By Sedrick Bolton III January 28, 2023
JONESBORO Before tip-off, Jonesboro High School honored former star athletes Toney Douglas by and Harry Douglas by dedicating and renaming their gymnasium "The Douglas Brothers Court". Under the new name, the Cardinals cap off the celebration by winning at home 68-60.
Lovejoy started the game aggressive, attacking Jonesboro's interior which resulted in trips to the free throw line. Junior Xavier Booker went a perfect 3/3 from downtown as the Wildcats led 18-15 at the end of the first.
Jonesboro got their first lead of the game late in second quarter thank to back-to-back buckets from junior Montez Redding. They began to find their stride as they outscored Lovejoy 15-5 in the period.
"Defense. We had to stop them on defense," said Cardinals shooting guard JaQuez Akins. "Get rebounds, box out, in order to do our job on offense.
The Wildcats went scoring drought which lasted from 5:35 in the second to 5:34 in the third with Booker ending the scoreless stretch with lay up. With five minutes left in the third, Lovejoy went on a 16- 6 run to cut what was a 14 point deficit to three.
Seniors Henry Dowdell and Nick Jones-Hill were instrumental in Lovejoy's run as Dowdell knocked down two triples and scoring seven. With the Wildcats coming back, Jonesboro continues to be plagued by second half starts.
"We'll get up on somebody by doing the things the right way, then we [re]lax off...then we let teams get back into it," said Cardinals head coach Daniel Maehlman. "We haven't gotten that killer instinct all year."
Lovejoy took the lead with 6:24 left in the fourth with a layup from sophomore Chris Jones. Jonesboro responds with an and-1 layup from Akins to reclaim the lead.
As the game progressed, the Cardinals began to pull away. Akins hit the dagger with a euro to put Jonesboro up by six with a minute left to play.
Despite winning the game and staying undefeated (6-0) at home and in their region (11-0), this Jonesboro team still has room for improvement.
"Until they learn how to keep it up at a high level for as much as that 32 minutes as possible, we're going to be in dog fights like this one for the rest of the year," said Coach Maehlman.
The Cardinals will travel the road to face the Forest Park Panthers January 31 to preserve their perfect January record.
Click here for the highlights.
