By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

HOMEWOOD – It’s been an unusually slow start for the Spain Park basketball team in 2017 as they look to replace leading scorer Jamal Johnson from last year’s team, but now that the season is close to halfway over, the Jags finally showed some fire on both ends of the floor in a 63-33 thumping of Bibb County on Thursday, Dec. 28 at Homewood High School.

A total of eight players scored in the game, while DayQuan Williams and Parker Boswell had exceptional games posting 23 and 14 points, respectively.

From the opening tip, the Jaguars made their presence known on offense and defense, leading to a 9-0 run out of the gates.

Spain Park’s defensive pressure was too much for a Bibb County team that became turnover prone throughout, which led to easy transition baskets for the Jags.

Whenever there wasn’t a transition basket, Spain Park ran the perfect scheme offensively with three guys just across the half court line. After a few passes between the three, they eventually found the matchup they wanted and attacked the rim with ease as they outmatched the defender.

It led to a 12-3 run to start the first quarter and a 12-5 lead at the end of the quarter.

For the majority of the second quarter that trend continued. The Jags killed a lot of the clock running that one play and forced turnovers for a few more easy transition buckets.

SPHS was able to extend its lead to 23-11 at the break thanks to an 11-4 quarter as they were able to hold the Choctaws to five points or less in each of the first two quarters.

DayQuan Williams had nine points in the opening half, while six total Spain Park players were able to contribute at least two points.

The Jags hoped to continue that strong play into the second half, but struggled early in the third quarter.

Bibb County was able to come out on a 7-0 run and eventually scored more points, 15, in the first 3:00 of the third quarter than they had the entire first half.

Spain Park eventually adjusted and started to push the ball and the tempo a little bit more. With the Jags leading 32-26, the Choctaws were within striking distance, but that’s as close as they’d get the rest of the way.

Spain park went on to have its best quarter of the game outscoring Bibb County 25-20 in the quarter to extend its lead to 48-31 heading to the fourth.

The Jags’ defense got back to its dominating ways in the final quarter limiting the Choctaws to just two points, while the offense added 15 more points to create the final of 63-33.

With Spain Park now sitting at 4-9 after the first round of the Homewood Metro Tournament, they have the chance to let this momentous spark something special not just in the tournament, but the all-important second half of the season.