Josh Jackson celebrates 1000 career points in Houston County’s win against Thomas County Central

WARNER ROBINS — It was straight to business for the Houston County Bears (11-5, 2-0 Region 2-5A) on Friday as they finished a blowout of Thomas County Central (8-7, 0-3 Region) with a 72-48 final.

Senior Josh Jackson was recognized pregame for reaching 1000 points in his high school career, and he had nine in the victory.

The Bears’ defensive intensity was exactly where head coach Buddy Bivins wanted it to be to start the game.

HoCo flew around the perimeter, cutting off drivers and forcing turnovers which saw Malik Gillespie sky up for a two-handed slam and put the Bears ahead 7-0 in the opening minutes.

The Yellow Jackets never led and struggled to put anything in the basket. Even when they warmed up and took advantage of a more relaxed second-half HoCo team the final was never contested.

“[The] defensive intensity was good from the jump,” Bivins said. “We’re trying to get out of that [complacency] at times. We get comfortable when we get the lead, I feel like we take plays off and then we let them get a little comfortable.”

HoCo led 26-4 after the first after some big starts from Jackson, Gillespie and Mahkel Stephens.

Stephens led all scorers with 19 points and stuffed the rim multiple times with two-handed jams.

“He was hot from the start. [He] gave us a little spark that we aren’t used to having,” Bivins said.

Thomas County Central finally hit double digits with 4:43 on the clock in the second quarter, but the Bears mostly maintained their margin even with some rebounding struggles and turnovers.

The Yellow Jackets were at their best in transition while HoCo’s bigs were still making their way down the floor, especially as Bivins went with more two-big lineups in the second half.

Braylin Mills and Stephens were the first pairing but all three (Josh Pettigrew being the third) were worked into the game. It didn’t help the rebounding as much as it should’ve, but Bivins’ main hope was to create mismatches on the interior.

Thomas County Central was missing Rodney Dunbar which hurt them defensively, and with the Bears’ length and athleticism they dominated the floor for most of the game.

UP NEXT

HoCo will go for a third straight region win when they head over to Veterans on Saturday, Jan. 10 at 4 p.m.

Thomas County Central will return home to play non-region opponent Cairo on Saturday, Jan. 10 at 4:30 p.m.