ELLISVILLE — Trista Magee Whitman, in her first season as a collegiate head coach, guided Jones College to its first region tournament win since claiming a seventh-straight championship last season. The Bobcats beat Holmes 77-55 in the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament first round Thursday night.
Jones, with a 20-8 record, will face No. 3 seed Northwest (20-8) in the quarterfinals Saturday at 5:30 p.m. The game will be streamed at nwccrangers.com/watch, with free admission.
Jones trailed 15-13 in the second quarter before rallying with a 19-4 run to take control. Lamarah Cleaves started the run with a three-pointer that put Jones ahead 16-15, and she added another three minutes later to push the lead to 23-19. The Bobcats led 36-24 at halftime.
Jakera Ducksworth scored a game-high 17 points, 12 of those coming in the second half. Eight different players scored for Jones in the final two quarters. The team’s largest lead was 26 points with 8:50 remaining in the game.
Cleaves finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. Khalee Harrison tied her career high with 14 points. Sanyla Smith added 10 points, six assists and five steals. Larissa Hubbard contributed eight points and 10 rebounds. Zion Harvey led Holmes with 13 points.
