Jenkins County’s girls basketball team edged out Hephzibah High School 39-37 in a summer league matchup on Thursday, June 17.
Both teams were evenly matched, with Hephzibah having a dominant post presence, and Jenkins County having numerous three-point shooters.
The game started off sloppy. Each team traded baskets back and forth while maintaining a high level of physicality, which led to each team committing several fouls and turnovers while scoring the ball at a slow rate.
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Jenkins County was able to knock down some deep three-point shots as the first half came to a close, giving them a small lead early on. At the half, the score was 24-16 in favor of Jenkins County. Both teams committed 12 turnovers each and combined for 16 fouls in the first half.
In the second half, Jenkins County switched their approach on the defensive end to deal with the dominant inside play of Hephzibah. Jenkins began playing a 2-3 zone defense, which backfired as having an extra defender help guard around the basket left a perimeter player open on each possession.
After connecting on a few three-pointers and getting key stops on defense, Hephzibah clawed their way back into the game and took their first lead with 14 minutes left in the game.
This lead was short-lived, as Jenkins County quickly switched back to a man defense and began executing plays on the offensive end. The two teams then regressed to the sloppy and physical play that they demonstrated in the first half with either team being able to score efficiently.
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As the final buzzer sounded off, Jenkins County emerged victorious with a score of 39-37, thanks to a late game sealing basket by upcoming senior Charity Thomas.
Thomas finished the game leading all scorers with 16 points and connected on four of her five three-point attempts. Thomas said that she “shot the ball very well” but added that she didn’t handle the physical defense of Hephzibah the way she wanted.
“I’m happy that we could come out with the win, but we as a team did not play well. They made it tough to get into the flow of our offense and we just didn’t respond well to that,” Thomas said.
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Head Coach Jason Boynton had similar remarks, stating that his girls, “need to play tougher if they want to win consistently.”
Both Jenkins County and Hephzibah will be back in action on Tuesday, June 22 at Josey High School. Jenkins County will play Evans High School at 5 p.m. while Hephzibah will look to bounce back against Glenn Hills at 3 p.m.
Jack Johnson is a Sports Intern with the The Augusta Press. Reach him at JACJOHNSON@augusta.edu.
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