THOMASVILLE – In a game that was as close as you can get, the Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets outlasted the Thomasville Bulldogs on Saturday evening. The cross-town rivals met on the hardwood in what would prove to be a classic as Central defeated Thomasville 48-47.

“It was a great atmosphere, great game, very competitive. I like the fact that the referees allowed the players to decide the game,” said Central head coach Juwan Hopkins. “They just let them play and it was a very good, competitive game. Both teams played well enough to win and we executed down the stretch to pull it off.”

Despite being down by nine at the end of the first quarter, the Yellow Jackets bounced back with a 14-6 second quarter, heading into halftime down by one.

Coming out of the half, Central needed to lean on their experience. As Coach Hopkins put it, what led them to victory was “our maturity”. 

“We lost a lot of close games last year and playing our schedule that we’ve played so far the kids have been down before and they didn’t panic. They’ve dealt with adversity,” Hopkins said. “They just kept their composure and we just kept repeating the same thing every huddle, every time out. We’re going to chip away at the lead, we’re going to come back, stay the course, run our sets and we’re going to be good.”

Thomas County Central narrowly outplayed the Bulldogs in the second half, winning the third and fourth quarters by one. When the buzzer sounded Central took home a one-point win in the first cross-town rivalry matchup of the season.

When asked who he leaned on down the stretch, Coach Hopkins was quick to name three of his best players.

“It started with Eric Love, he really did well on the offensive end, he got to the lane, got into the paint, finished at the rim, he made a lot of big offensive plays for us. Decameron Duncan was a big factor offensively and on the boards. Defensively, he played well, he’s a game-changer for us. Of course, (Charlie) Dunbar has just been solid all-around for us.”

Thomas County Central’s next home contest will be against Worth County on December 12. Meanwhile, Thomasville will face Bainbridge at home on December 13 before hosting Thomas County Central in a rematch on December 17.