Advancing to final eight

It was obvious coach Andre Jones was still on cloud nine during the bus ride home from Macon Saturday night.

“It was a huge win,” he said. “Our guys stayed the course level-headed with no mental lapses. It was one heck of a game.”

His Holly Springs High School Hawks made the 122mile trip and stunned a higherseeded Noxubee County 68-67 in overtime. The victory sends the Hawks to the Class 3A quarter-finals this Saturday night at Winona.

“We’re one win away from the final four at the Big House (Mississippi Coliseum),” Jones said. “It feels great.”

Holly High trailed the Tigers 55-51 in the last minute of the fourth quarter but rallied to tie the game at 57 and send it to an extra period.

The overtime was “back and forth,” Jones said.

“Toward the end, our guys played some solid defense.” Noxubee County went up by one with less than 20 seconds left in OT. The game-winner for the Hawks came when Ded’Drick Faulkner passed to teammate Marquavous Jones, who took it straight to the hoop and scored.

“I debated calling a timeout (after the Tigers took the lead by one), but I trusted my guys to play through that last sequence.”

The Hawks were down 3227 at halftime.

Leading the offensive attack for Holly High were Jones with 25 points and Faulkner with 19.

Camron Isom led the rebounding effort with six.

The Hawks were 15 of 24 from the free-throw stripe in what Coach Jones called “an extremely tough environment” on the road.

Holly Springs advanced to the playoff game at Macon with a 71-45 rout of Kossuth on Tuesday of last week at home in round one.

The Hawks struggled a little bit in the first half but poured it on in the next 16 minutes.

Faulkner drilled a three just before the first-quarter buzzer. Holly High led 18-7.

Turnovers hurt the Hawks in the second quarter. Faulkner hit another longrange shot to end that period. The lead was 33-18.

In the third, Holly High went up 18, but the Aggies got back to within 12.

A minute later, Jones lit a fire with a steal and basket to stretch the lead to 18. Jabari Johnson’s bucket made it 53-27 at the conclusion of the third and the Hawks went on to win by 26.

Four players scored in double digits ­ Faulkner with 18, M. Jones with 14, and Jabez Jones and Johnson with 10 each.

Coach Jones, in his second season as head coach of the Holly High boys, took his team to the “Sweet 16” last year. Now, the Hawks are a win away from Jackson. They last made that trip in 2020.

“We played a lot of 5A and 6A schools and battled through some injuries to get to this point,” he said. “The guys are prepared for this.

“Our record (12-15) is deceiving. That’s not a representation of who we are. We proved on the road at Noxubee County that we deserve to be where we are.”

And he knows the journey to Winona will be equally as difficult.

“They’ve got a very good squad,” Jones said. “We have to work hard in practice this week and give them our best shot.”