Houston County starts hopeful region championship campaign with win against Northside

WARNER ROBINS — The Houston County boys look like the favorite in Region 2-5A, and they started their region schedule with a 79-63win against Northside at home on Saturday.

The Bears (10-5, 1-0 Region 2-5A) have had several close battles with Lee County in recent years, but the region championship has remained elusive.

In what’s considered a pretty wide open region with the fall of the Trojans, taking care of the Eagles (10-4, 1-1 Region) was an important first step in a hopeful championship season.

HoCo’s superior length and athleticism had them in control of the game early, though Northside didn’t go away quietly.

With 3:26 left in the first quarter the Bears led 10-2. They guarded the perimeter well, poking a few balls loose to get out in the fast break while also contesting any outside shots.

“That’s been the message all week. We had to pick up our defensive intensity, glad to see they responded,” HoCo coach Buddy Bivins said. “Still was a little spotty here and there. We didn’t stop penetration like I wanted to, and we still gave up too many second-chance points. But that defensive effort was there, just got to clean up little small things here and there.”

Malik Gillespie nailed a couple of long jumpers to help HoCo chug along to a 15-point lead with 5:02 to play until the break.

But it wasn’t a perfect performance. The rebounding effort wasn’t always good and there were some fouls that resulted from chasing blocks rather than contesting shots.

But the Bears still led 40-26 at halftime and had a firm grasp of the game between their big rotation and quick perimeter defenders.

The pace quickened in the second half on both sides as they hoped to get behind the respective defenses and they saw mixed results.

HoCo was able to adjust quicker if Northside did get back and find another way to score, but the Eagles resorted to a lot of three-pointers and avoided getting to the paint as they have before.

Northside did make one final push in the fourth with an 11-4 run, but Gillespie’s windmill dunk put that to rest and the lead back to 20 points. It took that long for HoCo to really and truly put the game away, something Bivins doesn’t think should have happened.

“We relaxed. I’ve coached against [Northside] coach Buck [Harris] for a while now, he’s going to always preach to them to play hard. They’re never going to stop playing hard,” Bivins said. “I told them at halftime, don’t relax, they’re not going to quit. We just got to keep focused for a full 32 [minutes].”

UP NEXT

HoCo will host Thomas County Central for their second region game on Friday, Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Northside will hit the road to Lee County on Tuesday, Jan. 6 at 7:30 p.m.