getting a loose ball with 1:55 left.
Houston County's comeback attempt was sabotaged in part by an 0-5 stretch at the line in the final minutes of third and early moments of the fourth.
THREE WHO MATTERED
Javaughn Patterson: He only scored six points, but his return from a stress fracture injury has been a spark for the Greyhounds. The 6-foot-2 senior gave Jones County an additional inside-outside weapon, and his numbers will only grow with more playing time.
Kolbey Singleton: The job of guarding the active Wooten went to Singleton, who led the Bears with 18 points and had five rebounds.
Wooten: He lost some sharpness at the line in the late going, but the 6-foot guard also had a half-dozen rebounds.
TURNING POINT
Jones County had trouble in the third quarter last year and has worked to rectify that, and it certainly did Friday, outscoring the Bears by 13. Conversely, the third quarter has been a problem for Houston County this season, leading head coach Stephen Walls to joke about talking a lot less in the locker room and sending players back out after only a minute or two.
OBSERVATIONS
Tough night from stripe: Houston County will look at the free-throw line, where it was 12-for-23, as a spot where a comeback was was made more difficult. But the Bears also were beaten to loose balls by the Greyhounds, sometimes multiple times within the same possession.
ALSO ON FRIDAY
Houston County trailed 14-0 in the first quarter and tied it in the third quarter, but it couldn't get over the hump in losing 59-48 to Jones County. The Greyhounds led 27-23 at halftime and ere able to slowly pull away, sparked by Kaitlyn Towers' eight third-quarter points.
Atravia Rawlings' 19 points led Jones County (10-6, 1-1), while Houston County (4-8, 0-2) was got 11 from Autumn Ring and Madison Slappey.
THEY SAID IT
Jones County head coach Dennis Woolfolk on the key: "Coming out strong in the third quarter. That's something we struggled with last year. We'd always comes out slow in the third quarter. A lot of times, I didn't want to go into halftime. I just wanted to keep playing."
Walls on the free-throw problems: "We were in the double-bonus with like six minutes left. We could have closed that gap a lot."
Woolfolk on the focus for the game: "We won a tough one at home against Northside (Tuesday) kind of the same way. ... The thing about (Friday), we looked at it as a must-win on the road, to try to stay in first place, instead of going back and forth."
Walls on a difference in the halves: "In the first half, we had 10 offensive rebounds that led to 16 points. We only had five offensive rebounds in the second half. We scored six in the second half."
WHAT'S NEXT?
Jones County plays Saturday at Veterans, while Houston County hosts Northside on Friday.
This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 11:54 PM with the headline "Devin Wooten, Jones County take down Houston County ."