Southwest falls to Houston County 72-61

WARNER ROBINS — Houston County (7-3) showed again why they’re often in the nightcap spot of invitationals as Josh Jackson put on a show to take down Southwest (8-4) 72-61 to end the Screamin’ Demon Invitational at Warner Robins High School.

Jackson scored 11 points in the fourth quarter alone with his quick first step and delivered the dagger from three-point range to complete his 30-point night. He then waved goodbye to the Southwest crowd on the way back down the floor.

“His confidence is crazy. So in moments like this — crowd amped, you got a big time opponent — that’s just him,” Bears head coach Buddy Bivins said of his senior.

Patriots senior Chase Dupree hit seven triples on his way to 27 points, including four in the second quarter to give Southwest a 40-35 halftime lead.

But the well dried up in the second half. C.J. Howard scored 13 points in the first half but was scoreless in the second. Dupree scored 10 combined in the last two quarters, accounting for nearly half of the Patriots’ 21 second-half points.

Those two were a big part of Bivins’ defensive game plan.

“Just don’t give them any good looks and attack them on defense. We attacked them on defense [and] got them in foul trouble so it kind of hindered how they played defense,” Bivins said. “They still made a lot of tough shots and sometimes you got to chalk it up to just better offense, nothing you can do about it.”

“We had some called defense in the second half, we turned our defensive intensity up and started executing on the other end.”

Dupree tallied his third foul in the third quarter, but Howard was the real one in foul trouble. He only had one in the first half, but was called for three in the third quarter alone.

It certainly helped HoCo limit the offensive output, but the defensive effort is what propelled them to victory.

The Bears secured the defensive glass, grabbed long rebounds from missed threes and jetted out in transition. Jackson’s change of pace and quick first step helped him get around defenders for easy baskets at the rim.

Bivins’ emphasis coming out of halftime was winning each quarter and attacking. They were plus-seven in the third and plus-nine in the third and fourth quarters respectively.

“We wanted to win the third quarter and go into the fourth quarter with a little momentum,” Bivins said. “We won the quarter by [seven], once we got the lead we just kept it there. Chase hit a couple threes to go back and forth a little bit. But once he picked up his [third] foul we just kept attacking.”

UP NEXT

HoCo will take a trip down I-75 for the Battle Off Exit 18 at Lowndes High School. Their first game is on Monday, Dec. 22 at 1 p.m. against Hillard.

Southwest plays North Broward Prep in Coconut Creek, Florida on Monday, Dec. 29 at 7:30 p.m.