Lady Canes Show Improvement

After a tough season opener, the Jasper County-Monticello High School varsity girls basketball team showed marked improvement in its second contest of the new season.

The Lady Hurricanes fell to Social Circle High School 41-31 on the road last Friday and battled until the end. The Lady Canes held a five-point lead into the third quarter.

“We definitely showed some improvement,” coach Robert Strong said. “We really only have two players with experience from last season. Our remaining roster had not played varsity. One of our players had never played the sport at all.”

Jazymyne Thomas led the Lady Canes with 17 points. Thomas has been the leading scorer for the team in both contests.

“We had a stretch in the game where we turned the basketball over a few times, especially in the fourth quarter,” Strong said. “The game was competitive throughout. It was a game I believe we could have won.”

One issue the team is dealing with is a roster which has several post players but few guards.

“That makes it difficult in getting the basketball up the court,” Strong said. “We did play better against Social Circle so hopefully we gained some confidence from it.”

The team’s game against Oconee County High School was literally cancelled at the last minute. As the Lady Canes arrived for the road game, they were given the news that it could not be played due to COVID-19 concerns.

The scheduled game at Putnam County on Saturday was also not played.

The varsity squads will return to the court on Saturday, Dec. 12 at Jackson High School with the girls tipping off at 7 p.m. with the boys at 8:30 p.m. The team will have the benefit of practicing throughout the week.

“It will be another tough game,” Strong said. “Jackson has one player scoring 30 points a game and another scoring 20. We will do the best we can.”