Late steal helps Houston County survive against Putnam County in nightcap of Hypesouth Hardwood Invitational

MACON — The final game of the 2025 Hypesouth Hardwood Invitational on Saturday was worthy of its nightcap status, as the Houston County Bears (3-1) survived a back-and-forth affair with the Putnam County War Eagles (2-2) in a 65-64 final.

Junior Mehkal Stephens put the Bears ahead at the free throw line with 3.8 seconds left, and as Putnam County advanced the ball Dashawn Zeigler stole the ball and carried it out of bounds. That cut the War Eagles’ time down to 0.3 seconds, which was not enough as the potential tip-in was knocked away at the buzzer.

Here are three observations:

Doing too much

Buddy Bivins’ Bears trailed 20-14 at the end of the first, but something clicked in the second quarter and they never trailed at the end of another quarter.

Putnam County’s half court defense in particular was stout and it put a lot of pressure on a HoCo offense that prioritized post touches and moving the ball around.

The War Eagles got in the passing lanes and collapsed on drives and post ups. HoCo struggled to find a rhythm, but a 10-0 run in the second quarter put them ahead and into the game.

“We were just doing too much,” Bivins said. “Once we started making the simple play and stopped trying to be too creative, trying to do too much, everything started to open up and then we started catching a rhythm.”

From there it was a back-and-forth as the teams traded one or two point leads, never gaining much of an advantage.

The stars of the show did much of their scoring in the fourth quarter: Putnam County’s J’Mari Greene scored 13, Malik Gillespie six and Josh Jackson five.

Lean, Greene, scoring machine

Senior guard J’Mari Greene is turning heads in his final year as a War Eagle, and he put even more people on notice with his season-high 30-point performance against HoCo on Saturday.

Greene is 6-foot-1 and 167 pounds with a sturdy build that aids him attacking the rim. Several Bears defenders had trouble offering resistance because of that, and he drew three and-one opportunities in the game.

But his physicality isn’t his only weapon, which is what made him such a tough guard according to HoCo head coach Buddy Bivins.

“He’s a tough guard. He’s strong, kind of deceptive. He’s physical…he creates a lot of contact so he’s gonna get the whistle,” Bivins said. “But he also can shoot so you can’t just back off him. He’s a good finisher at the rim…we just had a hard time staying in front of him.”

Opportunity for the youth

HoCo’s football season is over and so Braylin Mills among others will be returning soon. But, for these first four games the Bears were mostly without those players, and with some nagging injuries they may be for even longer.

With those absences come opportunity for those who wouldn’t be in the rotation otherwise.

“[K.J.] Johnson came in, gave me some good minutes, took good shots. Robert Robinson gave us good minutes on defense,” Bivins said. “We’re still trickling the football players in. [There are] three more that got knickknack injuries, so we’ll kind of let them take their time, let them heal.”

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