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Columbia guard Zamarion Jones dribbles up the floor in transition during Thursday's game against Orange Park. (JORDAN KROEGER/Lake City Reporter)
Columbia appeared on the verge of another poor shooting night Thursday against Orange Park with a nine-point first quarter.
But after struggling to score for three straight games, somebody finally joined Zamarion Jones to provide a much-needed offensive punch for the Tigers.
Jones scored 25 points and Marlin Haywood added 18 points to help the Tigers snap a 3-game skid with a 61-54 win over the Raiders at home Thursday night. Zavian Douglas also finished in double figures off the bench with 10 points for CHS, which had been held under 50 points in all three games during the losing streak.
The Tigers (2-3) rattled off an 11-0 run early in the fourth quarter to build a 12-point lead before holding off a late run by the Raiders (3-4), who pulled within five points late. Josiah Cooper, Archieve Triggs and Jacob Henson all scored 11 points to lead OPHS.
“It was good to see us put the ball in the hole,” Columbia head coach Steve Faulkner said. “That’s been a struggle the last three games. I questioned some of our shot selection in the first half, but I was second guessing myself because at least we were shooting it confidently. That’s been part of our problem. I told them in practice this week you have to have confidence in yourself when you shoot the ball, so I was glad we came out with some confidence tonight.”
Jones is the one player on the roster that hasn’t struggled with confidence this season. He kept Columbia afloat in the first half with 12 points, including eight in the second quarter, on a night where he also had five assists.
The Tigers went from down 16-9 after a quarter to tied 27-27 at halftime, in large part thanks to Jones.
“I thought we didn’t play too well in the first half and we were fortunate to be tied,” Faulkner said. “We cleaned up some things at halftime, and I think Z is pretty dang good.”
The teams battled back and forth in the third quarter, with neither leading by more than three. Triggs hit a 3 for Orange Park to tie the game at 36 before Jones answered with his own 3-pointer to give Columbia a 39-36 lead heading to the fourth.
Henson opened the final period with a layup for the Raiders, but the Tigers answered with 11 straight points in the biggest run of the game. Jones hit a pair of fouls shots and a layup before Haywood came away with one of his five steals for another layup to put CHS up 45-38.
Haywood then grabbed another steal and got fouled while making a layup before knocking down a free throw. Then it was Jones’ turn again, knocking down a jumper for a 50-38 lead.
Keion Brown finally killed the run with a layup for the Raiders for two of his 10 points, but Douglas then hit a jumper to put the Tigers back up 11 with about three minutes to go. Columbia’s press defense forced all kinds of problems for Orange Park, which had five of its 16 turnovers in the fourth quarter.
“I initially held off on (the press) a little bit early in the game trying to make sure we were guarding a little better,” Faulkner said. “But it got to a point where we kind of got stagnant in the third quarter offensively so I went to the press and it spark plugged us kind of like it has in the past.”
The Raiders wouldn’t go away quietly though. After the Tigers went up 55-44, Orange Park went on a 6-0 spurt to make it a 5-point game with 1:22 to go. That’s when Haywood hit a huge 3 in the corner, only for Cooper to hit a layup to cut the lead to 58-52.
Following a 1-for-2 trip from the foul line for Haywood, Henson missed a 3. Ka’marion Bryant then threw an inbounds pass away, but Triggs was off target on another 3-point for the Raiders. Orange Park did manage to cut the deficit back to five thanks to a layup by Cooper with 11 seconds left but it was too little too late.
With it being their first time holding the lead late in a tight game, Faulkner admitted his team has a little work to do in taking care of the basketball.
“If you think about it, it’s our first scenario this year with the lead late in the game, so it was a learning experience,” Faulkner said. “We’ll watch film and talk about it, but it did scare me a little bit. It got a little hairy there, but there’s something to be said that they were able to finish. It wasn’t pretty but we were able to hold on to it.”
Columbia will take it any way they can get it after the past two weeks. After scoring only 40, 43 and 41 points in losses to Gainesville, Lowndes and Buchholz, the Tigers are hoping to bottle up Thursday’s offensive performance when they travel to Santa Fe (1-6) on Friday for a 7:30 p.m tip-off.
“We needed this bad, especially with a back-to-back playing again tomorrow against Santa Fe,” Faulkner said. “We definitely needed this one tonight, so it’s a good positive mindset for these guys going to bed tonight. We’ll wake up tomorrow and hopefully get another one.”