Houston County dominates second half, advances to Sweet 16 with victory over Pope

WARNER ROBINS — The Greyhounds (17-12) bared their teeth in a close first-half effort, but Houston County (22-6) only allowed 17 points in the second half to get out of round one with a 67-48 win against Pope on Wednesday.

The Bears trailed 17-10 after the first quarter and it took most of the second for them to narrowly get out in front.

Pope plays at a much slower pace than HoCo which limited the Bears’ transition opportunities.

The Greyhounds focused on getting the ball to the low post or short corner, specifically to senior Drew Abney, and letting him distribute it.

Abney took immediate advantage of any help that came his way and generated open looks for teammates at all three levels and HoCo just had no answers.

“[Pope] could shoot the ball like crazy. They do a lot of motion on offense,” Bears head coach Buddy Bivins said. “In the first half we were fronting the post more which allowed all the motion on the back side, which allowed [Drew Abney] to get involved inside because there was nobody on the back side.”

Fronting the post proved ineffective, especially because it rarely if at all denied the entry pass to Abney. From there it threw off the entire defense and allowed Pope to convert on countless open baskets.

A scuffle for possession in the final seconds of the first half ended up with Josh Jackson, and he got a layup through to take a 33-31 halftime lead.

“[In the] second half we flipped it and let the bigger guy guard him and sit behind him. Now we didn’t have to do so much helping on the back side,” Bivins continued. “Which helped because we held them to [17] points in the second half. We started getting steals which got us going in transition [and] got us in a rhythm.”

The pace fully shifted in the second half and HoCo was the sole beneficiary.

The Bears’ defense presented more pressure and with a different approach to Abney on the interior, the Greyhounds didn’t have nearly as many opportunities to score. In addition, many of their possessions ended with an outlet pass to the other end of the floor and one of Jackson or Malik Gillespie attacking the basket.

HoCo outscored Pope 11-2 in the first 3:30 of the third quarter to take an 11-point lead which never fell to single digits.

Karon Plummer’s contributions can’t be overlooked in the victory.

With Jackson and Gillepsie handling most of the scoring on a nightly basis, Plummer didn’t see much of a scoring role during the regular season.

The sophomore controls the ball well through contact at the rim and can shoot it from anywhere — skills that were of much use on Wednesday.

“This time of year we already know a lot of people are gonna be keying in on Josh [Jackson] and Malik [Gillespie], so that next person you’re gonna get a lot of open looks,” Bivins said. “You got to be ready to knock them down. He hit his first one, got in a little rhythm, once he got in his rhythm he started attacking the rim, pulling up mid-range. That third guy [has] got to step up…[Josh and Malik’s] shots are going to make their shots easier.”

Plummer primarily scored his first 14 points through four three-pointers, playing off of Jackson and Gillespie’s attacks. However in the fourth quarter he scored six points inside the arc to bring his tally to a game-high 23 points.

UP NEXT

Houston County will host the winner of Newnan and Kennesaw Mountain on Feb. 28. The time is to be announced with the middle school championships also taking place at the gym on Saturday.