Habersham Central High School’s varsity basketball teams took care of business against Jackson County High School at home Friday night.
The games marked the halfway point of the region schedule, which saw HCHS host 5-of-6 matchups. Now, they will be on the road for five of the final six on the schedule.
Girls: Habersham Central 47, Jackson County 40
The Lady Raiders (6-11, 3-3 Region 8-AAAAAA) pulled out a gritty win to take care of the Lady Panthers (4-14, 1-5) and improve their region standing.
While the young squad easily won the hustle plays – the ones that don’t show up on stat sheets – it also shot the lights out.
Led by Karah Dean, the Lady Raiders knocked down 11 3-pointers.
Dean hit five from behind the arc to total her game-high 15 points. The two totals mark a career high in both 3-pointers hit and points for the freshman.
Mackenzie Gosnell hit a trio of 3-pointers, Kyia Barrett hit a pair and Sophie Bramlett knocked down one.
HCHS shot the ball so well, it pushed Jackson County out of its zone defense into a man scheme. Something Bradley said is pretty rare for the Lady Panthers seeing as how their zone defense usually gets the job done.
“Not that we shot a great percentage, but I’ve never seen (Jackson County) play a man and, in the third quarter, they came out of their zone,” Bradley said. “[Head Coach Christi Thomas] does a great job with their zone. I’m really impressed with her team and how they’re coached and how they’re working.”
The Lady Raiders went into the halftime break down 25-23, but the shooting from deep broke dug them out of that hole quickly.
HCHS scored 24 points in the second half – four at the free throw line, two on a layup from Daytona Underwood on a beautiful pass from Barrett from the top of the key to the low post, then 18 from 3-point land.
Despite allowing double-digit quarters in each of the first two, the Lady Raiders gave up six and nine, respectively, in the final two.
For the first time in a win and only the third time in games she’s played this season, Barrett was not the leading scorer for HCHS. She finished the contest with 11 points.
Gosnell finished with nine, Underwood with seven, Bramlett with three. Ahmia Roberts added two points to the total, the opening points of the game.
“Tonight, it wasn’t about Kyia scoring 21,” Bradley said. “People say ‘You need to go score this tonight to help your team win.’ No, it can’t be that way in the game of basketball. If our opponent takes her away, somebody has got to do something.”
Gosnell was a machine on hustle plays for the Lady Raiders, something that didn’t go by unnoticed.
“Mack made a lot of plays that people probably won’t recognize because they ended up being jump balls or me quick-calling a timeout three times where she got it,” Bradley said. “She’s trying to figure out other ways to help her team.”
Bradley said his team made adjustments throughout the game, not just at halftime, and he was proud of their ability to go with changes on the fly.
“We did a good job. We made some adjustments to some of our sets, we drew a new out of bounds play during the game, which is something I don’t ever do, but our kids managed it,” Bradley said. “These close games are going to be games of adjustments. It’s going to be ‘They’re doing this, we have to do that.’
“What I take away from tonight’s game, and one of the things we talked about, is every game is going to be like this,” he continued. “The next five on the road, they’re going to be tough. We have to play with and for each other and I feel like tonight we did that really well.”
At the halfway point, the Lady Raiders are in third place in region standings behind North Forsyth and Lanier.
Next up, the region schedule starts over with a 6 p.m. tip against Shiloh High School on the road in Snellville Tuesday. HCHS got the better of the Lady Generals, 53-43, in the first matchup.
Boys: Habersham Central 75, Jackson County 56
The Raiders (15-4, 4-2) jumped out to a quick lead on the Panthers (8-11, 2-4) and never looked back.
After the first quarter, Jackson County was in a 20-7 hole and the same 13-point deficit held at the halftime break with both teams scoring 17 in the second quarter.
The two squads also tied in the third quarter, but a 22-16 fourth quarter pushed HCHS to its final 19-point lead in the contest.
The Raiders, following the girls’ lead, also knocked down 11 3-point shots in the contest.
Enzo Combs hit three of those long balls and finished with a team-high 20 points.
Jalen Davis led the team with four 3-point baskets and netted 19 points.
Josiah McCurry had a steady game, scoring in each quarter, and finished with 12.
Despite the hot start and the late push of the point differential, the HCHS had a stretch of poor offensive possessions, sometimes evident of the drop of the head from Head Coach Tommy Yancey on the sideline.
“I think we lost a little bit of focus at times tonight,” Yancey said. “That’s one of those things that we just talked to them about. We can’t do that. We can’t lose focus and be satisfied with how we’re playing at any given moment.
“You’ve got to play the game the right way and play each play in front of you,” he continued. “Just be part of the process. The next play, the current play, that’s what you should be worried about. Not what has happened. Win the play in front of you. We kind of lost sight of that at times tonight.”
Jackson County had three players in double digits as well.
Brice Rogers led the Panthers with 20. EJ Heath followed with 14 and RJ Knapp put 13 through the net.
The win for the Raiders was a welcome turnaround after Tuesday’s 64-60 loss to Lanier.
“It’s region basketball. This is what it is. You’re going to have nights where you feel terrible. You’ll have other nights where you feel pretty good. Then you’ll have some nights where you just feel ‘meh’ like we do tonight,” Yancey said. “Yeah, it’s a win. You feel good about the win, but feel like we could have done a lot more. Could have played a little bit better than we did.”
Tuesday’s upcoming game against Shiloh will be one that the Raiders should be hyped up for after the Generals won 77-59 on HCHS’s home court earlier this month.
“It should be fun,” Yancey said. “Should be fun. Something we’re looking forward to.”
At the halfway mark in region play, HCHS sits in second place just behind Shiloh. Shiloh is currently 15-3 with a perfect 6-0 region record.
If the Raiders have any aspirations of getting a top seed in the region tournament, Tuesday’s game would be very important to that chase.
Gainesville, who HCHS beat in overtime by two points, also has a 4-2 region record and sits in third.
